This one is a lot shorter! 1000 words!! After the last essay I was so relieved! Here's the subject I chose: Discuss the relationship between language and physical experience in As I Lay Dying. In what ways is language associated with "lack" or "what is not"? What kinds of experience defy the expressive powers of language?
I liked my introduction a lot, the middle bit is shakey, and then I really like my last couple paragraphs. I felt like I totally know what I was talking about especially that last page and a half-ish.
There are a few words I invented and I'm not going to change, but something I wasn't too sure about was my use of "begot" -- I totally zoned out trying to pick at the sentence in my head for many minutes, and I find that usually when I just stick a word in without thinking about it I've done it correctly. I don't think I've ever used this word before, though, or even seen it in use outside of the Bible...
Basically just a proof-read required, since you'd probably have to know the book to have anything to say? Sorry for the lengthy blurb. Here's the paper:
Language: The Bundrens’ burden
An essay on William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying
The realms of conceptualization and physical practice are two of immense dissonance; William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying exerts strong evidence in support of these opposing concepts. The story presents the events and perspectives of the emotionally and mentally detached Bundren family, in their quest to fulfill the final wish of their mother (and wife). A very prominent theme of the novel is the family’s previously mentioned air of detachment; the characters – brothers, sister, and father – do not relate to one another, their thoughts and feelings are stifled, limited to theoretical expression (which, based on the extent of said expression, is restricted by the firm reliance on the ambiguity and false nature of language, and not of action). In consideration of this pungent undertone in the novel, the proceeding evidence exposes that the Bundren family’s impedimentary air of disconnection is inflicted by their dependency on the emptiness of language.
The language by which the Bundrens are enslaved is a means of representing expression of thought and emotion, unfamiliar to the actual act of expression itself; it is simply the conceptualization of expression, rather than the physical practice, or action, thereof. Language is a means by which we express ourselves through emotions we are incapable of feeling, or do not understand – true emotions are felt and cannot be described. The mother, Addie, herself dictates this:
That was when I learned that words are no good; that words don’t ever fit even what they are trying to say at. When he was born I knew that motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn’t care whether there was a word for it or not. (Faulkner 171)
This is evident in the case of the Bundren family in that they are trapped in a world of language where they imagine and invent their feelings, yet have no experience in the reality of these matters. The words they speak tend to be empty of substance, and do not reflect the hearts of those who speak them. The family operates based on the cold, unrelenting commands of Anse, the father, who subsequently unquestioningly follows Addie’s dying wish. The family’s inexperience in, and resulting inability of, expression drives them deeper and deeper into the darkness of their prison of language. This is presented in the end of the novel when Anse’s first action, after they’ve finally laid Addie’s body to rest, is to procure a new wife, seemingly based on her possession of a gramophone. This focus on the gramophone strengthens the family’s destructive association with language, as represented as the talking machine – a voice without a body, language incapable of action. More-so than the new Mrs. Bundren, the gramophone replaces Addie for the family in a more fulfilling manner in that its society is more comprehensible and compatible than the mother and wife who strove to breaks her chains to language.
Addie was too familiar with the isolation and confinement of language before she even met Anse – her father supplanted the burden of language in her mind, defining her means of viewing and living life. Embodied by a single idea in the novel, he destroys all hope for a meaningful existence: “I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time” (Faulkner 169). Disconnection through language was born here and matured in the dependency on which Addie begot Anse in marriage. Contrastingly she shares a connection with her son Cash before her death; before Cash truly became a Bundren, in his absorption into language, he and Addie share an unspoken emotional bond only possible through the experience of true emotional expression. Anse, trapped in language – stagnation, regression –, never shared this bond of pure emotion and therefore fed the barrier between the two worlds of his language and her action:
He had a word too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn’t need a word for that […] Cash did not need to say it to me nor I to him, and I would say, Let Anse use it, if he wants to. So that it was Anse or love; love or Anse: it didn’t matter. (Faulkner 172)
The freedom of emotional expression is also presented in a similar unspoken bond between Darl and Dewey Dell:
It was then, and then I saw Darl and he knew. He said he knew without the words like he told me that ma is going to die without words, and I knew he knew because if he had said he knew with the words I would not have believed that he had been there and saw us. (Faulkner 27)
The language of words is prone to exaggeration and falsehoods, and easily conceals true intentions while propounding lies. Words are perverted by associations, connotations, and linguistic trends – does the word “awful” mean terrible or full of awe? Can one speak the word “snow” and not think “cold”? These emotionally pure moments of communion powerfully convey the truth of feelings alive in the hearts of the characters.
