Monday, March 8, 2010

Entry #2

This post is going to be about the most important word in the novel As I Lay Dying. The word I chose was “I”. I think it’s the most important word because it shows the greed in each character. They constantly think about how a certain series of events will affect them, instead of focusing on the effects of the event on other people. For instance, after Addie’s death, Anse only thinks about the teeth that he will be able to get in town, while Dewey Dell constantly thinks about how to get an abortion. In fact, Dewey Dell’s self-centeredness is even larger than Anse’s. The reader can tell because Dewey Dell keeps telling Anse tjat je made a promise to Addie to bury her in the place that she wanted. While Anse knows deep down inside that Addie would not really want to get drgged across the countryside to her grave, he still has not come to realize it in his consicious mind. However, it is likely thtat Dewey Dell already knows that this wuld not be what her mother wants. Yet, she constantly tells Anse to keep going. Even when Anse considered stopping, Dewey Dell whispered to him, “You promised her”. I suspect that Dewey Dell knows that she is “her,” yet she keeps using her dead mom as an excuse. While a baby is something to be taken care of, Dewey Dell’s self-centeredness in the wake of her mother’s death is quite revolting. Another reason why “I” is the most important word in this novel is because it shows the difference in reality. There is no objective reality in Faulkner’s view (he does use Darl to cheat a little bit, however). Every chapter shows what each character did and what occurred to the character in relation to his or her “I”. For instance, Dewey Dell and Vardaman have similar experiences when they go to the barn. However, Faulkner devotes two different chapters to it, instead of having one that encompasses both of their experiences. The reason for this is because he wants to show the “I” in the reality. The only way for us, not just as readers but as people living in the world, is to look through multiple lenses to view what is happening and what happened. Even textbooks are things that don’t have an objective truth to them. They were written by one or several authors, but it only establishes one view. There is one book I really like in APUSH and it’s a book about different things we learn in history. What we are given is just one set of facts, and we are asked to derive the meaning from it. However, the book goes into detail about everything including the person’s family, childhood, financial problems, and things like that. We begin to learn more about the picture and we are able to grasp reality more firmly. That’s because there is not a yes/no question in every instance, but many more views to look at.

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