One of the themes that we’ve discussed in relation to modernism, and which also comes up in connection with the American South, is nostalgia. Certainly, in the early 20th century, a mythology of the agrarian South as a peaceful, harmonious place destroyed by the Civil War (as in, for instance, Gone With The Wind) offers a counterpoint to the alienation and confusion of modernity. It’s hard to see As I Lay Dying, however, as very nostalgic for the way of life that the Bundrens have experienced. While they embody the Northern stereotypes of “backward” Southerners, they also “belong” to the modern world in many ways, in their selfishness and materialism, for instance. The paradox here is that Darl the most “cosmopolitan” (in his own limited way) is the one who doesn’t belong to their future. As Cash says at the end of the novel, “This world is not his world” (1955). What is Faulkner saying about “this world” and where it’s going?
April 10, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I believe that Faulkner is illustrating that “this world” is a perpetual motion machine, and we are simply welcome to take a short ride on it. The world and the behavior of the people that inhabit it are constantly adapting to new, more modern ideas and beliefs, and those that are out of the loop (as is the case in As I Lay Dying) can fall off track of what is going on in the world by simply isolating themselves from modern society. I believe that Darl is the most “sophisticated” of the family because he actually got out and saw parts of the world, not just going as far as the nearest town. Therefore. he was able to somewhat adapt his lifestyle to the changing ways of society. Also, I believe this is why the rest of the family believes he is insane because he is living a modernist life in an isolated setting.
April 10, 2008 at 3:58 pm
I believe that Faulkner is trying to say that new technology and the rise of industry is moving too fast for society. People have been using farming and animal husbandry as a way of life for thousands of years. Modern industrialization started in Europe in the early 1800’s and we had planes by early 1900. The people have not caught up with technology and are lost in a world that they don’t understand. Also, I agree with Nelson in that Darl is the only one who has seen another part of the world and he got to see the mechanized slaughter of WWI. These backward southerners all want something of the new world, but can’t even make it in the old world.
April 10, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I think “this world” and “his world” relate to the insanity of Darl. His perception of reality, or ignorance of reality causes him to behave in an antisocial manner. It also relates to modernity. If one believes selfishness is a modern attribute, then Darl, who is not as selfish as the rest of the family, is not so much in “this world.”
April 10, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I believe that “this world” is not only not “his world” it isn’t anybody’s world. As I Lay Dying points out that life is fleeting and noone is as whole or as permanent as they might think. People are born and die with very little impact on anything. The idea of owning or possessing anything is arbitrary after death. Even in life, possessions do not hold much meaning in the grand scheme of things. The world belongs to no one, for the world remains, while people are temporary.
April 10, 2008 at 10:47 pm
Considering the format of this work, I wonder whether Faulkner is trying to relay the message that the world and its future are up to the interpretations of each person. And, as people (such as Darl) begin to question the future and all of the previous holdings of the past, they begin to lose sight of the world that they are living in as they get caught up in the mystery of existence. Everyone else seems to be content caught up in the chaos of the their own lives, not asking any questions of the world. Ultimately, I believe that Faulkner presents Darl as what he hopes for the future: people who question things, looking out for what’s to come, although they may be isolated from the society (and called crazy) for it.
April 11, 2008 at 11:15 am
It seems that Faulkner is questioning existence. How is human existence defined in the face of death? How is human existence defined in the face of an increasingly changing world? Darl questions this when he discusses how his mother is dead and therefore no longer exists. Darl reasons that if his mother does not exist then neither can he. This questioning displays a struggle, especially in an agrarian community in the South, between the old and new and how human existence fits into an ever changing world. Darl does not belong in their “world” which does not want to change. It seems that even people are replaced, such as Addie, in the Bundren’s world in order to prevent change and suppress the question which death inevitably creates: what does it mean to exist? The Bundrens are caught between two worlds and refuse to question where they belong.
