As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Book Analysis Essay Example

Throughout As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner effectively portrays the patriarchal nature of society through the nihilistic perspective of Addie Bundren and the lost voice of Dewey Dell. To convey the importance of different perspectives, Faulkner employs several different narration styles and gives each character a unique point of view. Despite his attempts to create distinct standpoints, the sexist notions of the time reduce the female narrators in this book and suggest that they are less meaningful than their male counterparts. This prompts a loss of autonomy for Dewey Dell and Addie, consequently compelling them to reject their former identities and conform to the male-dominated society. In rejecting their prior self-understandings, these female narrators must base their identity on external perspectives and ensure that their personalities align with society’s misogynist expectations. Thus, through this feminist lens, William Faulkner suggests that the female protagonists' loss of voice and tendency to alter their personality to fulfill societal pressures assert that external perspectives are the most accurate representations of oneself.

In this novel, William Faulkner affirms the human tendency to search for social acceptance by portraying Addie and Dewey Dell’s propensity to form their identity based on the opinion of others. Rather than independently defining oneself, he suggests that human insecurities evoke the need to conform to those around them, leading to an incomplete self-understanding. When interacting with Lafe, Dewey Dell claims that she “could not help it” when persuaded to have sex with him (Faulkner, 27). Because Lafe’s pursuits in this situation are purely animalistic, he inherently diminishes Dewey Dell to an item for his sexual pleasure. Once she realizes this, Dewey recognizes that she must conform to his desires and thus has no control in this circumstance because she is a woman. In allowing Lafe to dominate their interactions, she loses a sense of freedom and individualism, leaving her at the will of Lafe’s perspective. After being forced to conform to his desires, Dewey must change her self-understanding to accommodate Lafe's impulses. This adaptation to her surroundings leaves external perspectives as the only available defining characteristic for Dewey Dell. Similarly, once Addie becomes a mother, she must forfeit her identity to raise her children. After birthing Cash, Addie claims that her aloneness “was violated” and consequently lost any opportunity to understand herself in meaningful reflection (172). She intentionally chooses the word violated to imply that becoming a mother entails a disrespectful removal from a previous lifestyle that lacked responsibility. Now, Addie must serve the will of not only her husband but her children as well. When she enters this new role in society, she must conform to the people’s expectations of motherhood and adopt a personality compatible with her new title if she wants to be accepted.

Moreover, Faulkner presents Dewey Dell’s loss of personality from living in a male-dominated society and Addie’s existentialist view of the world to assert that external perspectives better depict the true version of oneself. In the last section she narrates, Dewey struggles to reason with Anse, who selfishly takes her money and talks at her without considering her opinion. However, rather than narrating as she did before, everything Dewey Dell says is depicted in quotation marks and is presented as dialogue. This stylistic decision suggests that Dewey can no longer narrate her own life and has subsequently lost the license to speak for herself. Now that she is pregnant, she, like Addie, must conform to the social expectations of motherhood and thus forfeits a sense of self-control. Accordingly, her surroundings and the needs of the people she interacts with will shape her reality, forcing her to form an opinion of herself based on external pressures. Similarly, Addie Bundren's negative outlook on her self-proclaimed purposeless life suggests that motherhood strips her of her personality. She claims that her ultimate goal in life is to “get ready to die;” however, she also mentions that she feels indebted to Anse and is obliged to rectify her infidelity before leaving the earth (176). It thus follows that Addie must serve Anse to compensate for her disloyalty if she wants to fulfill her ultimate goal of dying a peaceful death. By this logic, Addie’s purpose remains consumed by service to someone else rather than bound on a path towards forming an identity. Therefore this sexist society will perpetuate an environment where her self-perspective will always respond to Anse’s needs. Considering this, others' perspectives always provide a better representation of herself because Addie cannot independently define her character. Additionally, Addie maintains an incredibly nihilistic viewpoint on life. She claims that life “doesn’t matter” and that it has “no beginning or end” (173, 175) By maintaining this perspective, she has given up on any chance of reflection or a search for a purpose in her life. By rejecting a journey for meaning, she cannot form an identity and will rely on the perspective of others. 

From a stylistic standpoint, William Faulkner reaffirms the masculine hierarchy throughout this novel and suggests that outside perspectives are far more valued than self-understanding for women during this time. In As I Lay Dying, female narration appears significantly less than their male counterparts. Faulkner establishes this trend to indirectly suggest that other characters’ perspectives are more valuable than Addie's and Dewey Dell’s. By establishing an environment that delegitimizes the female voice, Faulkner affirms that individuals must rely on society to discern their personality. When considered through this female perspective, Faulkner purports that outside views of yourself are more true representations of your personality than self-understanding.