The family, save Anse, are all exposed to the Addie’s realm of physical practice and action at one point or another, but all fall prey to the emotional disconnection which dominates Anse’s prison of language: Vardaman and Dewey Dell experience both worlds, yet their innocence draws them to obey the impedimence of their father; Cash shares a bond with his mother, but upon her death has no one to express himself to; Darl remains the man of action throughout the novel and is punished by being exiled from the family; Jewel, like, Darl is a man of action and follows his heart – for this reason he was disliked by Darl as Addie’s favourite – yet he is separated from the family in that he is not of Anse’s blood-relation. Following the theme of disconnection in language through the use of words, Anse’s name, Bundren, reflects a consonance with the word “burden”. Similarly do names of the characters reverberate limitations of transcention from said titles; for instance the value of Jewel and Cash, representative of something dear to their mother, is reflected in their names. A name is a label that has the potential to restrict the development of that which the word represents. In this sense, the Bundrens are burdened by language, and their burden locks their label – “Burden” – to their being, destroying any means of escaping the word – the language.
Works Cited:
Faulkner, W. (1930). As I Lay Dying. New York: Vintage Books.
Now just two more essays before I'm done for Christmas... ¬_____¬
Proof-read for an essay on Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying&q
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Zac Jackson
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do you know if the hardcore band "as I Lay Dying" got there name from this?
Your next task: Go to the bathroom.
Wash your face.
Put your shoulders hunched upwards.
Look really, really slowly upwards towards the mirror like in the movies
And slap yourself in the face.
With your game face on.
And go shred with jim.
It'll work, trust me.
-Jay Boychuk
Wash your face.
Put your shoulders hunched upwards.
Look really, really slowly upwards towards the mirror like in the movies
And slap yourself in the face.
With your game face on.
And go shred with jim.
It'll work, trust me.
-Jay Boychuk
Well.... Umm... I think the title is actually from Shakespeare or something? Geez... I forget. Oh...I think Greek mythology actually. Homer's Odyssey, I think. So...potentially from this novel, but more likely from The Odyssey?
I've never heard of the band though...
EDIT: This is directly from www.asilaydying.com:
"Is there any correlation between your lyrics and the book As I Lay Dying?
Not at all."
I guess that answers it... But I'm still thinking there could be influence from Homer, whether they know it or not?
I've never heard of the band though...
EDIT: This is directly from www.asilaydying.com:
"Is there any correlation between your lyrics and the book As I Lay Dying?
Not at all."
I guess that answers it... But I'm still thinking there could be influence from Homer, whether they know it or not?
Mkay. Since I haven't read the book, I'll just do a proof. Stuff in BOLD is to be deleted and stuff in ITALICS is to be added. Stuff in {brackets(bolded)} are comments.
The realms of conceptualization and physical practice are two of immense dissonance; William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying exerts strong evidence in support of these opposing concepts {Which concepts?}. The story presents the events and perspectives of the emotionally and mentally detached Bundren family, in their quest to fulfill the final wish of their mother (and wife). A very prominent theme of the novel is the family’s previously mentioned air of detachment: the characters – the brothers, the sister, and the father – do not relate to one another, their thoughts and feelings are stifled, limited to theoretical expression (which, based on the extent of said expression, is restricted by the firm reliance on the ambiguity and false nature of language, and not of action) {Sure that you can't put this bit elsewhere? First list the ideas. Then explain them.}. In consideration of this pungent undertone in the novel, the proceeding evidence exposes that the Bundren family’s impedimentary air of disconnection is inflicted by their dependency on the emptiness of language.
The language by which the Bundrens are enslaved is a means of representing expression of thought and emotion, unfamiliar to the actual act of expression itself; it is simply the conceptualization of expression, rather than the physical practice, or action, thereof. Language is a means by which we express ourselves through emotions we are incapable of feeling, or do not understand – true emotions are felt and cannot be described. The mother, Addie, herself dictates this:
That was when I learned that words are no good; that words don’t ever fit even what they are trying to say at. When he was born I knew that motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn’t care whether there was a word for it or not. (Faulkner 171)
This is evident in the case of the Bundren family in that they are trapped in a world of language where they imagine and invent their feelings, yet have no experience in the reality of these matters. The words they speak tend to be empty of substance, and do not reflect the hearts of those who speak them. The family operates based on the cold, unrelenting commands of Anse, the father, who subsequently unquestioningly follows Addie’s dying wish. The family’s inexperience in, and resulting inability of, expression drives them deeper and deeper into the darkness of their prison of language. This is presented in the end of the novel when Anse’s first action, after they’ve finally laid Addie’s body to rest, is to procure a new wife, seemingly based on her possession of a gramophone. This focus on the gramophone strengthens the family’s destructive association with language, as represented as the talking machine – a voice without a body, language incapable of action. More-so than the new Mrs. Bundren, the gramophone replaces Addie for the family in a more fulfilling manner in that its society is more comprehensible and compatible than the mother and wife who strove to breaks her chains to language.
