Point Of View Of Dying example essay topic

As I Lay Dying, a story about a Mississippi family, cost William Faulkner only about six weeks of his life to complete. However, the author was tremendously disappointed with his tour de force (Cowley 25), and hardly wanted it published. Harrison (Hal) Smith, Faulkner's associate publisher, persuaded him to publish it, but only made 2,522 copies (Oates 96), which upset Faulkner immensely. Although it wasn't a best-seller, Dying was considered a candidate for one of Faulkner's five most important works during his period of creativity.

The author's reputed technical complexity and knowledge of Southern family traditions and history are found throughout his 1930 novel. The main reason for Dying's fame was Faulkner's "superb assurance and technical sophistication' (Millgate 140). His two most successful technically complex novels were The Sound and the Fury (1929) and Dying, both confusing and awing audiences alike. Some readers felt that Faulkner was out of his mind to write with such complexity, but others admired the man for his inspiration and talent. The most amazing and memorable of Faulkner's techniques in this novel was his use of multiple points of view all throughout Dying, a Faulkner trademark.

The author himself gave no direct personal opinions, but instead created a new point of view for each of the 15 narrating characters while experimenting with their 59 interior monologues (Lewis 134). Each character gave contrasting opinions and differing reactions to the same family member or situation through these monologues. By constantly shifting from character to character with each short chapter, every individual stated his or her own divergent views and recounted the story of the Bundrens from a slightly or completely different standpoint. Faulkner's motive in creating so many points of view was to encourage the reader to "put (all the different viewpoints) together into a kind of synthesis' (Oates 97). By doing this, Faulkner gave the reader the opportunity to discover a personal opinion. The novel is a psychological study of several perspectives upon a truth, and the truth in this case is not dying but the circumstances of being born and of living.

(Hoffman 61) Faulkner's 59 interior monologues added greatly to Dying's complexity, and gave insight to it's characters. The monologues combined varied the action of the plot and subplots by contributing many different opinions to one situation, each one having its own importance. Although this complicated the storyline, it also led the reader to discover personal opinions and interests by taking sides with, or opposing the characters' views as it did with me. The monologues revealed Faulkner's themes and helped to tell a "simple story through the eyes and minds of each of his characters' (Master 255). Each simple character tells his or her simple story to make the book's technicality very complex. The point of view of Dying was unreasonably difficult to define because there was a merging and constant change of different points of view.

First of all, the first person point of view was used throughout the entire novel, if I remember correctly. However, the problem arose when first person limited and first person omnipotent came into play. Although one may believe that the point of view is omnipotent because so many characters were involved, that was certainly not the case. There must have been details that the narrators didn't mention and other characters didn't see. Also, what about the smaller characters who weren't mentioned, but still had information to give? For example, while the barn was on fire, only Darl and Vardaman gave their opinionated narration, and the reader still hadn't a clue as to how all events of the fire occurred, how everyone else felt, or who else was involved.

Therefore, since the combination of the 15 narrators was still not all-knowing, Faulkner avoided omnipotent narration and used multiple first person limited as Dying's point of view. By using multiple points of view by numerous significant characters, Faulkner "binds the Bundrens into a homogeneous group yet each character emerges clearly with his own secrets, his own emotional abnormality' (Master 255). Each characters' problems, qualities and personalities were preserved, yet the story flowed smoothly as if only one narrator had told it. Dying was one of Faulkner's two most successfully produced, technically complex works of art. Throughout the novel, Faulkner successfully portrayed his knowledge of Southern family traditions, history, and life in general. The author was born and raised in Mississippi during the early 20th century, where and when many or all of his stories took place (not a coincidence!

