Paper Title (use style: paper title)

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 310
226

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karstens buller's, and he thinks that the dying "is not only 
referred to the death of the body, the more important thing is 
about her the loss of control over the family” (Xiao, 162). 
We believe that the "I" here should be regarded as the 
Bundren family’s old order. In this novel, what Faulkner 
wants to convey most is the loss of such control, and it is 
exactly the title’s meaning “As I Lay Dying”. Then, what 
does the order mean? And what does the vanishing of this 
process show? How does it transform from appearing to the 
vanishing and can we find some examples in the novel? If 
we want to take a further look into this viewpoint, we should 
understand the image of Addie and Darl. 
Darl is quite similar to his mother, who is also a lonely 
and love-thinking person. Darl always considers about who 
he is, and whether he is existing or not.
What makes most people surprised is that Darl’s 
communication with Addie’s spirits last even after Addie’s 
death. When the family came to Gillette’s home for one-
night’s stay, Addie's corpse’s smell attracts a large group of 
vultures. Darl told Vardaman that he could hear Addie talk, 
she prayed to god to help her hide herself in order not to let 
others see. In which case, she can sleep on her own. So he set 
fire to the barn, and tried to prevent the journey from lasting, 
which directly led to his being put into an asylum. Obviously, 
Darl, like Addie, is an image of modernism, and is also her 
soul successor. His personality and mentality is the product 
of the family life shaped by Addie. After the death of Addie, 
Darl is the last remains of the house, and he determines to 
keep this in old order. 
In a word, after Addie dies, the existence of Darl 
prevents the other family members from establishing a brand 
new family order, which leads to his finally being betrayed 
and put into the lunatic asylum. Cash, who keeps a good 
relationship with Darl, says some meaningful sentences 
when Darl is caught, "I think it is a suitable place for you, for 
no one will disturb you." Later on, when Anse got married 
with a new wife immediately, at the point of the family’s 
transition, Cash said again: “Every time when I think of Darl, 
I feel quite depressed as he cannot enjoy with us, it's really a 
pity. But it may be better for him not to see this scene”. The 
world is not corresponding with his style, and this kind of 
life is not the life he should live." (Faulkner, 102) These 
words also make it clear that, as an important part of the old 
order, Darl will eventually be cleared away from the family. 
His being put into an asylum also means that the family’s old 
order finally completely vanished after nine days of "dying" 
state. 
In the whole Bundren’s family, the selfish and lazy father, 
the suffering — hardness throughout life and never knows 
what happiness-is mother, a large group of sons and 
daughters, all the people torture each other in a nest. Anse, 
who thinks himself as the most hardworking person, has 
suffered great injustice. The mother is already numb, and she 
has a famous saying "My father once said that the reason we 
live is to prepare in the long term for the death of others. I 
finally understand his meaning" (Faulkner, 96). Cash is man 
who only knows about working honestly, and he is even 
honesty to numb. After Cash’s leg is broken and rotted, the 
doctor has to cut his leg off, and he even has no painful 
feeling at all. 
Dewey Dell can only communicate his feelings with a 
cow. Not to mention Vardaman, as he's a weak-minded 
mental retardation, and he even cannot tell the differences 
between the mother and the fish. He regarded the doctor as 
the killer of his mother, and chased after his horse with a 
stick. After his mother’s death, he thought that his mother 
would hardly breathe in the coffin, so he drilled several holes 
in the coffin, which in the consequence, brought much 
damage to her mother’s body. In such a family, whoever has 
a heart, and whoever has a noble emotion would wait for the 
pain and the suffering. That quite well explains why Darl is 
doomed to become crazy. Jewel’s beloved horse was taken 
by others, and his fortunate is no better than Darl. As to Anse, 
Dewey Dell and Vardaman, they have no sense of guilty in 
their heart, and actually, they are more terrible than Darl, 
who has been viewed as the monster and kept in the 
madhouse.
We may regard Addie as an image woman created by 
Faulkner instead of saying she is just a country woman. She 
is the deconstruction and the rebellion of the traditional 
concept, which is clearly shown through her deny for the 
language and her loneliness. Especially the latter, the 
American scholar David ray griffin said the individualism is 
the core of modern spirit, which means that denying the 
person himself has internal relations with other things. 
Denying oneself consists of a person’s relation with others, 
nature, history and the divine creator, which is exactly the 
essence of Addie’s living state. 
IV.
S
OCIAL 
L
EVEL
Addie’s existence is the symbol of the Burdren family’s 
old order. Addie is the mother and the main controller of the 
family. As the creator of the family, she lives with his 
husband Anse for decades, and brings up 5 children together. 
In this process, her lonely and treacherous character greatly 
influences the formality of this family, which is especially 
obvious on the children. Then, what does the old order 
created by Addie mean? 
Addie comes from Jefferson, this is quite important but 
easy to neglect. The typical southern people have fabulous 
family, gorgeous history and thick old noble tradition. After 
the southern America was beaten, the heavy historical 
burden and the huge comparison made them indulge in the 
daydreaming. 
Although Faulkner has not shown clearly that Addie is 
the later generations of the great family, some of her 
characters really show that he is among the old southern 
people’ level. Her combination with Anse symbolizes the 
decline of the upper class people, and she actually brings a 
nihilistic living state to the Burdens. So we can see that 
Addie's death not only takes an end to her life, but also takes 
an end to the influence of her thought and the order which is 
brought to the family. In a deeper sense, it means the 
influence of the old southern people’s ideas to the lower 
class people have vanished.