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  Portrait of William Faulkner by Carl Van Vechten.
Courtesy of American Memory at the Library of Congress.

  

Subject Areas
Literature and Language Arts
   American
   Fiction
 
Time Required
 Images of Faulkner and the South 1-2 class periods
Voices In As I Lay Dying 1-2 class periods
Crossing the River 1-2 class periods
Burying Addie’s Voice 1-2 class periods
Concluding the Novel 1-2 class periods
 
Skills
 Reading literary texts
Critical analysis
Literary interpretation
Historical interpretation
Internet skills
Writing skills (informal and formal)
 
Curriculum Unit
Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying: Form of a Funeral
 
Additional Data
 Date Created: 01/08/04
 
Additional Student/Teacher Resources
 The Many Voices of As I Lay Dying (PDF file)
 
Date Posted
 1/8/2004
 
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Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying: Family Voices In As I Lay Dying

Lesson Two of the Curriculum Unit: Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Form of a Funeral

[Students should be assigned a certain portion of reading—at least the first 5-10 chapters—before starting the following activity]

Guiding Questions

  • What does a character's voice reveal about themselves?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of learning about something or someone through multiple perspectives?

Learning Objectives

After completing the lessons in this unit, students will be able to:
  • Understand and explore the use of multiple voices in narration
  • Examine the Bundren family through the subjective evidence provided by a multiplicity of characters

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

Review the curriculum unit overview and the lesson plan. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. If necessary, download and print out any documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.

Activity

This activity explores the voices of As I Lay Dying, starting with the first introductory chapters. The principles followed in this one class session can then aid the student in reading the remainder of the novel, supplemented with journal entries and other assignments according to the needs of the classroom.

Of crucial importance to this activity is the question: what is narrative voice? Ask students to brainstorm what 'voice' might mean in terms of a novel—what sorts of things would a person's voice reveal? Possible answers include age, education, background, culture, religious and other kinds of beliefs, and so on. Other questions students might consider include:
  • What does it mean to have multiple voices or perspectives instead of just one?
  • Does each child's voice contain certain character traits of the parents? If so, what are they?
  • Do you believe the narrators? Do they have ulterior motives for the trip to Jefferson? If so, what are they?
The following PDF worksheet, The Many Voices of As I Lay Dying, has 15 rows—one for each voice in the novel. The first group of voices has already been filled out—they are the immediate members of the Bundren family: Anse, Addie, Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell, Vardaman, and Jewel. The Bundren Genealogy, available at William Faulkner on the Web, via EDSITEment reviewed Internet Public Library, lists the relationships of the family in a graphical format (spoiler alert: the genealogy does give away Addie's relationship with Rev. Whitfield).

Students can begin filling out the character sheet, including adding new "voices" as students come across them, and use the chart as they read to keep notes about the various characters. As I Lay Dying has a total of 15 voices—who are they? What do we know about them from others? What do they reveal about themselves? What do they reveal (or conceal) about Addie (or Addie's position as a woman in the South)? What do we learn about the setting and culture through the characters' voices? What do we learn about the characters that they did not intentionally reveal (either through their own voice or another's)?

Other questions for consideration:

Once students have been able to use the chart to examine the "big picture" of As I Lay Dying, the form of the novel might be a little more apparent. Who is the most frequent narrator? (answer: Darl) What happens to him in the end of the novel? Why is that? How does he compare to the other members of his family?

Who are some central characters who are also the least frequent speakers? (answer: Jewel and Addie, who both have just one monologue—see Lesson 4: Burying Addie's Voice for more detail on Addie's role) What does Faulkner seem to be saying about the power—or the lack of it—in the act of narration? How does this style of narration compare to a novel where there is one clear narrator with authority? Without a central narrator, how does the process of reading change? Can the reading process be compared to the journey to Jefferson? In what way?

Assessment:

As I Lay Dying has a total of 15 voices—ask students to write a detailed profile of one character, citing examples from the book to support their claims. Questions to get students started might include:
  • What do they reveal about themselves?
  • What do we know about them from others?
  • What do we learn about the characters that they did not intentionally reveal (either through their own voice or another's)?
  • What is their role in the novel?
  • What do they reveal (or conceal) about Addie (or Addie's position as a woman in the South)?
  • What do we learn about the setting and culture through the characters' voices?
  • What major symbols are associated with the character, and what might they mean?

Extending the Lesson:

If desired, the teacher can discuss the narrative style in terms of a shift from Realism/Naturalism to Modernism in American fiction, where an objective or even scientific narrative view shifts into the personal and subjective point of view. In this conversation, students could then compare narrative perspective with other novels read during the year.

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