Addie was too familiar with the isolation and confinement of language before she even met Anse – her father supplanted the burden of language in her mind, defining her means of viewing and living life. Embodied by a single idea in the novel, he destroys all hope for a meaningful existence: “I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time” (Faulkner 169). Disconnection through language was born here and matured in the dependency on which Addie begot Anse in marriage. Contrastingly she shares a connection with her son Cash before her death; before Cash truly became a Bundren, in his absorption into language, he and Addie share an unspoken emotional bond only possible through the experience of true emotional expression. Anse, trapped in language – stagnation, regression –, never shared this bond of pure emotion and therefore fed the barrier between the two worlds of his language and her action:
He had a word too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn’t need a word for that […] Cash did not need to say it to me nor I to him, and I would say, Let Anse use it, if he wants to. So that it was Anse or love; love or Anse: it didn’t matter. (Faulkner 172)
The freedom of emotional expression is also presented in a similar unspoken bond between Darl and Dewey Dell:
It was then, and then I saw Darl and he knew. He said he knew without the words like he told me that ma is going to die without words, and I knew he knew because if he had said he knew with the words I would not have believed that he had been there and saw us. (Faulkner 27)
The language of words is prone to exaggeration and falsehoods, and easily conceals true intentions while propounding lies. Words are perverted by associations, connotations, and linguistic trends – does the word “awful” mean terrible or full of awe? Can one speak the word “snow” and not think “cold”? These emotionally pure moments of communion powerfully convey the truth of feelings alive in the hearts of the characters.
The family, save Anse, are all exposed to the Addie’s realm of physical practice and action at one point or another, but all fall prey to the emotional disconnection which dominates Anse’s prison of language: Vardaman and Dewey Dell experience both worlds, yet their innocence draws them to obey the impedimence of their father; Cash shares a bond with his mother, but upon her death has no one to express himself to; Darl remains the man of action throughout the novel and is punished by being exiled from the family; Jewel, like, Darl is a man of action and follows his heart – for this reason he was disliked by Darl as Addie’s favourite – yet he is separated from the family in that he is not of Anse’s blood-relation. Following the theme of disconnection in language through the use of words, Anse’s name, Bundren, reflects a consonance with the word “burden”. Similarly do names of the characters reverberate limitations of transcention from said titles; for instance the value of Jewel and Cash, representative of something dear to their mother, is reflected in their names. A name is a label that has the potential to restrict the development of that which the word represents. In this sense, the Bundrens are burdened by language, and their burden locks their label – “Burden” – to their being, destroying any means of escaping the word – the language.
About to leave class. Going to go home and proof more of it. So far, I can adivse to replace most of the double quotes as single quotes. Double quotes are reserved for quotes from a source. singles are for pointing out THIS specific item or idea, etc.
Later.[/i]
The realms of conceptualization and physical practice are two of immense dissonance; William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying exerts strong evidence in support of these opposing concepts {Which concepts?}. The story presents the events and perspectives of the emotionally and mentally detached Bundren family, in their quest to fulfill the final wish of their mother (and wife). A very prominent theme of the novel is the family’s previously mentioned air of detachment: the characters – the brothers, the sister, and the father – do not relate to one another, their thoughts and feelings are stifled, limited to theoretical expression (which, based on the extent of said expression, is restricted by the firm reliance on the ambiguity and false nature of language, and not of action) {Sure that you can't put this bit elsewhere? First list the ideas. Then explain them.}. In consideration of this pungent undertone in the novel, the proceeding evidence exposes that the Bundren family’s impedimentary air of disconnection is inflicted by their dependency on the emptiness of language.