April 11, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I think what Faulkner is trying to say is that “this world” is not a part of Darl’s life anymore. Darl is not a part of “this world” in his mind. The book does not describe his experiences in the war, but they must have changed him dramatically. He does not conform to society, and you feel as the reader that he is not in touch with reality. Darl always uses a different kind of language in his dialauge. What I think Faulkner is trying to say about the world is that it is becoming industrialized, and people like the Bundren’s are falling behind. The world is overtaken, you could say, by the new technology. The Bundren’s have been in their own little world in the countryside, but when they go into town its like a whole new world. The world is moving to fast, and many people are trying their best to keep up. The Bundren family is trailing everyone else because they live in the country. I think what Faulkner is really trying to say is that the new world is becoming more complex, and it is not a simple life anymore.
April 11, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I think that Darl does not belong to the family’s future because Darl’s “future” and the rest of the family’s “future” are two completely different things/ideas. It seems to me that Darl has already begun to embrace the future as it was known to the world outside his family. He has been places, seen things, and done things that some of his familiy members could probably not even begin to image. It’s almost like the family’s “future” is Darl’s past in such a sense the he has already surpassed them in such a great ‘amount’, so to say. The rest of the family is so stuck in the old ways and is only beginning to see what the future has to offer. Darl has already seen and experienced this future and is ready to move forth even further, which in turn would leave his family even further behind.
April 12, 2008 at 8:40 am
Each person in this story has their own reality, their own place, or the own future. They have each have their own direction. I can’t help but wonder what Vardamon’s future holds. As the youngest and the most confused I wonder what his life will be like. First, he thinks his mother is a fish because he can’t handle the reality of his mother’s death. Then, he sees his brother go crazy. At the end of the story he is introduced to the new Mrs. Bundren. And all he wants is a toy train, but somehow bananas are supposed to be a good replacement. This is one strange family, and it would be interesting to see how the family adapts to the new Mrs. Bundren and what that future will hold.
April 12, 2008 at 1:34 pm
It’s not so much a story about the world as it is about the ties between people, how they grow and change, and the effects of those around them, as well as the misdirection their own thinking causes. The selfishness inherent in the family is an inherited selfishness, resulting from their father, who takes what he wants and uses it for his own selfish needs. You can see this clearly in the times he takes money from them, leaving little excuses in its wake, and in the way Jewel jealously guards his horse, as something that is his and his alone. But from their mother, with whom the only way she knew to teach someone anything was to beat it into them (as described with her handling of the schoolchildren), all his expression of caring towards the horse comes in the form of dominance and pain, beating it and choking it while caressing it at the same time. But their mother never saw this in herself, instead looking at her faults as those she was raised to believe to be wrong. She understands the folly of language inherent in most of the book, how people use it to misdirect intention and reality (calling it good luck that Cash broke his leg, or Anse spewing excuses about his daughter’s money while she lies about it in a desperate attempt to protect it from him without revealing to him the truth of why it’s there), but the irony is that though she understands this, her values are still as skewed. she just sees her skewed reasons for what they are a little more clearly than the others. Still, she is so absorbed into her own meaning of things that she has been ignorant of the actual effects she’s had on the family. So more than anything, I’d say the story is about selfishness and lies, and how deep they run. But of course that would hardly be a complete answer, as there is more to As I lay Dying than just that. Whatever the case, Faulkner knows how to write a good story emphasizing the interactions between people, their own thought processes, and the one-sidedness inherent in each person’s own perspective.
April 12, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Personally, I think that he is pointing out how Darl’s world is different from most everyone else’s world in that he sees the world in a cubist manner. This means that Darl takes the familiar world and breaks it down into smaller parts then puts it back together to make his own sense of it. Ultimately, what this really means is that Darl is crazy compared to the rest of his family and most everyone else in the world. So, he needs to be taken to an insane asylum so that he cannot do anymore crazy business, such as starting that fire. If he could move to a cubist world, Darl would fit right in, however as far as we know- that’s impossible.
