Cash is building her coffin right outside her window thats not morbid. Created by the original team behind sparknotes, litcharts are the worlds best. As i lay dying study guide literature guide litcharts. Check out our revolutionary sidebyside summary and analysis. As i lay dying summary the bundren family live on their farm in yoknapatawpha county, a fictional rural county in mississippi. Summary read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter summary and analysis. They pass a dilapidated cotton house, which darl walks around but jewel walks straight through, entering and leaving through the buildings large, open windows. As i lay dying cliffsnotes study guides book summaries. However, after careful analysis it becomes evident that most of the novel s characters actually possess an ulterior motive that drives them to be so persistent in carrying out their dead mothers wishes. Read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter summary and analysis. As i lay dying is told by fifteen different narrators over the course of fiftynine narrative sections. The bundrens struggle internally as darl begins to question the logic of carrying addies body all the way to jefferson. The havoc of world war i caused an impulse in society, demoralized by war, to challenge societys very foundations and to uproot tradition. Cash was mending a church as a volunteer when he fell and broke his leg.
That is, he is the overweight, friendly humanitarian, the person who grasps the very nature and essence of a persons character, but who is yet willing to devote his time to his. Cash, the oldest son of the family, is a carpenter. Faulkners fifth novel, it is consistently ranked among the best novels of 20thcentury literature. On the surface, this novel appears to be about the bundren familys desire to give their mother what she wanted, even in death. Darl bundren describes walking with his brother jewel across a field toward their house. Addie bundren addie is the wife of anse and the mother of cash, darl, jewel, dewey dell, and vardaman. The long and strange journey to jefferson county, mississippi to bury their mothers body seems to undertake the family together. Faulkners as i lay dying is a representative work of literary modernism, a movement which established itself in the early 20th century. The bundrens must travel forty miles to bury addie in jefferson, the primary town. They then reach the foot of a bluff, where vernon tull, the bundrens wealthier neighbor. Peabody will appear in several works and always retain the same characteristics. What the title does tell us is that as i lay dying is about just that dying. As i lay dying is a novel by william faulkner that was first published in 1930. As i lay dying, the woman with the dogs eyes would not close my eyes as i descended into.
As i lay dying final essay in the novel as i lay dying by william faulkner, relates to what seems to be the main concern and topic throughout the story, which is the death of addie bundren. As i lay dying is told in individual sections, so that the narration of the story shifts from one character to another. As the story begins, addie is dying hence the title. In as i lay dying, the main idea, or theme, is that of obsession. Faulkner famously wrote as i lay dying in a sixweek period of time while working at a local powerplant in mississippi.
While most sections are narrated by members of the bundren family, the few that are told by neighbors and other observers offer a glimpse of the family from an outsiders perspective. As i lay dying is a 1930 southern gothic novel by american author william faulkner. In as i lay dying, the quest is pointless and destructive. A setting as i lay dying takes place in the northern part of mississippi in 1928. As i lay dying study guide contains a biography of william faulkner, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. As i lay dying section 1 summary and analysis gradesaver. In as i lay dying, divine justice couldnt be less just. They are incredibly poor, and the clan matriarch, addie bundren, is nearing death. The title derives from book xi of homers odyssey william marriss 1925 translation, wherein agamemnon tells odysseus. The action takes place between the bundrens rural home and the city of jefferson, which is about a day and a halfs ride away by horse.