Diction and Importance of Words and Repetition in As I Lay Dying

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Diction and Importance of Words and Repetition
in As I Lay Dying

• By Amanda Jones

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Background

• We often dont use words to express our thoughts.
  However, Faulkner disembodies the language of the
  characters in order to depict their thoughts and
  emotions in terms that the reader can detect.
• Because the stream-of-consciousness exhibited by
  the characters may not reveal their clear thought
  processes, it seems as though Faulkner inserts
  his own words. The narration is often much more
  complex and coherent than the characters speech.
• One moment a character will be speaking
  colloquially and the next theres intricate
  imagery and poetic rhythms.
• Diction Review Formal diction consists of a
  dignified, impersonal, and elevated use of
  language it follows the rules of syntax exactly
  and is often characterized by complex words and
  lofty tone. Informal diction represents the plain
  language of everyday use (slang and simple,
  common words). Poetic diction refers to the way
  poets sometimes employ an elevated diction that
  deviates significantly from the common speech and
  writing of their time.

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Vardaman

• Most limited form of expression (language hasnt
  fully developed)
• Hes either a young child incapable of
  understanding death or a mentally slow teenager.
• (when in the stall with the horse) In contrast to
  his immature language, he describes the horse and
  his surroundings It is as though the dark were
  resolving him out of his integrity, into an
  unrelated scattering of components--snuffings and
  stampings smells of cooling flesh and ammoniac
  hair an illusion of a coordinated
  whole...whithin which,...an is different from my
  is.
• Childish diction (pg.53) Then I begin to
  runThen I begin to cryIt is cut up into pieces
  of not-fish now, not-blood on my hands and
  overallsIf I jump off the porch I will be where
  the fish was, and it all cut up into not-fish
  now. (pg.54) When he walks on it that came and
  did it.That came and did it when she was alright
  but he came and did it. Then I can breathe
  againThen I can cry, Then I vomit the cryingI
  can cry, the crying canVomiting the cryingthen
  I can breathe, vomiting it. I cannot find
  itthen I find it (pg.215) It is not about pa
  and it is not about Cash and

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Vardaman (cont.)

• Some of his passages are really confusing. For
  example, (pg.66) Pa says flour and sugar and
  coffee costs so much. Because I am a country boy
  because boys in town. Bicycles. Why do flour and
  sugar and coffee cost so much when he is a
  country boy.God made me. I did not said to God
  to made me in the country. If He can make the
  train, why cant He make them all in the town
  because clour and sugar and coffee (pg.66) And
  so if Cash nails the box up, she is not a rabbit.
  And so if she is not a rabbit I couldnt breathe
  in the crib and Cash is going to nail it upCash
  is going to nail it up. (pg.67) Then it wasnt
  and she was, and now it is and she wasntit will
  be and then it will not be. (pg.84) My mother
  is a fish. (pg.101) But my mother is a fish.
  (pg.150-51) Vardaman you vardaman you vardamanI
  hollering catch her darl catch her darl because
  in the water she could go faster than a man
  (pg.195) But my mother is a fishIs it because
  Jewels mother is a horse, Darl?I had to keep on
  running the buzzard away from (pg.196) Jewels
  mother is a horse. My mother is a fish. (pg.251)
  My brother is Darlhe went crazy in our wagon.
  DarlDarl is my brother. My brother Darl
• The phrase tall in little tall black circles is
  repeated
• He refers to his mother being a fish because just
  as the fish is transformed to a
  different state by death, so is Addie.

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Darl

• Most eloquent diction and relied-upon voice
• When a characters thoughts involve abstract
  nature, Faulkner uses language that reveals the
  thought to the reader. (pg.5) When Darl hears the
  axe striking the wood, his thoughts arent
  described as He could hear the axe striking the
  wood. Instead, Faulkner uses onomatopoeia that
  we can interpret as sound. I go on to the house
  followed by the Chuck. Chuck. Chuck. of the
  adze.
• An example of Darls poetic language is (pg.51)
  She looks down at the face. It is like a casting
  of fading bronze upon the pillow, the hands alone
  still with any semblance of life a curled,
  gnarled inertness a spent yet alert quality from
  which weariness, exhaustion, travial has not yet
  departedguarding with horned and penurious
  alertness the cessation which they know cannot
  last. (pg.50) He is looking down at her
  peaceful, rigid face fading into the dusk as
  though darkness were a precursor of the ultimate
  earthlightly as the reflection of a dead leaf.
• Philosophical diction (pg.49) Overhead the day
  drives level and gray, hiding the sun by a flight
  of gray spears. In the rain the mules smoke a
  little, splashed yellow with mud, the off one
  clinging in sliding lunges to the side of the
  road above the ditch. The tilted lumber gleams
  dull yellowdown the hill dissolving into a
  streaming mass of dark green neither earth nor
  sky.

