EngLit

gavrus cristian · Trimis: 26/11/2012 20:51 Titlul subiectului: As I lay dying

First of all I want to discuss a little about the narrative technique employed in this novel which is composed only from the different impressions, thoughts and dialogues of the characters. There is no matrix level to contain some extra information about the place and the time in which the events take place. The reader is abruptly thrown in the middle of the events, without being introduced to the characters, he is compelled to discover by himself, the very plot of the novel using and matching like in a puzzle only the limited point of view of the several characters. There is no general point of view, no narrator to guide the reader. The partea interioară monologue is the only way to tell this story. The novel has only a single narrative thread, but instead of going is straight line between two points, the narrative thread forms a maze like structure, circling some events, recounted through the filter of different eyes and minds. There is no stream of consciousness, the discourse is well organized, though it is expressed in vernacular language. In stream of consciousness the thoughts are reproduced without following the logical structure of the language. The event that triggers all the action is the death of Addie Bundren. Her husband accompanied by his children embarks in a voyage in order to bury Addie,s corpse in her native town.
One complex character, in my opinion was Darl. His way of thinking denotes a keen intelligence, and a mind tormented by the enigma of the existence.
"In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep....And when you are emptied for sleep, you are not... I don't know what I am. I don't know if I am or not."[/quote]
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Cristian Gavrus

gavrus cristian · Trimis: 29/11/2012 21:43 Titlul subiectului:

I want to mention also that, in my opinion there is a discrepancy, a big gap between two categories of people: the farmers and the town people. The two farmer families which received the Bundrens, were willing to help the distressed family, offering them shelter and food during the night, offering even their mules (Armstid) after the disaster of the river crossing. On the opposite, the experiences with town people were not so pleasant. The marshal told them to leave the town because the rotting corpse was smelling. In Jefferson the first man they meet threatens Jewel with a knife, and the the shop keeper Mc Gowan promises to help Dewey Dell to get rid of her unwanted pregnancy, only to obtain genital favors.
Vardaman was also a very somehow interesting character. He compares his dead mother with a fish he caught. after being chopped the fish became no-fish. He thinks that her dead mother becomes something else but he cannot explain it.In his young mind he doesn't understand the notion of death, thus he drilled holes in the coffin for her mother to breathe.
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Cristian Gavrus

gavrus cristian · Trimis: 23/12/2012 22:25 Titlul subiectului:

What intrigued me was how had the other members found out who was the person that set fire to the barn. We only get a hint when Vardaman said something like <I saw Darl do a bad thing, and I said it to Dewey Dell and she told me not to say a word >. At the end of the book when Cash was speaking, relating the events after the funeral of Addie, when the two men were waiting at the cemetery gates to get Darl at the Jackson Institute (I suppose for mental illness) as Darl tried to run it was Dewey Dell that jumped and put her hands on him before the others: 'like a wild cat... and her scratching and clawing at him like a wild cat'. And Cash is making the right connection stating :'And then I knowed how Gillespie knowed about how his barn taken fire. ' It was Dewey Dell that denounced her brother. The question is why? and I believe the answer is quite obvious, because Darl was the only one who knew about her affair with Lafe, and with Darl out locked in a mad house and eventually the abortion done, the secret would have been buried.
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Cristian Gavrus

Pasca Roxana · Dunker Data inscrierii: 12/Mar/2011 Mesaje: 12

Pasca Roxana · Dunker Data inscrierii: 12/Mar/2011 Mesaje: 12

Besides this, characters do not communicate with each other and conversations tend to be irrelevant to what characters think. I had the feeling that they try to protect their inner thoughts; for example many thoughts cross Darl's mind during the pause between his father's question about where Jewel is and his simple answer.

Some critics found Freud's theory of sublimation (an emotional trauma affects the unconscious part of one's mind, but the frustrating energies are transformed into a socially accepted behaviour). Each of the children finds an object/issue/activity through which to filter Addie's death:
Darl-questions of existence
Jewel-horses
Vardaman-fish
Cash-carpentry
Dewey Dell-her sexuality.
Cristi, you talked about multiperspectivism, about the fact that we see the characters' experiences one at a time and there is no absolute perception of reality, and I found Vardaman's words illustrative for this idea: "there exists an isdifferent from my is."
And.... my favourite quote from this novel: "The reason of living is to get ready to stay dead a long time."[/i]

Alexandra Sacui · Rookie Data inscrierii: 26/Mai/2011 Mesaje: 6

ROXANA IRIMES: I would like to draw your attention not on the narrative techniques but on one of the characters that made this plot possible,Addie . Her thought are a complete phylosophy on life and death , on marriage and childrean raising , on one's identity .Addie is unfullfield woman and mother . She feels betrayed because , once married she doesn't have time for herself for expressing her identity and above all she became a mother leaving her without any escape from a role she didn't want .She isn't a role tip mother nor a perfect wife, instead she loaths her husband and children . Death comes as a relief to Addie as a way of regaining her identity , regaining her freedom and has no regrets of leaving her husband and children behind ,but more than that she makes them take her body back to her hometown trough the means of an excruciating journey.