“As I Lay Dying,” by William Faulkner is a story about the complex relationships between family’s patriarch, Anse Bundren, his oldest son Cash, middle boy Darl, youngest son Vardaman, and the daughter, Dewey Dell after its matriarch, Addie, has died.
Faulkner meticulous connects each character to Addie, giving each one a specific perspective on the world based on her influence on them.
Faulkner uses subtle metaphors through his literary prowess to support the storyline, which purports that the way Bundrens’ multifaceted interrelationships function has created a backward thinking family. An example is the following passage that connections a river, life, and the family:
Before us the thick dark current runs. It talks up to us in a murmur become ceaseless and myriad, the yellow surface dimpled monstrously into fading swirls traveling along the surface for an instant, silent, impermanent and profoundly significant, as though just beneath the surface something huge and alive waked for a moment of lazy alertness out of and into light slumber again.
During, this brief period the reader is able to analyze Darl’s thoughts while watching the river.
It is the third day after Addie’s death. The family has traveled all night to arrive where Tull’s bridge has washed out. They knew the bridge was washed out before setting out, and understood the dangers of crossing the river with a coffin-loaded wagon. Nevertheless, their sense of duty overrode common sense as they forged ahead, determined to get Addie to Jefferson, the city where she wanted to be buried.
The language depicts Darl as being in turmoil, even though at the river’s edge, the Bundrens appear unified.
The journey already delayed and re-directed; Darl imagines the river is a powerful force to be surmounted in order to bury his mother. His senses tell him his mother should have been buried by the third day. Even though the prolonged time it takes to get to the burial site, that’s not a point of contention, pointing out the unsophisticated nature of this family.
As the story goes on, each character’s subjectivity plays into a growing factor of adversity as to how to get Addie to Jefferson.
Faulkner’s use of figurative language, i.e., “It talks up to us…” implies the river is sending a message to the family. The river’s voice is described as clucks and murmurs that are ceaseless and myriad.
Clucks are animalistic, while murmurs are words spoken so faintly as to sometimes to be unintelligible. These faint sounds are unending, and are all around him. This is what Darl hears and what he’s listening to, which may imply that he understands what these sounds mean even though they are “clucks and murmurs,” which may explain why later in the story, he burns down a barn, and apparently goes crazy. He wanted to appease his mother and end what took nine days to get her to Jefferson.
I read this novel while a student at San Quentin’s college program, Prison University Project. As I Lay Dying has invoked many conversations with other students about family and perspective. Some of the points we each felt similarly, while others we interpreted similar text very differently.
It’s a very good read.
