William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying

1. William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying

2. William Faulkner (1897-1962)“My requirements for writing: paper, tobacco, food, and a little whisky” • Grew up in Oxford Mississippi in a long-established Mississippi family • Uncle a colonel in the Confederate army • Family’s roots in the Old South furnish him with settings, themes, and cultural identity for sixteen novels and many short stories • His work is decidedly southern

3. Faulkner’s Writing • Began writing after he was in WWI • Won both Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize • Created Yoknapatawpha County: a fictional place in MI • A microcosm of the American South both Ante-bellum and Post-bellum

4. Fictional Yoknapatawpha County • Although Fictional, Faulkner gave it credibility, supplying a physical place and a census count • Location used in several of his novels • Near the real Yocona River in Mississippi

5. Crossing the Yocona River in 1900

6. The American South and As I Lay Dying • The loss of the Civil War shaped the mentality and outlook of all southerners • In Faulkner’s writing, the history of the south is a tragedy which must be addressed • The novel asks: How do people deal with devastation and degeneration in their lives? • Like the death of a loved one, a mother or wife, war also causes immense upheaval • The novel is not about the Civil War; rather it is about the manner in which people deal with adversity in their lives: it is about the Human Experience

7. Faulkner’s Style in As I Lay Dying • Written in stream of consciousness form • Reader “hears” a character’s thoughts • Faulkner never directly comments, describes, or explains • Novel comprised of 59 monologues by 15 different characters • Dream-like writing: often disjointed, distorted, and seemingly illogical • Readers must piece the story together in a puzzle-like fashion • Tale of a journey: nothing impedes the straightforward movement of plot to its destination-Jefferson and the burial of Addie