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Darl (cont.)

• Darls complexity is illustrated when hes
  debating that he knows that when he is conscious
  he exists, therefore when he sleeps and is
  unconscious he does not exist and never has.
  (very confusing!)
• In a strange room you must empty yourself for
  sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep,
  what are you. And when you are emptied for
  sleep, you are not. And when you are filled with
  sleep, you never were. I don't know what I am. I
  don't know if I am or not. Jewel knows he is,
  because he does not know that he does not know
  whether he is or not. He cannot empty himself
  for sleep because he is not what he is and he is
  what he is not.
• This passage is totally different from his
  colloquial speech. It demonstrates just how
  intellectual he is and how intricately his
  thought process works. Compare it to when hes
  talking to cash I reckon I'll stay. Might take
  both of us.
• Poetic Diction (pg.75) Upon the dark ground the
  chips look like random smears of soft pale paint
  on a black canvas.The boards look like long
  smooth tatters torn from the flat darkness and
  turned backside out.
• (pg.215) He tells Vardaman that Addie wants to
  hide away from the sight of man so that she can
  lay down her life

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Vernon Tull

• Metaphors cant always be used to express a
  characters complete thought. (pg.88) When Tull
  is trying to describe a shape which has no
  pre-defined name, he says Cash made it
  clockshape but the narration continues like
  this (clock shape picture)
• Colloquial diction (pg.30) He is carrying a
  fish nigh long as he isDurn nigh long as he is.
  (insinuating that Vardaman is small) (pg.33) I
  done holp him so much alrday I cant quit now.
  Its fixing to rain, sho. (pg.68) It was night
  to midnightbefore he can get the shock fed and
  himself to the house and supper et and in bed
  (pg.69) So when Cora waked me it had set in to
  rain. (pg.70-71) Now and then a fellow gets to
  thinking. (repeated) hes durn nigh hopeless.
  they was in the kitchen. (pg.72) It was long
  a-past midnight (pg.73) It was nigh toward
  daybreak it aint right. I reckon if theres
  ere a man (pg.124) It was nigh up to the
  levee
• He explains whats wrong with Darl (pg.71) He
  just thinks by himself too much.

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Anse

• Appears to be least intelligent and somewhat
  manipulative
• Colloquial diction (pg.35) Durn that road.
  durn them boys. A-laying there (pg.36) I
  says (repeated) (pg.37) well and hale as ere
  a woman ever were (repeated) (pg.38) But I
  just cant seem to get no heart into anything.
  (repeated) (pg.111) But now I can get them
  teeth. I be durn if He dont take some curious
  ways to show it, seems like.

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Dewey Dell

• Has subconscious thoughts and the change in her
  speech is clearly illustrated when shes
  considering the meaning of the phrase the womb
  of time. That's what they mean by the womb of
  time the agony and the despair of spreading
  bones, the harsh girdle in which lie the outraged
  entrails of events.
• (pg.27) Emphasizes how shes become obsessed with
  her pregnancy Because I said will I or wont I
  when the sack was half fullI said if it dont
  mean for me to do it the sack will not be full
  and I will turn up the next row but if the sack
  is full, I cannot help it I cannot help it.
  I could not help itI could not help it.
• (pg.27) Enhances the idea that words are
  unnecessary He said he knew without the words
  like he told me that ma is going to die without
  wordsif he had said he knew with words I would
  not have believedwithout the words I said it and
  he said Why? without the words. (pg.58)
  inside a tub full of guts, so that you wonder
  how there can be any room in it for anything else
  very important. He is a big tub of guts and I am
  a little tub of gutsnot any room for anything
  else important in a big tub of guts (pg.60) He
  is his guts and I am my guts. And I am Lafes
  guts.

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Dewey Dell (cont.)

• (pg.63) The dead air shapes the dead earth in
  the dead darkness, further away than seeing
  shapes the dead earthI feel like a wet seed wild
  in the hot blind earth.
• (pg.120) I wish I had time to let her die. I
  wish I had time to wish I had. It is because in
  the wild and outraged earth too soon too soon too
  soonit is too soon too soon too soon.
• (pg.121) Hell do as I say. (repeated)
• (pg.122) I believe in God, God. God, I believe
  in God.

