Faulkner's Symbolism in As I Lay Dying Anonymous College

"My mother is a fish" is perhaps the most famous quote from William Faulkner's Southern Gothic novel, As I Lay Dying (Faulkner, 1957, p. 84). William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in 1897 in Oxford, Mississippi. The setting of As I Lay Dying, as well as many of his other novels, resembles the bucolic nature of his hometown. He embodies his hometown through the fictional setting, Yoknapatawpha, that is consistent throughout all of his stories. Faulkner is well-known for creating the genre know as Southern Gothic, which exemplifies Southern culture and tradition. He established this genre of writing through his experimental writing, such as the multiple narrators experienced in As I Lay Dying. Faulkner's stories do not attempt to represent the beauty in southern culture, but the realistic, negative parts. This also helps to develop the gothic nature of his writings. Faulkner's novel, As I Lay Dying, is the epitome of a Southern gothic writing and is a great contribution to Southern literature. Faulkner utilizes As I Lay Dying to address the strain placed on family ties during a close death. Faulkner employs animal metaphors, eye symbolism, character tension, and textual voice to demonstrate a person's ability to cope with the loss...