The thing that bothers me most about As I Lay Dying is its title. It seems to imply that Addie is the one narrating the book. However, after leafing through the rest of it, I didn't notice a single chapter that she narrated. I think that it would be really funny if Faulkner decided to throw in a scene where Addie talks to one of the narrators in their dreams. It also wouldn't be all that out of the ordinary, as Darl already has the supernatural ability to know what is going on in other places or inside other people.
Although I didn't read the end of the book, I noticed that there were a few new narrators towards the end. There may have been a chance that, in some weird plot twist, Addie narrates unexpectedly through those characters or that I missed a chapter titled by her name. Any way, I think it would be neat knowing what Addie thinks about Anse, given the mostly negative views of him by the people around him.
"Thayt damn old man cant do anything right. Just look ad him mess uh mah bed agin. D'wee Dell, git in here an fix this!"
Yeah, when I read the title and went on to read a few sections of the book, I thought Addie would be narrating the book, since she is the one that is laying dying. Likewise, I hope Addie comes into play in the book somehow, to make it more interesting. Hopefully those new names that your read at the end relate to Addie somehow. Or, perhaps, are they the heroes that emerge?
ReplyDeleteI would also love to hear Addie narrate! We haven't gotten to really know her as a character, and I think it would be interesting to hear her thoughts about the different characters in her family. I have wondered about her relationship with Anse, especially when she refused to look at him on her deathbed, and I would love to have her explain that in her own words.
ReplyDeleteI've been sort of bothered by the title. I think it's pretty unlikely that Addie will come back to narrate any of the later chapters since she's dead. This book has been kind of strange, but we haven't seen anything as crazy as someone coming back to life yet, and I doubt that we will. Another possibility is that someone else dies closer to the end of the book and the title refers to them.
ReplyDeleteI actually looked into it a little bit, and it turns out the title is a quote Faulkner picked from a different book: The Odyssey. It's something that the spirit of Agamemnon says in book XI. Coincidence?
The only time that anyone so far is even laying down dying in the book so far is Addie at the beginning. And that is only a short time because she is soon no longer dying, but dead. I think its interesting that you thought that Addie would be the one narrating the book just based on the title. Everyone else narrates at least once, but the whole story revolves around getting Addie's corpse, laying in the coffin, to Jefferson. Pretty weird.
ReplyDeleteThat title also kind of bothers me. At first I thought Addie would be the main character because of the title (and I guess she is in a way...I mean the whole book is the story of her family's journey to take her to her family burial grounds), but she doesn't talk much in the book. Her one chapter is interesting though, because we get to see what kind of person she is.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post, because when I told my dad that I was reading As I lay Dying in English class, his first response was that he didn't like the book when he read it in high school because the "dying" occured a couple of chapters in, and that somehow bothered him. I have to agree that this title does not really seem to fit the plot of the book, and is very misleading to many readers (including myself), who think that the book is from Addie's perspective.
ReplyDeleteI did mention on the first day of class on AILD that the title is an allusion to _The Odyssey_, right? It's a reference to Agamemnon talking to Odysseus from Hades, referring to the feelings of betrayal and abandonment as he lay dying and his faithless wife wouldn't even close his eyes.
ReplyDeleteIt does posit Addie as the center of the novel, which is true even though she only narrates one (very key and consequential) chapter.
But sometimes titles work like this. Do you complain that _For Whom the Bell Tolls_ (a reference to a Donne poem) doesn't include any bells tolling? Or _The Sun Also Rises_ (a biblical reference) doesn't include a sunrise?