Questions About As I Lay Dying

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Answered Questions (10)

Spoiler!: I don't understand why Darl is considered mad? His Pa at the end of the novel ends up with a new wife calling her Miss Bundren and the with the money buys hisself new teeth. Darl's actions of setting the barn on fire to stop the horrible venture seemed right to be but ended in his madness, or because he was mad all along?

Lynette Gaines Actually, pa introduced the woman as Mrs Bundren, not Miss. Guess he wasn't grieving over his dead wife so much after all. Seems like his main goal in…moreActually, pa introduced the woman as Mrs Bundren, not Miss. Guess he wasn't grieving over his dead wife so much after all. Seems like his main goal in his final years was to get a set of false teeth. What a loathsome creature he was. I wanted to slap him so many times!
As for Darl being mad, I think they were all crazy from being raised by such uncaring parents. Darl didn't seem any stranger than the rest of them and I can see why he wanted to get rid of that stinking coffin. He just snapped at the wrong time.(less)

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How is it that Darl is the one to explain Addie's death? How does he have the details when he is away with Jewel? Am I missing something? I am only within the first 100 pages or so though, so maybe it is revealed later on?

Edward Darl's perceptions of his family and the world are one of Faulkner's primary focuses in AILD. As you get further in, you'll realize that he is the pri…moreDarl's perceptions of his family and the world are one of Faulkner's primary focuses in AILD. As you get further in, you'll realize that he is the primary narrator and the development of his character is crucial to what the book is trying to say, thematically speaking. It's my opinion that Faulkner wanted his readers to see how Darl would have imagined his mother's death, rather than the actual event, because it is more revealing of Darl's character. Other readers and critics believe that Darl's acute sensitivity to others and his surroundings borders on omniscience: that it is merely part of his character. Also, Darl may be a sort-of stand-in character for Faulkner himself, and, thus, is burdened with the actual truth of the narrative. No answer is definitive, and all are probably correct. Obscuring narrative certainty was a hallmark characteristic of Faulkner's writing, as well as many other Modernists, and is usually a reflection of the time's philosophy that truth lays beyond man's limited, individual perspective.(less)

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Just finished first 3 chapters and I have no clue what is he going on about .... alot of he ... she... them... its very confusing and straining ( books should not be that but anything a lot of confusion already exists in our lives). Is it worth reading the rest of this mess? I read good reviews about falkner.. i have to give him that his writing style is unique.. english is not what we use in day to day... but still?

Lynette Gaines I also was confused while reading this book and the dialect was hard to follow. There were also a lot of repetitive sentences that still don't make se…moreI also was confused while reading this book and the dialect was hard to follow. There were also a lot of repetitive sentences that still don't make sense to me. ( Why was ma a fish?) I just finished reading it and I still need time for it all to sink in. I could make a list of words that I never could figure out what was being talked about. It's possible that at the time it was published, some of these expressions were more common. Kind of like when you first start reading a book by Dickens. It takes awhile to slip into his dialect and become comfortable with it. But, maybe not so much with this one. (less)

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I enjoyed it, and loved the different points of view, the way each character has their own ways of descrbing things. The perspectives from each characters are very interesting. I have a question - has anyone read this book in a different language? How would they have translated the manner of speaking? I speak Malay as a first language and cannot imagine how this book would be translated into Malay?

◇ a l e x a n d r a ◇ Hi, I finished the book right now and I read it in the original. I admit it was some hard work because of high ambiguity. Because of that I couldn't w…moreHi, I finished the book right now and I read it in the original. I admit it was some hard work because of high ambiguity. Because of that I couldn't wait to see how it was translated in my language. And I am stunned. The translators tried to transpose their different talking styles, informal to formal, to what speakers of my language (peasants, doctors etc) would sound like, choosing a dialect. They paid attention to what extent the words altered in their talking and they altered the words in my language to the same extent, using traditional style and vocabulary. Hope it helped a bit.(less)

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I read this book many many years ago in a collage lit class and came across this discussion by chance. A question that still sticks with me about As I Lay Dying is, is the Bundren family African American? There were a couple of times that I got that impression.