). Faulkner visited many small towns, and perhaps lived in one himself, which helped to make the settings and events of Dying more realistic, thus more believable. The way he described and portrayed the Bundren family and their adventures was probably very close to realistic living in the time and place of the novel. Therefore, although us city folk possess no clue how Southern rural life was lived during the mid-1900's, we can live the lives of the Bundrens through Faulkner's writing. Faulkner used violence and abnormality to describe the Bundrens, which certainly was not how the rest of us view families, but whether we like it or not, he correctly described a realistic Southern family facing life, death, and the numerous obstacles in between. Unfortunately, as a result of these horrible obstacles, Faulkner was "setting the members of a family against each other' (Hoffman 60), as Lewis A. Lawson framed "the family as a weakening institution' (Lawson 153).

Almost every member of the Bundren family possessed hatred, regret, or discomfort for another member of his or her family. For example, Darl was disliked by Jewel because they both knew that the latter was an illegitimate child. Also, Vardaman felt hatred toward the family for nailing his mother's coffin shut so she could no longer "breath. ' Anse regretted ever letting his sons, Jewel and Darl, take the wagon out for one more load of wood in the storm and challenge time.

These three examples are a mere few of the Bundren family conflicts which, combined, tore their family apart after the death of Addie Bundren, wife and mother. Although the Bundrens were thought of as a group, each character possessed personal eccentricities, which to them were adequately justified, but were not understood by the friends, neighbors, and gawker's of the family. For example, the eldest son Cash was probably the most sensible and practical of the bunch, and was even said to be the ' folk hero' of Dying (Hoffman 62). However, he still felt little or no love for or from his fellow family members, emotions which sadly characterized most of the Bundrens I don't know what I am.

I don't know if I am or not. Jewel knows he is, because he does not know that he does not know whether he is or not (Faulkner, 196) -Darl "The only surviving Bundren capable of love' (Oates 90) was Darl, but he was not sane enough to truly understand love. Darl, the character with the greatest narration, wished for the torturous Bundren journey for his mother to stop because his family was in agony, and thus purposely attempted to burn her coffin late one night in a friend's barn. This incident, along with many other of Darl's actions, was very destructive and illogical, which led to his arrest and confinement in a nearby town's asylum. Vardaman, the youngest son, was greatly affected by his mother's death and the events following it. For example, he compared Addie Bundren to a fish that he had caught, when the two objects had little in common, other than the fact that they were both dead.

In fact, by the end of Dying, Vardaman acted, thought, and spoke very much like Darl, which could be directly traced to the emotional hardships of the previous couple of weeks. Vardaman's older sister, Dewey Dell, was also slowly losing her sanity due to a personal problem. She tried to hide her illegitimate pregnancy from her family, as well as ask different drugstore pharmacists to give her pills to abort her baby. The pharmacists either gave her false medication or would not help her at all, which caused Dewey Dell to become more like Vardaman and Darl. Addie's death directly effected the emotional state of these previous three characters, and caused their personalities and problems to stick out in the reader's mind. Jewel, Addie's only illegitimate son, was admired and favored by his mother.

In fact, before she died she told a neighbor that her son would "save me form the water and from the fire. Even though I have laid down my life, he will save me' (Hoffman 63). Jewel did indeed save Addie from water and fire. Perhaps due to this favoritism, Jewel grew to resent and hate his family, especially after Addie's death.

He was not one for words, but his few words and actions portrayed hatred and deep pain towards his "family. ' Anse was not described in depth in Dying, but I did get the feeling that he was a less than adequate husband and father. However, Anse deeply wanted to grant his wife's wishes by burying her in Jackson where she belonged. Anse possessed two main motives throughout the novel; to bury Addie as she wished, and to get himself a set of new false teeth. Interesting! I can definitely see the eccentricity in this man's life and dreams.

Faulkner's detailed descriptions through the narration of Dying's characters show that the author's knowledge the Southern family is vast, consequently producing a realistic and intriguing novel. Although only 2,522 copies of Faulkner's novel were produced, the author's public recognized it as a true masterpiece of Faulkner's creative period. As I Lay Dying portrays Faulkner's strength as an author through his technical complexity and knowledge of the Southern family.

Bibliography

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