Line #31 Literature/AsILayDying


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/as_i_lay_dying.jpg]]
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3	''As I Lay Dying'' is a 1930 novel by Creator/WilliamFaulkner. It's arguably among the least MindScrew-like and most comprehensible of his works, and thus a good starting point.
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5	The basic plotline: Addie Bundren, the matriarch of the Bundren family, has died and expressed a wish to be buried in her hometown, Jefferson. Her husband Anse and children Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman comply -- although in many characters' cases, for not-entirely-altruistic reasons -- pack up the corpse and go. This being a Faulkner novel, of course, things go wrong. Very wrong.
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7	A [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]], directed by and starring Creator/JamesFranco, was released in 2013.
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9	----
10	!!''As I Lay Dying'' contains examples of:
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12	* AntiHero: Jewel. Despite being a bastard, he's the only one of the Bundrens with completely good intentions and the one who cares the most about Addie.
13	* AsTheGoodBookSays: Each chapter starts with a verse from the KJV Bible; one of the chapters has a {{malaproper}}ism of Proverbs 3:12, which is also cited in Hebrews 12:6.
14	* BeigeProse: "My mother is a fish." This also applies to Cash's sections before he replaces Darl as the objective narrator.
15	* BackAlleyDoctor: Skeet [=MacGowan=], but blatantly without the "doctor" part.
16	* BastardBastard: Jewel
17	* BuryMeNotOnTheLonePrairie: The entire plot, being driven by Anse Bundren's attempt to return his wife's body to her family graveyard, through a rainstorm. Though rather unusually, Addie requested this specifically because she wanted the journey there to destroy her family.
18	* CharacterCatchphrase: Among others:
19	** Cash: "It don't bother me none"
20	** Jewel: "Goddamn you" and "Shut up, Darl!"
21	** Darl: "Jewel's mother is a horse"
22	** Vardaman: "My mother is a fish"
23	** Kate: "She oughta take them cakes"
24	* TheChessmaster:
25	** Anse, if you believe that he acts stupid and useless ''on purpose'' so that he never has to work a day in his life. [[spoiler: He even ends up getting a new wife, along with his new set of teeth, at Jefferson so that he has a new set of hands to replace Addie.]]
26	** Addie, whose burial in Jefferson was specifically requested in order to destroy her family.
27	* CrapsackWorld: It's Faulkner, what do you expect?
28	* DownerEnding: Oh Anse, you {{Jerkass}}, you.
29	* DueToTheDead: The whole plot, but subverted in that most of the characters are just using it as an excuse.
30	* DysfunctionalFamily: All Anse cares about is getting new teeth [[spoiler: and a new wife]], most people think Darl is weird because he's clairvoyant, Jewel is angry about ''everything'', and Vardaman thinks his mother is a fish. Dewey Dell is slightly less dysfunctional than the aforementioned, though she does have a slightly incomprehensible dream where she couldn't feel anything, even the fact that she was a woman, except for the cool wind blowing across her naked body. All things considered, Cash seems rather normal, though he obsessed over creating the coffin.
31	* GenderBlenderName: Jewel is male, not female.
32	* TheHero: Darl, the only one who understands that Addie was a loveless, cruel individual who only wants to be taken to Jefferson out of revenge,[[spoiler: and so he tries to bury her as quickly as possible, first in the river, then in the fire.]]
33	* HolierThanThou: Cora Tull. Contrast Vernon Tull, who's actually a pretty decent guy.
34	* HumansAreFlawed: Where to start, to begin almost no one in the family actually cares about the body they're carrying.
35	* InnerMonologue: Of most of the characters, including [[spoiler: Addie's corpse (maybe)]]
36	* ItsAllAboutMe: Anse doesn't care about anyone but himself. Special mention should go to his reaction to his son Cash being horribly injured.
37	* JerkAss: It's easier to list the characters who aren't. For one, Anse cares for no one in the entire family.
38	%%* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Jewel, to some.
39	%%Why? As written, this is a Administrivia/ZeroContextExample.
40	* KarmaHoudini: Nothing bad ever happens to Anse, despite some underhanded things he did. [=MacGowan=] too, who gets away with [[spoiler: raping Dewel Dell.]]
41	* MagicalRealism
42	* MeaningfulName:
43	** Jewel, because he is Addie's most beloved. It's also an IronicName, as he's not exactly a "jewel" as far as personality goes.
44	** Bundren sounds similar to ''burden'', which the family certainly is, to themselves, and to everyone else.
45	* MindScrew: Not as much as Faulkner's [[Literature/TheSoundAndTheFury other works]], but still; especially concerning [[CassandraTruth Darl]] and [[PosthumousCharacter Addie]].
46	** In Section 30, Dewey Dell describes a nightmare she had where she could not feel anything, even the fact that she was a girl, and then she felt a "they" beneath her that was "like a piece of cool silk dragged across [her] legs." It's really a metaphor for her repressed sexuality.
47	* MySignificanceSenseIsTingling: Darl is clairvoyant. Darl narrates the moment of Addie's passing when ''he isn't even in the room.'' He also knows that Jewel is [[spoiler:Addie's illegitimate son]] and that Dewey Dell is pregnant.
48	* NietzscheWannabe: Darl has his moments, but Addie takes the cake.
49	* OneParagraphChapter:
50	** "My mother is a fish."
51	** Similarly, there's a later chapter consisting of Cash's two-line winding thought that the coffin wasn't balanced properly, ending as suddenly as it begins as he realizes no one is "listening" to him.
52	* OnlySaneMan: Cash.
53	* ParentalFavoritism: Jewel is Addie's favorite [[spoiler: largely because he isn't Anse's son. It's a bit more nuanced in the novel, but that's the gist.]]
54	* PosthumousCharacter: Addie, in one chapter. Sort of.
55	* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight
56	-->"[Jewel] is my cross and he will be my salvation. He will save me from the water and from the fire. Even though I have laid down my life, he will save me."
57	* ShoutOut
58	-->"Anse. Why Anse. Why are you Anse."
59	* TheQuietOne: Cash.
60	* TheRashomon: ''As I Lay Dying'' features fifteen different narrators. The majority of the narration comes from the Bundrens, sans Jewel and Addie who only narrate one section of their own.
61	* TheStoic: Darl. Hardly ever does Darl display any emotion. He doesn't even become emotional as he narrates the event of Addie being placed in her coffin.
62	* SanitySlippage: What happens to Darl over the course of the novel, [[spoiler: eventually resulting in his being institutionalized.]]

Context Literature / AsILayDying