Rhetorical Strategies

Rhetorical Strategies for “As I Lay Dieing”
• Similie-“it wheels up like a motionless hand…”
• Personification-…the mud whispering on the wheels.”-75
• Awkward syntax-“It is vomit he is turning his head.”-119
• Natural, rural diction- And Jewel don’t care about anything he is not kin to us caring, not care-kin.-17
• Onimonapia- “chuck, chuck, chuck,”-2
• Alliteration-…backed brick-hard by july-1
• Repetition-“he gazes out across the land, rubbing his knees.”-11
In As I lay Dieing, Faulkner takes special care in using very particular rhetorical strategies in constructing his characters and more importantly their perception of their morbid situation. Faulkner’s use of awkward syntax when describing a character’s thought or another character’s action to form the immediate reactions to create more tension to his character’s lives. “When the switch fell I could feel it upon my flesh; when it welted and ridged it was my blood that ran, and I would think with each blow of the switch: Now you are aware of me!”(124). This quote shows one particular character, Addie, and her very harsh and one track minded thinking. Faulkner also uses personification to enhance his well-articulated poetic style. “It turns off at right angles, the wheel-marks of last Sunday healed away now: a smooth, red scoriation curving away into the pines, a white signboard with faded lettering: New Hope Church”(75) This particular quote is a personification as well as an extended metaphor for the pains gone through while journeying. All of Faulkner’s well placed rhetorical strategies effectively create Faulkner’s very distinctive style