William Faulkners As I Lay Dying :: Lay Dying William Faulkner Essays

William Faulkners As I Lay DyingWorks Cited MissingFulfilling a promise they had made to their mother, Addie, Cash, Darl,Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman, in William Faulkners As I Lay Dying, journeyacross the Mississippi countryside to bring her body to be buried in Jefferson,alongside her immediate family. Each one, in turn, narrates the events of this sashay as they are perceived. Though all of the family members are goingthrough the same experiences, each one expresses what they see and how theyfeel by exercising their unmarried powers and limitations of language. Whateach character says as well as how he/she says it gives insight into thatcharacters underlying meanings.Darl, for example, uses his linguistic skills to gain power as narrator.He possesses the ability to part up on things unsaid and to read otherpeoples actions. Dewey Dell describes his intuitiveness when she says that he said he knew without the speech communication, and I knew he knew because if he had saidhe kn ew with words I would not have believedand thats why I can talk to himwith knowing with hating with because he knows (27). He uses his gift ofrealizing things without them having to actually be told to him to gain credibility with the reader. Who would doubt a narrator who possesses thattype of adroitness? Also, his language is clear and reflective. He usessimiles and metaphors and appears to have an acute awareness of spatialrelationships. Darls sophisticated perception and poetical linguistics give himthe means of reaching for and maintaining his role as a competent observer andreporter. However, his position does create certain problems for his siblings.Tull describes Darls look as organism uncanny.He is looking at me. He dont saynothing just looks at me with themqueer eyes of hisn that makes folkstalk. I always say it aint neverbeen what he done so much or said oranything so much as how he looks atyou. Its like he had got into the at heart of you, someway. Like somehowyou was l ooking at yourself and yourdoing outen his eyes. (125)It is the same penetrating gaze that gives Darl so much power thatmakes the others around him so uncomfortable, especially Dewey Dell. She feelsthat his strange noesis of what has not been said is an invasion of herprivacy. The land runs out of Darls eyes they swim to pin points. Theybegin at my feet and rise along my body to my face, and then my flash back is goneI sit naked on the seat above the unhurrying mules, above the travail (121).