April 13, 2008 at 4:59 pm
This “new world” that is not Darl’s world, is, in my opinion, hopeless and pointless. Faulkner’s opinion of the future is very bleak, and I don’t think he believes that the future is going to offer anything new at all, even though all of this technology is coming. People will always be greedy and at least partially narcissistic, and that is the modern world. They think only of themselves, and are centered on materials. Darl has fought in a war, and he has seen, in all liklihood, the horrors of human beings more than any other character in the story. He has moved beyond materialism, and understands the reality of life more than any other character in the story, which eventually leads to his insanity. This world is progressing to a world that is bent on materialism, and Darl simply doesn’t care much about materials. That is why this world is not his world.
April 14, 2008 at 1:18 pm
I think it has to do with those pictures you showed us of the south and we figured the pictures were old even though they weren’t. It’s kind of like the saying there is nothing new under the sun. Darl may represent a new way of looking at the world, or at least a different way compared to his family, but in the end his difference isn’t going to stand up to their endless sameness. Innovation seems impossible in the face of a tradition of ignorance. Darl could change things for his family but they don’t even realize things need to change.
I don’t think we look at this novel with a kind of dreamy nostalgia. We look at it and see what was and hope that we have come beyond that. The problem is the way the story is set up we kind of feel that getting beyond that was impossible and so our belief that we have might be wrong.
April 14, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I think Faulkner’s “this world” is talking of the modernistic and individualistic world that is constantly being updated. It can never be any certain person’s world because it is always changing. Even though Darl is the most metropolitan of all of the Bundren Family, it still can’t be his world because each person is an individual. Once Darl makes it his world, some other person will do something greater and better and think more genius thoughts and therefore adopt it as their world. It is impossible, especially in this novel, to characterize whose world it really is because everyone has a different view point and vantage point, and each individual person has the abilities to express their own honest (or in some cases not-so-honest) opinion about that particular view of any inparticular situation. There are many, so to speak, “gray” areas both in the “this world” of Faulkner and in the real world.
April 14, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I feel that Faulkner is sending a similiar message as Pound did when he called general society a “mass of dolts.” He seems to be saying that we think the people that are really intelligent are crazy because we are all too dense to see how brilliant they really are. All society cares about is material things. Soon, all of us will be like the Bundrens, caring only about our own personal needs, and not everyone’s collective needs. The modern society will make us forget about other people and focus on our goals alone.
April 15, 2008 at 12:01 am
I think Faulkner was trying to say something to the effect that we are all mortal, and we will all die. After we die life will go on. The way we live our lives will decide how future generations will exist. This concept can also make you question your identity and role in society… Who you are and where you belong. Vardaman becomes confused after his mothers death, and perhaps it is because this has made him question his own identity, maybe he didn’t get the love and attention that he needed. Every character has their own motives, but they don’t share them… Traditionally, when a family dies, this pulls the remaining family members closer together so that they may reflect on their lives, and find strength/comfort in one another.
April 16, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I think Faulkner is showing that the world is becoming a fast passed society with a lack of morality. All of the Bundrens that have themselves at the center of their world are allowed to stay in it. As long as they striving to be at the top of this world by striving for materialistic possesions, they will left to continue to in their struggle. It seems to me that Faulkner is trying to tell us that the more materialistic and uncaring for others you are that in this world you will get ahead. Such as Anse who is the character that embodies this personality the most and in the end he is the one who ends up “happy” and has gianed more than he had before. As for Darl who does not embody these characteristics he loses the most and is basically told that he is not good enough to live in this world with the rest. I think that Faulkner is showing a world that is very much a part of our own, but one that we should fight against.
April 17, 2008 at 1:01 pm
“This world” is the world that Darl’s family lives in. Darl is obviously more educated and more well versed in society than his family. Cash and the rest of the family are still fairly primitive for the times and they don’t mind leaving it that way. Darl, however, needs to go out in “his world” to make a difference with his knowledge. He needs to leave the nest and better himself and the world but he is too modest to realize it.
April 17, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I really did not know what to think of this story when I first read it. The character Darl seemed out of place within the family. He was more educated than the rest and it set him off in his own world. He acted like an outsider to the family and portrayed many of the same feelings I had while viewing this family from the outside. One being how weird everyone acted and how self involved they all seemed. Faulkner makes it clear that Darl is sort of the odd one out and everyone thinks he’s crazy for it. Which is how things are in our society today. It’s pretty much everyone for themselves and if you stick out from the norm then you’re considered crazy or weird.
