OPINION

My very own Personal Opinion of As I Lay Dying:

Shall we just say that I was unpleasantly surprised with this novel? When I first ran my background check on the book, I saw that is was a satire. I smiled. I then saw that it was told from multiple perspectives, and did a quick fist pump. I was imagining a Stephen King-type of chronicle with multiple characters telling the tale. I was excited to open the paperback and to read the whole thing, from cover to cover! So I began reading. The first paragraph left me slightly uncomfortable, what was this “Darl” talking about? And who spells their name like that?! By the second page I was most definitely frowning. I did not understand half the words, and when I did, I did not understand the phrasing! I also do not value the serious misuse of grammar in books, even when the book is merely mimicking the local yokels. However I did find myself appreciating the main idea of the book- a dysfunctional family trekking across unfamiliar land to deal with the loss of a family member. Their goal is admirable. They wish to fulfill the last wishes of Addie, unloving mother and wife. And of course, havoc ensues. Another respectable piece of the novel was the totally unpredictable ending. It was however, unsatisfying. I did not expect Darl (my initial favorite character) to crack like an Easter egg and set everything on fire, nor did I expect Anse (my dim-witted second favorite character) to marry the next thing he saw. I did wish for a better, more conclusive and kosher ending. But we cannot have every little thing our heart desires, now can we?
Alas, as I finished reading the last page, I could not wait to close the book for the hopefully last time. I wish I felt differently. I wish I could have enjoyed the great Faulkner like I hear so many smart people do. What a shame. I guess I will just have to return to good ole J.K. Rowling.

TEXTUAL CONNECTION

Textual Connections with As I Lay Dying and Salem's Lot:

William Faulkner weaves the story of a dysfunctional family traveling to bury their newly dead mother and wife, Addie. Instead of their being one character in the novel, there are fifteen. Another book, Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, was told similarly to As I Lay Dying in respect to the multiple characters telling the tale. Salem (Jerusalem’s) Lot is as different from As I Lay Dying as kindergarteners are from Shakespeare. Stephen King’s book is a thriller about a small town plagued with night creatures. Each member of the town tells at least one chapter, King uses this myriad of characters to form the most interesting web of human interactions. It is absolutely fascinating. Faulkner does not do this. He tells a story in choppy, unclear narratives of many different people. However, I initially made a text to text connection between these two books. They both make use of an unconventional method of portraying a story; many story-tellers.

SYNTAX

Exploring Syntax in As I Lay Dying:

• “Except.” (83) –Cash
• “Whitfield begins. His voice is bigger than him” (91) –Tull
• “I carry the buttermilk in…I set the milk on the table.” –Dewey Dell
• “Then I can see the slope, feel the air moving on my face again, slow, pale with lesser dark and with empty seeing, the pine clumps blotched up the tilted slope, secret and waiting.” –Dewey Dell (61)
• “She was looking at me hard, holding the package; I saw she had about as black a pair of eyes as ever I saw, and she was a stranger, I never remembered seeing her in Mottson before” –Moseley (199)

Faulkner has a very unique syntax that contributes to his unique style. He uses choppy, short and staccato phrases, often grammatically incorrect. However, he also uses run-on sentences that seem to never end. He uses such syntax in such varying ways to portray the various characters. Darl is generally the most descriptive of the fifteen characters. He is almost the subjective narrator. Darl tends to understand things that occur around him better than others. Faulkner provides this insight by giving and substantial amount of details in Darl’s chapter. Although Addie is dead in almost the entire novel, she has a chapter where she recounts her life lacking in love and any motherly connections. Her chapter is entirely different from all of the others, she recounts only the past and tells a story. It flows with lengthy sentences All other fifty-eight chapters predominately address the present trials and tribulations. By using different types of syntax, ranging from staccato to mellifluous, Faulkner gives a distinct style to each character portrayed in his novel.

DICTION

The Depths of Diction in As I Lay Dying:

• “Goddamn you. Goddamn you.” (99) -Cash
• “perverse ubiquity” (52) -Darl
• “drownded puppy” (69) -Tull
• “rapt, dynamic immobility” (76) -Darl
• “durn that” (35) -Anse
• “sled upon invisible snow, smoothly evacuating atmosphere” (98) –Darl
• “A-laxing there” (35) –Anse
• “steadily.myriad, fluctuant” (78) –Darl
• “He come back with them” (113) –Samson
• “That was when I see the first Buzzard” (186) –Armstid

In his novel, it is apparent that Faulkner combines many levels of diction to create a very real effect. In real life, some speak with grace and elegance, while others are either ignorant or simply ignore the set rules of grammar. Each character in the story can be defined by their implied level of education. Darl uses quite profound words, but sometimes uses them incorrectly. Anse does not bother with pretences and frequents the word “durn.” Samson and Armstid also appear to be ignorant to the correct way to form one’s sentences. When the novel is being told from Darl’s opinion, the tone is cerebral and subjectively poetic. Jewels narrations on the other hand lack any descriptions and the tone is therefore characterized by his cold but heroic actions. With Anse’s chapters, the level of low diction forms a tone of the stereotypical hillbilly from the south, endearing but pitiable. Faulkner uses diction to enforce not a single style, but rather multiple styles that define the characters of the novel.

RHETORICAL STRATEGIES

Rhetorical Strategies used in As I Lay Dying:

• Repetition: “Cash? Cash? Cash?...Cash? Nail it? Nail it?” –Vardaman (65)
• Onomatopoeia: “Chuck. Chuck. Chuck.” –Darl (5)
• Overstatement: “With motion so soporific, so dreamlike” –Darl (108)
• Understatement: “I am not doing anything at all” –Vardaman (56)
• Metaphor: “I see him dissolve” –Vardaman (56)
• Simile: “He looked like a drownded puppy” –Tull (69)
• Symbolism: Addie’s Coffin, symbol of the burden the family carries.
• Rhetorical Question: “Can’t you see that mule yonder?” -Tull (139) [The context was not a dialogue and no answer was expected]
• Lists: (82-83)
• Slang: “ ‘ I done my best’ ” –Anse (106)
• Apostrophe: “God, God. God” –Dewey Dell (122)

Faulkner artfully applies each and every one of theses said tools in a specific way to express a specific style, or in the case of the novel As I Lay Dying, several different styles. In the novel, there are fifteen different characters that have chapters dedicated to what they are doing, thinking, or saying. In an effort to distinguish them, Faulkner utilizes rhetorical strategies to differentiate one character to the next by means of their style. He is giving each character a personality to provide the individuality that they deserve. Anse, for example, the father character, uses a prolific amount of slang in his chapter, in comparison with Darl, who speaks quite well, and also in comparison to Vardman, who is a child and says silly things like “My mother is a fish.”