Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying: Concluding the Novel

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

Guiding Question

• What does the final portrait of the Bundrens look like? Are they as rotten as Addie's corpse, full of despair and dissolution? Or are they a tribute to the vigor and resolve of a Southern family, who successfully complete an overwhelming task? Does Faulkner truly resolve this issue?

Learning Objective

• Discuss possible interpretations of the novel and its characters
• Compare the themes of hope and loss found in both Faulkner's Nobel Prize Speech and As I Lay Dying.

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

Activity

What kind of promise does he offer after death? Is the novel simply pessimistic, or is there some hope throughout?

One way of reading the novel is to see the myths of the South slowly revealed to be as rotten as the corpse of Addie Bundren. How do the desires of each family member reveal in different ways this sense of despair and dissolution? Consider, for example, Anse's false teeth (and new wife), Dewey Dell's failed abortion, Darl's 'madness,' Cash's lost tools, and Jewel's bartered horse.

Another way of reading the novel involves recognizing the images of success and endurance. Students might examine the comedic and optimistic aspects of the novel. Many of the Bundrens, after all, do succeed in their endeavors, especially Anse, who not only gets his new teeth but also finds a new "Mrs. Bundren"—possibly a hopeful indication for progeny and prosperity.

Students should revisit Faulkner's Nobel Prize Speech via Internet Public Library, where he said that "the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself […] alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat." He spoke of that conflict: of "love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice." His assessment of mankind's future is surprisingly optimistic: "I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail."

Considering Faulkner's speech, what does the final portrait of the Bundrens look like? Are they as rotten as Addie's corpse, full of despair and dissolution? Or are they a tribute to the vigor and resolve of a Southern family, who successfully complete an overwhelming task? Does Faulkner truly resolve this issue? Is the sense of hope more evident in his Nobel Prize Speech than in As I Lay Dying?

Assessment

• Students can write an entry into the Bundren family saga—create a character and voice appropriate to the novel and describe an encounter somewhere along their journey. Students should consider carefully issues of voice, including point-of-view, the personality and tone of their character, the extent of the character's knowledge of the events, and so on. A brief paragraph should conclude the assignment, giving a critical assessment of the choices the student decided to make and why.
• Write an obituary for Addie from a particular character's point of view (or from her own).
• Rewrite the three scenes described above in the voice of a single narrator. This can be done individually or in pairs. The results can be read to the class.
• Take-home essay as described above or multimedia presentation by students on either of the guiding questions listed above.
• Use this interactive to create their own Jefferson County Newspaper to compile all of the above exercises into one publication.

Previous Lesson

Return to curriculum unit overview—Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Form of a Funeral

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• Nobel Prize Speech
• Faulkner information, through The University of Mississippi:
• People, Places, and Events
  [http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/glossary.html]
• As I Lay Dying Resources
  [http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~egjbp/faulkner/r_n_aild.html]

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