Literature Analysis #1 As I Lay Dying

1. Basically the whole story is about a person, Addie. She falls really ill and eventually dies, but before she dies, she asks that she be buried in a town called Jefferson. In order to fulfill her death wish, her husband Anse and her children Jewel, Darl, Cash, Dewey, and Vardaman venture to bury her.

2. The theme of this novel is questionable existence and identity. For example, Darl, after his mother dies, questions whether she still exists since she is now a "was" not an "is".

3. The way Faulkner writes makes it so that there are multiple tones because of all the narrators. The most noticeable tones are tragic, comical, and detached.

•  "He kilt her. He kilt her." The life in him runs under the skin, under my hand, running through the splotches, smelling up into my nose where the sickness is beginning to cry, vomiting the crying, and then I can breathe, vomiting it."
•  "My mother is a fish"
•  "Jewel and I come up from the field, following the path in single file. Although I am fifteen feet ahead of him, anyone watching us from the cottonhouse can see Jewel's frayed and broken straw hat a full head above my own."

 4. Literary Devices

•  Imagery
•  "It was Darl. He come to the door and stood there, looking at his dying mother. He just looked at her."
• "Vardaman comes around the house, blody as a hog to his knees, and that ere fish chopped up with the axe like as not,..."
• "The boards looked like strips of sulphur."
• I tried to find another one that I really had in mind, but I forgot where it was. It described how they drilled two holes in the coffin straight through the wood and the corpse inside.

• Symbolism
• Vardaman's fish relates to Christianity. He catches the fish and cleans it and he relates this to his mother. "My mother is a fish"
•  Eyes seem to be a prominent role in the novel because a lot of describing of characters are done through it. "Jewel's pale eyes"
• New Hope Church. This one is really literal because of the obvious Christian connection in the novel but when they see the sign that says "New Hope Church" it is around the same time when they gain hope.
• Allusions
• Reference to Christianity. "Nobody can't guard against the hand of God"
• The title As I Lay Dying is from on of Faulkner's favorite epics. The Odyssey. 
• Onomatopoeia
• "Cluck Cluck Cluck"
• "Hush"
• "Sho"

• Profane/Strong Language- adds to the tone of the novel, how tragic or angry a charcter is
• "God damn it"
• "Bitch"
• "Hell"