AS I LAY DYING

As I Lay Dying

 November 1, 2019  Posted in Learning

AS I LAY DYING

“Memory believes before knowing remembers.”

Author: William Faulkner

  • Born: September 25, 1897; U.S
  • Died: July 6, !962; U.S
  • Notable works: As I lay dying, The sound and the Fury

About the Novel

As I Lay Dying is the story of Addie Bundren’s wish to get buried in her hometown-Jefferson, Mississippi, after her death. Read how her rural and poor family hustled to fulfill her last wish.

Genre: Black Comedy, Tragedy, Modernist, Satire

Year of Publication: 1930

Protagonist: Darl Bundren

Famous quotes

  • People to whom sin is just a matter of words; to them, salvation is just words too.
  • Memory believes before knowing remembers.
  • The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true.
  • That’s what they mean by the womb of time: the agony and the despair of spreading bones, the hard girdle in which lie the outraged entrails of events.

Themes

  • Existence and Reality
  • Individual interests versus heroic duty
  • Birth and death
  • Language versus action
  • Religion

Symbols

  • Animals: Deceased mother of Bundren children.
  • Tools: Respectable living and stability
  • Coffin: Sense of weight and balance
  • Fish: Nature of death
  • It tells the story of the Bundren family traveling to bury their dead mother.
  • The author claims that he wrote the novel in 6 weeks.
  • Faulkner composed chapter 19 with just one sentence.
  • The movie adaptation As I Lay Dying was released in 2013 as an American film.