Beginnings and Endings

“But for me it was not over. I mean, over in the sense of beginning and ending, because to me there was no beginning nor ending to anything then.” (175)

Faulkner wanted to create a story that broke the bounds of storytelling. His characters did not find happiness or permanent endings, they simply continued to live life. This quote from Addie’s chapter summed up this idea for me.

It was difficult for me to imagine a story without a beginning and an ending. Almost everything in life is quantified by where it is started and stopped. However, Faulkner shows how life should not be thought of in such a finalized manner through two actions.

Addie Bundren dies relatively early into the novel As I Lay Dying. Most of the story concerns burying her corpse, yet in the middle of the plot, Faulkner pauses to give her perspective on her life. By simply having this narrative told after her demise, Faulkner forces the reader to consider when her ‘end’ is: Can she have thought after death? Can she contribute to the narrative?

This breaking of convention allows Faulkner to have the opportunity to explore how a character’s, or a person’s, story must be given. He uses information – plot, perspective, details – only when needed to express a deeper part of the story. Unlike most, who tell a story in a linear fashion, Faulkner presents related ideas and details together to help the reader understand the main point of those details. Faulkner doesn’t wish to surprise, so much as convey emotions. His stream of consciousness style further adds to this point by showing the narrator’s emotions more so than direct action.

The second manner in which Faulkner disrupts the traditional beginning and ending is by ending the novel with a new Mrs. Bundren – purposely left un-first-named. Faulkner views life a cycle, a continuous pattern that has no specific bounds. He begins his novel with the death of the first Mrs. Bundren – Addie. However, only soon after she is buried, a new Mrs. Bundren appears, restarting the cycle. He ends the cycle of having another Mrs. for Anse.

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”

-          Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings