Faulkner's as I Lay Dying

by James Lamar Roberts and CliffsNotes

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background.

CliffsNotes on As I Lay Dying takes you into the lives of not one, but several narrators in this novel about the value of life. The central problem of the novel involves the reasons for Addie's request to be buried and why her family defies fire and water to fulfill it.

This study guide will guide...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822002108
• ISBN13: 9780822002109
• Release Date: March 1964
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 69 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

i enjoyed this book

i love the way willian faulkner wrote this book,u get each characters own thoughts, and personal expierences of the adventure this family went through. In the begining of the book, i guess it was because theyre were so many diferent nerators, it was kind of confusing, and hard to get into. But as i progressed through the book i found myself not being able to put the book down in curiosity of what would lie before me in the folowing chapters. i dont read much but i enjoyed this book.

Sobering truths about the human condition

I think this book fits well with Ernest Beckers Denial of Death. We have a survival instinct and yet know that we will die which leaves us motivated by a deep seated terror angst which energizes and controls all of life's activities. We deny death and try to transcend it through our symbol systems (e.g., a symbolic self which include regional ideals, cultural value and the vital lie of a personal hero myth which serve as prescriptions to immortality and elevated self-worth. "Life" follows from this and becomes, in a sense, a frantic preperation for death by building symbolic immortalities through empty verbalisms or divided or hypocritcal selves in which lies a deep fissure between words and deeds. All of this to deny our mortality. The problem is that this rigorous effort robs one of living a present-centered life and transcending narsism because of the relativity principle: My transcendance is relative to your lack of transcendance. Furthermore, we want to discount others experiences if they bring into question our own: We elevate like-others and consign different others to hell: Its the primal scene of politics. To engage in such perpetual holy wars inherently requires repression, ignorance, and oppression which is acheived to varying levels by most of the Bundrens, save Darl and perhaps Addie. Darl's tragedy is that he is not sufficiently repressed and thus he becomes a threat to the gatekeepers of morality (his kin) as he stands as a potential whistleblower to their vital lies. This pathetic condition - man's true story - is well illustrated in As I lay dieing - it shows that salvation is an illusion. Its efforts are merely filling in the lack of- trying to supplant no-thing with something; trying to transcend one's mortality by policing experience and oppressing others: We learn that filling void with contrived meanings tends to put men at odds with their environments, other people, and oneselve. Other works that help elucidate "As I lay dieing:" R. D. Laings "politics of experience" and Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a thousand faces." Think long and hard about this one and enjoy its wonderful character development and labyrinthine plot.

great book. excellent mock quest

i love this book and always will. Faulkner does a great job of letting each character's voice be heard seperately. The ending is the most surprising part. Admitidly it IS a little hard to get into at first, but if you stick to it, you will be greatly rewarded with a great story and a good book to recommend to friends.

As I Lay Dying is an intriguing tale of moral intrigue

I thought that the way Faulkner used Jewel as a saving grace for Addie anytime there was trouble was very interesting because she was the one who seemed to have the most to gain by ending their journey to bury Addie in Jefferson. I also thought the ending of the book was very intriguing and very good because it really kept me on the edge and left me thinking about what happened next in the lives of that tragic family.