The polyphonic style in conjunction with the intensity of precise syntax and appropriate vernaculars, like Vardaman’s short conclusion that “ mother is a fish” (Faulkner 84) or Dewey Dell’s italicized, innermost thoughts protruding her monologues (Faulkner 121), conveys the authenticity and sincerity behind each character. The range of voice invoked with each new section represents the real-time processing of events by its titular character.
Addie Bundren’s section serves as the main allegory for the complex relationship between language and experience. Faulkner portrays the stream of consciousness of each integral character through multiple reflective sections.
Many critics refer to the fragmented narrative as a mirror to the compartmentalization that is characteristic of the human mind (Olsen 97). The novel consists of fifteen unique narrators, each with their own perspective. The modern approach that Faulkner takes towards the novel’s form involves the use of precise formatting, syntax variety, different vernaculars, and multiple voices. Faulkner employs a poetic and polyphonic style to expose the paradoxical, symbolic nature of language within the human experience as both an inadequate form yet realistic function of being human. In particular, Faulkner juxtaposes the literal funeral journey of Addie Bundren and her family with the reflective nature of their mental states and attempts to articulate emotions. Among his renowned works, As I Lay Dying focuses on the psychological processes that human beings undergo to cope with a traumatic personal experience. William Faulkner embodies the abovementioned sentiment as he emerged an extreme modernist, whose literature can thus be examined as an experimentation with the human condition and its response to substantial life events. Modernism defined American literature as a movement that emphasized the human experience and expanded on the psychological conditions of the human mind in reaction to its surrounding environment.
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