The language by which the Bundrens are enslaved is a means of representing expression of thought and emotion, unfamiliar to the actual act of expression itself; it is simply the conceptualization of expression, rather than the physical practice, or action, thereof. Language is a means by which we express ourselves through emotions we are incapable of feeling, or do not understand – true emotions are felt and cannot be described. The mother, Addie, herself dictates this:
That was when I learned that words are no good; that words don’t ever fit even what they are trying to say at. When he was born I knew that motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn’t care whether there was a word for it or not. (Faulkner 171)
This is evident in the case of the Bundren family in that they are trapped in a world of language where they imagine and invent their feelings, yet have no experience in the reality of these matters. The words they speak tend to be empty of substance, and do not reflect the hearts of those who speak them. The family operates based on the cold, unrelenting commands of Anse, the father, who subsequently unquestioningly follows Addie’s dying wish. The family’s inexperience in, and resulting inability of, expression drives them deeper and deeper into the darkness of their prison of language. This is presented in the end of the novel when Anse’s first action, after they’ve finally laid Addie’s body to rest, is to procure a new wife, seemingly based on her possession of a gramophone. This focus on the gramophone strengthens the family’s destructive association with language, as represented as the talking machine – a voice without a body, language incapable of action. More-so than the new Mrs. Bundren, the gramophone replaces Addie for the family in a more fulfilling manner in that its society is more comprehensible and compatible than the mother and wife who strove to breaks her chains to language.
Addie was too familiar with the isolation and confinement of language before she even met Anse – her father supplanted the burden of language in her mind, defining her means of viewing and living life. Embodied by a single idea in the novel, he destroys all hope for a meaningful existence: “I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time” (Faulkner 169). Disconnection through language was born here and matured in the dependency on which Addie begot Anse in marriage. Contrastingly she shares a connection with her son Cash before her death; before Cash truly became a Bundren, in his absorption into language, he and Addie share an unspoken emotional bond only possible through the experience of true emotional expression. Anse, trapped in language – stagnation, regression –, never shared this bond of pure emotion and therefore fed the barrier between the two worlds of his language and her action:
He had a word too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn’t need a word for that […] Cash did not need to say it to me nor I to him, and I would say, Let Anse use it, if he wants to. So that it was Anse or love; love or Anse: it didn’t matter. (Faulkner 172)
The freedom of emotional expression is also presented in a similar unspoken bond between Darl and Dewey Dell:
It was then, and then I saw Darl and he knew. He said he knew without the words like he told me that ma is going to die without words, and I knew he knew because if he had said he knew with the words I would not have believed that he had been there and saw us. (Faulkner 27)
The language of words is prone to exaggeration and falsehoods, and easily conceals true intentions while propounding lies. Words are perverted by associations, connotations, and linguistic trends – does the word “awful” mean terrible or full of awe? Can one speak the word “snow” and not think “cold”? These emotionally pure moments of communion powerfully convey the truth of feelings alive in the hearts of the characters.
The family, save Anse, are all exposed to the Addie’s realm of physical practice and action at one point or another, but all fall prey to the emotional disconnection which dominates Anse’s prison of language: Vardaman and Dewey Dell experience both worlds, yet their innocence draws them to obey the impedimence of their father; Cash shares a bond with his mother, but upon her death has no one to express himself to; Darl remains the man of action throughout the novel and is punished by being exiled from the family; Jewel, like, Darl is a man of action and follows his heart – for this reason he was disliked by Darl as Addie’s favourite – yet he is separated from the family in that he is not of Anse’s blood-relation. Following the theme of disconnection in language through the use of words, Anse’s name, Bundren, reflects a consonance with the word “burden”. Similarly do names of the characters reverberate limitations of transcention from said titles; for instance the value of Jewel and Cash, representative of something dear to their mother, is reflected in their names. A name is a label that has the potential to restrict the development of that which the word represents. In this sense, the Bundrens are burdened by language, and their burden locks their label – “Burden” – to their being, destroying any means of escaping the word – the language.
About to leave class. Going to go home and proof more of it. So far, I can adivse to replace most of the double quotes as single quotes. Double quotes are reserved for quotes from a source. singles are for pointing out THIS specific item or idea, etc.
Later.[/i]
Mikhail Bukhonko
Aww. Fething, crap!
I wasted my free time in History class proofing something that was old... Stupid necroposters...
/cry. I could have been /randoming wikipedia during that time!
Oh well. At least I see how people SHOULD write. Meaning big words are good and simplicity sucks. Stupid forgotten SAT vocab...
Hmm...If you need anything proofed as long it isn't a story or badly written beyond the point of >_> bad, I don't mind an interesting read while helping. Or making an attempt to help.
I wasted my free time in History class proofing something that was old... Stupid necroposters...
/cry. I could have been /randoming wikipedia during that time!
Oh well. At least I see how people SHOULD write. Meaning big words are good and simplicity sucks. Stupid forgotten SAT vocab...
Hmm...If you need anything proofed as long it isn't a story or badly written beyond the point of >_> bad, I don't mind an interesting read while helping. Or making an attempt to help.
Mikhail Bukhonko