I am on my deathbed

Author: Faulkner
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: In Sanctuary, Faulkner portrayed the indifference of society, the barriers between people, and the ugliness of the human heart, depicting the pervasive existence of "evil." In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner wrote about a group of real-life "ugly Americans." As I Lay Dying is one of Faulkner's masterpieces and an important novel in the " Yoknapatawpha Cycle." It tells the story of the Bundren family in the Southern United States, who embark on a "difficult journey" to fulfill their promise to their wife and transport her body back to their hometown for burial. Over the course of ten days, their journey is fraught with disasters: the coffin nearly gets swept away by floodwaters, the mule pulling the cart drowns, and the body is almost cremated in a fire. As a result, the eldest son loses a leg, the second son goes mad, the third son loses his beloved horse, the daughter fails to have an abortion and is instead raped by a druggist's assistant, the youngest son doesn't get the small train he had hoped for, while the patriarch, Bundren, gets false teeth and marries a new wife. The novel is entirely composed of fifty-nine interior monologues by the Bundren family, their neighbors, and other relevant characters, narrating the story from multiple perspectives. It is another masterpiece of Faulkner's use of multiple-point-of-view narration and stream-of-consciousness technique.