April 17, 2008 at 10:41 pm
I think that Darl being more accultured than his family is kind of a double edged sword. He is kind of at a cross roads of not really belonging to any society. His speech, as well as his thoughts seem to be beyond his family’s capacity, yet he can’t seem to make the big push to go out into the world and move away. He almost seemed “scarred” by his experience in the war, therefore he might have this skewed sense of what “normal” society is. His upbringing seems to be that of humbleness and necessity, but what he needs and what he wants can not be acheived by Darl staying where he is, with his family.
April 18, 2008 at 10:32 am
I think that when Faulkner refers to “this world,” he is refering to a world that is constantly changing in a number of ways. Not only in terms of technological advances, but in terms of political and social changes. Some people struggle to adapt to changes occurring around them. They feel as though the changes may only be temporary, or that the ways they are accustomed to are better suited for them. I think this is an accurate description of the characters in “As I Lay Dying.” They fear the changes occurring around them, and becasue of this some of the characters cannot adapt.
April 21, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Faulkner is refering to “this world” as not only a world that is constantly evolving in terms of technology and politics and so on, but as a world that is changing in terms of the way people carry on amongst others. As evident by this story, the Bundrens each have their own agenda as they go on their journey to bury their mother. None, except for possibly Darl, are concerned with the actual burial and what she would have wanted. Deceit and lies mark a large chunck of this story. Going back and reading through my notes, this story reminds me of a movie that I recently watched called “Into the Wild.” It is a story of a recent college graduate who seeks out to find his truth after his whole life that he had known turned out to be a story built on lies. He leaves his family, friends, and donates his life savings to set out as a wanderer and discover his truth. It was ironic because throughout the movie, he reads Jack London’s novels and keeps stating that London is an amazing writer. London’s novels tie into “As I Lay Dying” and incorporate naturalism. Naturalism is evident throughout this story as the flooding of river delays plans, Cash’s foot being crushed, and even the concept of death itself and them toting around Addie’s rotting body. In the end of “Into the Wild,” the character succumbs to naturalism in order to find out his truth after his “life had been emptied of meaning.”
April 22, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I believe that Faulkner is trying to say that “this world” is constantly changing, outgrowing and evolving for the citizens to keep up with the changes. The “backward” family of the Bundrens represents many people who cling to the past and try to resist the changes that are to come. It even seems they do so with Addies body, refusing to bury her right away until they reach her place she requested to be buried. I think it is clear that Faulkner was making a point that the world is changing and there is not going to be a place for the past since it is constantly evolving.
April 26, 2008 at 5:30 pm
It seems as thought Faulkner is insinuating that “this world” is moving to a more materialistic and advancing state of mind. Darl is living in the past with a more primitive mindset. He believes in sticking to ritual, something that his family has evolved out of with the rest of society. Also, Faulkner seems to express how the world is ever changing in its trends, attitudes, and culture. You can see in the novel that the Bundren’s attitudes toward Addie’s traditional burial originated from selfish needs, much different from past burial ceremonies which originate from genuine respect for ritual. I think Faulkner is trying to show his audience how the cultures change within a short period of time and also how fast the modern world is developing. Overall, Faulkner conveys to his audience that the modern world is an evolving place that doesn’ leave room for those people unreceptive to its changes.
April 28, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I agree with Steve Nelson right off the bat. Darl was the only one who went out and experienced life and what else was out there. He was very different from his family and definitely did not fit into “their world.” His family isolated him and even committed him into an insane asylum just because he was different than the rest of them and the society they lived in. He was not different in the sense of being insane, just different from their way of living. I found this very interesting that Darl was the one isolated for being different when it was actually Jewel who had a different father and was kept as part of the family. I also agree with everyone else that Faulkner is insinuating that the world is changing so much because of new technology and finding room for the past is nearly impossible. It is strange to think that my own parents grew up so different from myself and to learn much from ho they grew up is very difficult because of how different it is now…….
