1 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/as_i_lay_dying.jpg]] |
2 | |
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. |
4 | |
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. |
6 | |
7 | A [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]], directed by and starring Creator/JamesFranco, was released in 2013. |
8 | |
9 | ---- |
10 | !!''As I Lay Dying'' contains examples of: |
11 | |
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.]] |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Literature / AsILayDying
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load