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Robert Sutton remarks that as time has progressed, dying ceremonies are not for the well-being of the deceased but as an emotional clutch for the loved ones of the deceased. What is ironic about As I Lay Dying is the family goes through all of the motions of the typical dying ceremony, yet they do not use each other in their grieving processes.

This source discusses several themes of the novel, including isolation, death, sanity, and identity. Without the role of any decent parent, most of the children evolve into isolated, uncaring characters, who only seek their own self interests. This contrasts sharply with Jewel, who has a caring mother, and ends up sacrificing all that he cares about in order to respectfully (in his opinion) bury his mother.

"Faulkner's use of multiple narrators underscores one of his primary themes: every character is essentially isolated from the others. Moreover, the characters in the novel do not communicate effectively with one another"

This source outlines the themes in As I lay Dying, as well as giving examples. This quote provides an overview of Faulkner's style of using the different characters as narrators in order to further emphasize that the characters do not communicate well.

This article explains the importance of the multiple narrators. Within each narrator lays a different perspective. And within each narrator, lays both a textual voice, unbiased and the voice of the author, and a mimetic voice that describes the feelings of the particular narrator.

"Absurdist comedy is juxtaposed with existential tragedy, complicating the reader's assessment of the Bundren family and the significance of their actions"

This source is a literary criticism of the novel. It provides solid details to the black humor used in As I Lay Dying, and speaks more of the style of Faulkner's novel.

This article focuses on the etymology behind each name in As I Lay Dying. Darl is a darling, but his mother scorns his love, whereas Jewel is the most loved child in the family, even though he has an unkind personality. The names are highly sarcastic

"In As I Lay Dying, Anse Bundren is a grotesque character partly because of his moral deformity: his lack of self-understanding, his parasitic and manipulative relations with others, his pious posturing."

"Insofar as the journey seemed to be a collective effort courageously undertaken by the whole family for the whole, involving heroic suffering and heroic action, that perception is undermined by the sudden dismissal of Addie, the expulsion of Darl, and the scurrying aftermath of selfish pursuits."

This article discusses the use of grotesque art in As I Lay Dying. Grotesque art is art with bad manners that challenges ideals and notions of proper order with dissonant elements. The article emphasizes the backwardness of the events of Addie's burial like the burying of a week old stinking corpse. The article also highlights the unusually motives each narrative maintains through their journey to bury Addie even though their sole concern should be about the burial of the matriarch of the family. This article would support an essay dwelling on the detachedness the Bundren family experiences.

This shows how Faulkner uses his Gothic elements to highlight his specific themes such as isolation. this is the main theme in As I Lay Dying, as it leads the the struggles in the family and their destruction

This article focuses on Faulkner's use of satire and biblical references in As I Lay Dying. His use of fire and water as disasters that the Bundrens must overcome recalls references of biblical stories.

Another one that I can't copy quotes from, but it discusses religion and how it is used ironicly during the course of the Bundrens' lives

"It gradually becomes clear that each member of the family has an ulterior, selfish motive for wanting to get to Jefferson."

"Irving Howe has pointed out that the novel's central theme is the tension between individual self-definition and the contingency of selfhood upon others, particularly parents and family."

This article is a general overview of As I Lay Dying and the main theme of identity and identity within the family structure. Throughout As I Lay Dying, the selfish motives of each family monopolize the characters' attentions. The characters struggle to find their place within the family and how to communicate their feelings with each other. The most disturbing effect of this inability to form an identity results in the incarceration of Darl in a mental institution.

This passage dictates that Malcolm was drawn to the religion of Islam because it focused on the rehabilitation of black men and the devilish tendencies of white people. Malcolm was prone to hate white people after being put into situations that led him to his drug and cigarette addiction.

This source discusses the role of isolation and alienation in Vardaman's life; he is the innocent, clueless child who is unable to comprehend Addie's death, yet his father and brothers neglect him, and no one helps him understand. He wanders around confused and clueless

Good source which discusses Addie Bunds and the entire theme of isolation; as a mother back in the day, childbirth is really her only appreciable quality. Her entire life, Addie just wants some recognition and companionship; Anse certainly neglects to fulfill the part of a decent husband, so she is left alone to die. Good site for the theme of isolation/alienation, especially by her own children.

This source compares Anse and Addie to Adam and Eve, and also explores the ideas that poor parenting leads to poor children behavior. Like Victor, Anse and Addie really don't fulfill the roles of decent father/mother figures. As a result, most of the children go astray (Vardaman is clueless and baffled, Darl starts to lose his grip, Dewey Dell is left pregnant and alone)

This source discusses Jewel's isolation from his family (except his mother). Sort of like Victor's monster with humanity, Jewel knows he does not belong to his family, and as a result fails to get along with most of them. He constantly bickers and curses at his brothers, to the point of hating them, as well as Anse. However, like the monster, the only person whose affection he desires are his creator's, Addie's, which he does absolutely anything to obtain. He wants acceptance and approval from the only person he cares about.

Kovesdy argues in this article that Dewey Dell follows in her mother's footsteps in small acts of rebellion towards the stereotypical matriarchal role that is forced upon her. By loosing her virginity before marriage, she shows protest towards the traditional role society has set for her. And by being unable to master household chores, she denies the expectations set for her.

Both Darl and Jewel struggle with their own identity. And the death of their mother at the time of the largest development of their identity makes it even harder to discover who the are.

"perhaps because, for Addie, words are both the container and the contained; the empty vessel and the shape to fill that emptiness. They have the power to reveal and give form, as when she sees Anse flow out of the darkness and into the vessel of his name, but they also have the power to conceal"

This source provides an overview of the novel based solely on the language usage of each narrator. It examines specific language like Addie's, that is empty and useless because that's how she feels life is.

"Faulkner uses the experimental forms associated with modernism to depict the impact of the sociocultural era called modernity, and the processes of urbanization and industrialization known as modernization, on poor whites in the rural South. As I Lay Dying makes clear that Faulkner's rural modernism has not simply a geographic logic but also a sociopolitical significance. Rural modernism critiques the conflation of the urban and the modern, in part by revealing how the country is used as a foil against which urban modernity is defined"

This source examines the novel from the perspective of modernism in Faulkner's writing. It discusses how it is used and how it effects other themes. This brings a new perspective to the groups of themes.

Again the individual isolation is seen at one of the two "climaxes" of the novel. Cash shows it here through the destruction of his tools, it shows the family chemistry cannot be fixed

This refers to the selfish motives of the characters that isolate them on the journey to Jefferson. Because everyone is focused on their goals, no one seems to care about Addie and her burial