April 29, 2008 at 10:20 pm
In a way, it is great that Darl is cultured the way that he is, but the fact that it is so much more than his own family ends up hurting him in the end. Since their worlds were so different, he was always sort of the “outcast” of the family, which no child should have to be, no matter how much more cultured or uncultured they are than their family. Like Amelia said, you would think Jewel would be considered the odd ball out because of his different father, but it ends up being Darl. It almost seems like life punished him for going out an seeing the world.
April 30, 2008 at 5:17 pm
“This world is not his own.” I think it’s a very open statement and has many meanings. Given the time period, it probably does deal with the greed and materialism that comes with growth of industry. Thus, the growth represents “the world” and it’s ever changing ways. Darl, perhaps, no longer plans to grow. He does not plan to move mentally on from the point he is at, and has left “the world” only to be trapped in “his world” and it’s thoughts.
Of course, Darl’s definition of “the world” might me his interaction with his family. His family was “the world” and he is no longer part of it. He is leaving that world behind, even if he leaves it in a state of madness.
May 1, 2008 at 11:37 pm
The Bundrens do portray “backward” Southerns throughout the entire novel. They seem like they are isolated and that a world does not exist outside of their home. I believe the way the story is divided into chapters of different accounts from the characters show that they are very individualistic. Besides being individualistic, the Bundrens appear to be a very selfish family, who only care about their own individual needs. All of them have their own motive throughout the novel. Because of this, they are unwilling to venture out into the world and experience what life has to offer.
May 2, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Darl’s education absolutely makes him an outcast within his family structure. I enjoy the aspects used to indicate that he is of a higher intelligence than the others in his family. Mentioning cubism is something that people could easily read past and not even really factor into the character of Darl. I also believe that the Bundrens are displayed as SO backward is the fact that they just went through a lifechanging experience with the death of the mother of the family. Losing a family member is difficult and having to make a journey with the coffin adds to the fact that there is a reminder that they are quite literally dragging along. They seem out of wits when put into a foreign situation, and the disatachment within the family doesn’t allow them to bond together and conquer an obstacle put before them. I was also really disappointed with the ending. I don’t want them to have a new mother! After making such a long journey to deliver the dead, now they’re coming home with a new mommy. God!
May 2, 2008 at 3:25 pm
We all think that because Darl is unusual that he doesn’t belong. He has witnessed more than the other members of his family and he has different feelings about life and the world. Just because he isn’t obsessed with the material goods doesn’t mean he doesn’t belong. He seems to want more out of life than just a house and possessions. He tries to find meaning in the only ways he knows how. And because what he does is different from the rest of his family he is criticized and ostracized.
May 2, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I think Faulkner was saying that the world that was changing as he was writing the story, is not the one he was accustomed to. We saw Darl as “normal” because he was the character we could relate the most to. Faulkner I think created the other characters to represent the changing worlds focus on material things. I think possibly Darl was Faulkner’s voice throughout the story. Darl leaving the family symbolizes his inability to conform to the rest of the family’s beliefs and thoughts, much like present today.
May 2, 2008 at 9:28 pm
I think what Faulkner meant by “this world is not his world” was something to the effect that Darl had slipped away from being able to function in the world that the rest of them worked and lived in. Although things were going to change for them, things had already changed for Darl, and he could not adapt.
May 3, 2008 at 3:13 am
I believe that the point that Faulkner is trying to make is that society is moving much to fast in the way of technology. I think he shows this my by the Burden family ignoring and forgetting their own mother and focusing on materialistic items for their on self gratification. These modern items really do not help the Burden family whatsoever with their plight and only allows them to ignore the problem at hand. It is sad to see the only one in this novel that understands what is happening and how it is to be shipped away to a mental institution. It is also very unfortunate and sad to see how fast the Burden family deal with the loss of their own mother and how her burial is the last and final thing on their agenda. Faulkner seems to give us an eerie warning about the technology and how it should be used correctly for the benefit of society and not for our own selfish reasons.