Paper Title (use style: paper title)

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 310
227

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In the novel
 As I Lay Dying
, William Faulkner describes 
the dying out of two images: Addie and Darl. Their death 
also means the abortion of Burdren’s old family order which 
is influenced by upper strata thinking. In this way, Faulkner 
reveals that the old southern noble’s influence on the people 
of lower strata is withering away, and the nobles’ stratum has 
inevitably been thrown out from the stage of the history. 
After the civil war, the old noble ideas, which do not 
correspond with the historical trend, had lost the existing 
economic basis, and itself was becoming more and more 
declined. Although Addie had flowed into the common 
society, she still couldn’t mix into their lives entirely. The 
loneliness is her lifestyle, and the family atmosphere which 
she brings to the Bundren’s family also interferes with the 
normal life of the family members. This Bundren’s home’s 
old order presents the influence which Jefferson — born 
noble thoughts have on the lower area. There are many 
outstanding qualities arising from the lower people’s mental 
and physical state, such as the doctor’s humanitarian spirit, 
the neighborhood’s close and harmonious relationship with 
each other. Anse and other family members’ sticking to their 
promise, insisting on sending the Addie’s body back to her 
hometown’s behavior is quite precious and admiring. 
Faulkner speaks highly of their endurance and determination 
in their way to the goal. From his viewpoint, these poor 
people are more adapted to the after-war reality, and they are 
more practical, who can better create the after-war society.
 
V.
L
ITERAL 
L
EVEL
Addie and Darl are two most important characters in 
As I 
Lay Dying
. The Bundren’s family vision is always confined 
to the little house, and they are buried in the household 
chores of family dispute. What’s worse, they are totally 
surrounded by all kinds of immediate interests and family 
trifles from both the body and the mind. In other words, they 
survive like animals, as William Faulkner himself has said, 
"they let a complete nature motivation to control themselves, 
they are the so-called materialists"(Faulkner, 105). In the 
novel, the author concludes in the name of the main 
characters, "waiting, waiting and waiting, tomorrow, 
tomorrow, and tomorrow"(Faulkner, 76).
Structurally, the book is divided into 59 parts, which are 
told by l5 narrators. Among all the parts, 19 are told by Darl. 
After carefully researching, you may discover that the most 
important the plots of the novel, such as Addie’s death, the 
family’s crossing the river with the hardships, the fire to the 
barn, are all narrated from Darl's point. 
The most important scene in the novel — the Addie’s 
death is a very good example. At this point, Darl is not 
present, but still Faulkner arranges him to be the narrator, 
which serves to show the importance of this character. If we 
take Addie’s confession into consideration, which has great 
significance to the analysis of the theme to this novel, we 
may come to a conclusion that the novel is a story of a 
mother and son. If we only keep this two parts remained, and 
remove other parts of the novel, the main idea of the novel 
and the plot basically will not be affected. 
In fact, if we take Addie’s life into consideration, we may 
find something unusual. Addie is the mistress of the family, 
who has been greatly affected by the deep nihilistic thoughts. 
Her father told her at an early age that people’s lives are to 
be prepared for their long dead, and she has been carved with 
this idea deeply in her heart. After she becomes an adult, she 
turns into a complex and lonely woman, and she even has 
not learned how to establish a proper relation with others 
because of her childish experiences. 
The gloomy and numb after-married life added Addie’s 
loneliness. She began to think that there are different 
meanings between the words’ superficial meaning and the 
deep meaning behind them. The thing itself is completely 
different. The good manners, such as the mother’s love, the 
religion, and other traditional thoughts in her brain have 
become meaningless words. What’s worse, Addie thinks that 
the language system is the way people use to cheat each 
other. Addie not only denies the objective world represented 
by the language, but also denies the relationship between 
people built on the language. The negative attitudes towards 
the language make Addie isolated from the surrounded life, 
and make her drag into a more profound loneliness and 
vanity, finally turns her into a lonely person. 
Objectively, Addie’s thought is quite profound, and her 
understanding of things is very penetrating. She has a feeling 
of emptiness and loneliness towards the surrounding people, 
and sometimes with even a little point of existentialism 
At the same time, the scholars indicate that “the effort 
which Faulkner has taken towards the criticism on the noble 
myth is not only confined to the description of the upper-
class society, but also on the showing of the historical 
events”. In the end, the possibility of rebuilding the public 
order is in the hand of the people of lower strata because of 
their endurance and action abilities. This is also the theme of 
the novel. From the essence of Faulkner’s creation, this 
theme slightly shows his historical criticism to the myth 
system created by himself, and further shows his transitional 
process from Modernism to Postmodernism. 
VI.
C
ONCLUSION
Taking the title of the novel