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.
• “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.
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