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Addie

• Narrates one chapter
• Because she doesnt feel things that other people
  do, she questions her own existence. She explains
  how she whips the schoolchildren in order to feel
  their pain and give herself a sense of existence.
  "When the switch fell I could feel it upon my
  flesh when it welted and ridged it was my blood
  that ran, and I would think with each blow of the
  switch Now you are aware of me! (pg.169) She
  also explains how after school was out shed go
  down the hill to the spring where she could be
  quiet and hate them. (them referring to the
  children with little dirty sniffling noses)
• Throughout her chapter she continually refers to
  what her father used to say, the reason for
  living was to get ready to stay dead a long
  time. (pg.170) Her misery is revealed as she
  says, I would look forward to the times when
  they faulted, so I could whip them. (referring
  again to the children) (pg.171) She also reveals
  that after she knew she had Cash, she knew
  that living was terrible

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Addie (cont.)

• She repeats the sentence And so I took Anse.
• Expresses that she wants to escape a sense of
  not-being. She also describes her opinion on
  words. (pg.171) I learned that words are no
  good that words dont ever fit even what they
  are trying to say atI knew that motherhood was
  invented by someone who had to have a word for it
  because the ones that had the children didnt
  care whether there was a word for it or not.
  Again referring to whipping, she says that her
  words were meaningless and so it was
  (pg.172)only through the blows of the switch
  could her blood and their blood flow as one
  stream.
• In a stream of consciousness she asks,(pg.173)
  Anse. Why Anse. Why are you Anse.
• She creates the word unvirgin
• She realizes that there is no virtue attached to
  the repetition of a word in any ritual, such as
  marriage, motherhood, love, or prayer.

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Cash

• Consistently stable and very structured diction
  (pgs.82-83)
• (pg.96) It wont balanceIm telling you it wont
  tote and it wont ride on a balanceit wont
  balance (he keeps his cool even though Jewel is
  cursing ant becoming impatient)
• Colloquial diction (pg.232) It wasnt nothing
  else to dobecause he knowed some way that Darl
  set fire to it. (pg.233) if He did take her
  outen our hands and get shut of her in some clean
  way, and it seemed to me that when Jewel worked
  so to get her outen the river But I dont
  reckon nothing excuses setting fire to a mans
  barn (pg.235) It was one of them graphophones.
  It was natural as a music-band. (pg.236) It was
  like he knowedSo he stopped there like he
  knowed Its a comfortable thing, music is.
  (he remains so calm and unruffled) It was just
  like he knowed
• (pg.240) When Peabody asks him if his leg hurts
  he says, Not to speak of.
• (pg.259) When talking about the music, I reckon
  its a good thing we aint got ere a one of them.
  I reckon I wouldnt never get no work done a-tall
  for listening to it.
• (pg.261) He explains why its better that Darl
  doesnt enjoy the music. This world is not his
  world this life his life.

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Jewel

• Constantly curses (says godam a lot)
• (pg.14) hammering and sawing on that godam
  box (pg.15) and that godam adze going. God
  what the hel is He for. and not that godam
  adze going (pg.228) Who the hell cant dig a
  dam hole in the ground? (pg.229) Son of a
  biches. (pg.162) Hel. (pg.146) You go to
  helGodam you. (pg.145) Then go back to the
  godam bridge and walk across. Watch it,
  hel.
• Based on Darls word, the constant reference to
  the horse symbolizes Jewels love for his mother.
  
• Based on Jewels word, the reference to the horse
  symbolizes his freedom from the Bundren family.

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Cora

• (pg.6) Repeats The cakes turned out right well.
  and It isnt like the cakes cost me anything.
• (pg.7) Doesnt fit in with the passage I
  thought that I could bake them and earn enough at
  one time to increase the net value of the flock
  the equivalent of two head.
• (pg.8) Reveals her strong religious faith The
  lord can see into the heart. If it is His will
  that some folks has different ideas of honesty
  from other folks, it is not my place to question
  His decree.
• Differentiates Darl from the others (pg.21) I
  always said Darl was differenthad his mothers
  nature (pg.24) Except DarlNot JewelIt was
  DarlIt was Darl. (pg.25) his heart too full
  for words.
• Holier-than-though persona (pg.168) I prayed
  for her. I prayed for that poor blind woman as I
  had never prayed for me and mine. (pg.153) Tull
  describes her as working at the washtub, with
  that singing look in her face like she had done
  give up folks and all their foolishness and had
  done went on ahead of them marching up the sky,
  singing.

