Group items tagged

This site talks primarily about younger children s understanding of death, and what parents should do to help their young ones cope with the phenomenon. The thought processes spoken of on this site reflect those thought by Vardaman

"Adding to a child's shock and confusion at the death of a brother, sister, or parent is the unavailability of other family members, who may be so shaken by grief that they are not able to cope with the normal responsibility of childcare."

"Parents should be aware of normal childhood responses to a death in the family, as well as signs when a child is having difficulty coping with grief. It is normal during the weeks following the death for some children to feel immediate grief or persist in the belief that the family member is still alive. However, long-term denial of the death or avoidance of grief can be emotionally unhealthy and can later lead to more severe problems."

This article explains how children react and deal with grief over the loss of a loved one. This article relates to the confusion and angst Vardaman experiences after the death of Addie. Vardaman experiences shock and confusion over the substantial matter of death and how it applies to his newly deceased mother. No one in the family bothers to explain to him the finality and irreversibility of death. Without guidance, the Bundren family leaves Vardaman to stumble around and form false conclusion such as the belief Peabody killed Addie.

This NYTimes article discusses how people cope with death through various means of art and communication--specifically writing. The authors interviewed in this article explained how this form of communication was the only way they could understand what happened, thus saving them from the insanity of being lost. The Bundren family copes with Addie's death in no communicative way. As this important outlet does not exist within the household, it may well explain the strewed psychological states of many of the characters. 

This article describes the controversy over the death penalty and the proper frequency in which it is used. Today, a majority of Americans are pro-death penalty because it is a popular belief that criminals like Dick and Perry cannot be rehabilitated.

explores the themes of death in the clutter family and the deaths of the murderers, comparing and contrasting

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

"When coping with a death, you may go through all kinds of emotions. You may be sad, worried, or scared. You might be shocked, unprepared, or confused. You might be feeling angry, cheated, relieved, guilty, exhausted, or just plain empty."

Grief is an emotional, physical, or spiritual ramifications experienced after the loss of something precious. This website focuses of humans' reactions to grief and how to cope with sudden loss. This website is catered to the teenage audience and perspective. The website gives a general overview of the ways grief can manifest in daily life and ways to cope with it. The website emphasizes the importance of confronting and dealing with grief. This relates to the different ways grief appears in each character of As I Lay Dying and the inability of them to deal with the death of Addie.

This article discusses the importance of outward expression after the loss of a family member, despite how close they were. This display of emotion helps one to deal with the loss, lessening the probability that it will later turn into a mental illness. Following Addie's death, with the exception of a few silent tears shed by Vardaman, and Jewel's anger outbursts, very little display of emotion is held, thus explaining the family's worsening state.

This site discusses the grief process of young children. In a normal situation, kids are typically suppose to do a lot of questioning to somehow rationalize the situation. In AILD, however, we see that Vardaman is unable to ask these questions, which is detrimental to his growing process. 

Faulkner's use of metaphors to symbolize different stages of death and the stages of death.

This site is AMAZING for topics regarding treatment of workers. It literally describes in vivid detail the cruelty and carelessness of the corporations, as well as the insignificance and disposability of the worker. No one matters; the companies see people in terms of dollars, not faces or names. People are just a means to an end, a way to get profit. Once the profit ceases, the people are discarded in search of even better workers, which will be discarded in their time as well

This source shows that irony that Shelley creates in which no one truly knows who the monster is. Through the behavior of Victor, he leads the reader to question wether or not he is the monster. This also shows the isolation of his life.

Goes into further detail about capital punishment and the reasoning behind it.

Originally used in 1843 for an assassination case, the insanity plea has been used by many cold killers to save their lives in return for being labled as a sociopath. Both Dick and Perry undergo psychological evaluations to determine if they, too, qualify for this sentence.  Interestingly enough, this defense now seems to be a thing of the past, as some courts require their jury to answer whether or not a criminal understood his actions.

Source discusses the name trouble: the blacks are given names by their white slaveholders. Links to IM---blacks cannot find their own identity if they are being named and depersonified by the whites! Also discusses Malcolm's mom, who suffers, like IM, to the point of losing her mind and sanity, all at the hands of the white oppressors. 

"Unemployment among African Americans was well above the national average, and one-half of all black Americans lived below the poverty line (as opposed to one-fifth of whites). Not surprisingly, tensions ran high in black communities."

"Property damage exceeded $45 million. So many people had been arrested-more than four thousand-that some had to be detained in buses. More than a thousand people were injured, and forty-three people had been killed. The dead included looters, snipers, a policeman, and a fireman, as well as many innocent people who had been caught in the cross fire."

This article describes the major race riots in the 1960's in response to racial disparity. The riots were engendered by racial tensions between whites and blacks aggrandized by competition over jobs and housing. The black communities were overcrowded and crime-ridden, and the blacks were unwelcome in white communities. Racism results in riots that ends with bloody violence and the death of innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. This article provides an example of the consequences of rampant inequality in society between races which resembles the riots present in Invisible Man and Malcolm X.

"Ellison's evolving political views had a deep impact on his continual re-envisioning of that novel's structure and content."

This article is a biography on Ralph Ellison which explains the time from his birth to his death. The article provides additional insight into Ellison's life and his early life ambitions. This article expresses how the events of Ellison's life and political views provide insight to the authorial purpose of the novel which is to bring the reader to the realization of their own oppressive behavior and hopefully change.

The most relevant parts of this article are the introduction and the 60's section. These discuss the struggle of the black population and the impact of leaders like Malcolm X on society.