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.”
• 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.”
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