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Peabody

• (pg.46) When describing women and what is meant
  by the love that passeth understanding he says,
  that pride, that furious desire to hide that
  abject nakedness we bring here with us, carry
  with us into operating rooms, carry stubbornly
  and furiously with us into the earth again.
• (pg.240) Displays his disdain towards Anse when
  hes talking to Cash about his hurt leg Dont
  tell me. And dont tell me it aint going to bother
  you to lose sixty-odd square inches of skin to
  get that concrete off. And dont tell me it ant
  going to bother you to have to limp around on one
  short let for the balance of your life He also
  says that its too bad they didnt burry Anse
  along with Addie. (very condescending!)

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Whitfield

• (pg.178) When hes going to confess to Anse about
  the affair with Addie, he prays to God let me
  not perish before I have begged the
  forgivenessLet me not be too late let not that
  tale of mine and her transgression come from her
  lips instead of minelet me not have also the sin
  of her broken vow upon my soul. Let not the
  waters of Thy Mighty Wrath encompass me until I
  have cleansed my soul
• Lofty diction (pg.177) and I emerged
  victorious. I woke to the enormity of my sin I
  saw the true light at last, and I fell on my
  knees and confessed to God and asked His guidance
  and received it. (pg.179) I entered the house
  of bereavement, the lowly dwelling where another
  erring mortal lay while her soul faced the awful
  and irrevocable judgment, peace to her ashes.

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Samson

• Colloquial diction (pg.113) Taking a holiday
  since he got his wife buried, I reckon. (putting
  down Anse) I dont believe theres ere a bridge
  between here and Mouth of Ishatawa. He says I
  says a lot. (pg.116) And if I had my rathers,
  you wouldnt be here a-tall (putting down Anse
  once again)
• (pg.114) Repetitive a man that hates moving,
  to get set on moving once he does get started
  offset on staying stillhates so much as the
  starting and the stoppingthe moving or the
  setting still look hardblinking, listening to
  us (pg.118) I couldnt decide even then
  whether I could or not, or if it wasnt just
  knowing it was what it was.

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Armstid

• Colloquial diction (pg.184) But time I give him
  another sup of whisky and supper was about
  ready. (pg.185) a man aint so different from a
  horse or a mule, come long come short, except a
  mule or a horse has got a little more sense.
  (pg.187) He just looked at me whit his jaws
  going bone-white and them bone-white eyes of
  hisn, then he went and begun to call Darl.
  (pg.190-91) I be durnI be durnI be durn
  (pg.192) Because be durn if there aint something
  about a durn fellow like Anse that seems to make
  a man have to help him (pg.193) thatll be
  the last theyll ever see of him now, sho
  enoughI be durn if Anse dont conjure a man,
  some way. I be durn if he aint a sight.

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Moseley

• Examples of strict diction (pg.201) And Id
  advise you to buy that and go back home and tell
  your pa, if you have one, and let him make
  somebody buy you a wedding license. of did he
  act enough of a man to give you the money.
  (pg.202) You take my advice and go home and tell
  your pa or your brothers And I just wish your
  precious Lafe had come for it himselfIm a good
  mind to tell your folks myself Ill prosecute
  him to the full extent of the law (pg.203) The
  Lord gave you what you havelet Him take it away
  from you if its His willtake that ten dollars
  and get married with it.
• Refers to people who live in the country as
  they (pg.198) Talking about Dewey Dell as she
  walks in to ask for his assistance in getting rid
  of her baby She kind of bumbled at the screen
  door a minute, like they do, and came in.
  (pg.199) But you have to let them take their
  time. (pg.200) Its a shame, the way they
  poison themselves with it. (pg.201) But then,
  in the eyes of all of them look like they had no
  age and knew everything in the world, anyhow.
  theyll buy it from somebody. (pg.202) But
  its a hard life they have (pg.203) they
  wouldnt ever have any reason to be good and
  die.

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MacGowan

• Refers to Dewey Dell as one of them (pg.242)
  She looked pretty good. One of them black eyed
  ones that look like shed as soon put a knife in
  you as not if you tow-timed her.
• Refers to the time constantly (pg.242) it was
  dinner time. (pg.243) The clock said twenty
  past twelve. (pg.244) The clock says
  twenty-five to one. (pg.245) The clock said
  fifteen to one. (pg.246) The clock said four to
  one.

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Final Notes

• The characters tend to protect their inner
  thoughts. When speaking to each other, their
  conversations are terse and meaningless. However,
  they reveal their emotions and thoughts in a much
  more in depth and philosophical manner.
• A lot of confusion and misunderstanding develops
  from their bare dialogue. They are unable to
  translate what theyre truly thinking.