Reference no: EM132929325 , Length: 1500 Words
RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS AND INSTRUCTIONS
The research paper must be a literary analysis of William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying. (You must use the version of the novel from the Norton textbook assigned for class.) Do not consider Faulkner's biography in the paper nor should you fall into retelling the plot of the novel. The topic questions should be used to guide you in developing an arguable thesis in which to analyze the novel. Although you should address the topic, you do have some flexibility in how you choose to do so.
1. Analyze the character of Darl. How is he the protagonist? Why is he able to have insight into what other characters are doing or feeling? What is it about Darl that makes him so different from everyone else?
2. Analyze the idea of faith in the novel. What comment is Faulkner making about religion especially through the characters of Cora and Whitfield? Remember that this topic is asking you to give an insight into the novel, not make a faith-based argument of your own beliefs.
3. Contrast the characters Darl and Jewel. They are perceived differently by various people especially by Cora and Addie. What is unique about each of them? Is one of them more devoted to Addie than the other? How do we know?
4. In one of the novel's central passages, Addie meditates upon the distance between words and actions: "I would think how words go straight up in a thin line, quick and harmless, and how terribly doing goes along the earth, clinging to it, so that after a while the two lines are too far apart for the same person to straddle from one to the other; and that sin and love and fear are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forget the words" (731). What light does this passage shed upon the meaning of the novel? Aren't words necessary in order to give form to the story of the Bundrens? Or is Faulkner saying that words - his own chosen medium - are inadequate?
5. What is your response to the section spoken by Vardaman, which states simply, "My mother is a fish" (698)? What sort of psychological state or process does this declaration indicate? What are some of the ways in which Vardaman insists on keeping his mother alive, even as he struggles to understand that she is dead? In what other ways does the novel show characters wrestling with ideas of identity and embodiment? You may also consider how animals are used to symbolize characters in the novel.
6. This is a novel full of acts of love, not the least of which is the prolonged search in the river for Cash's tools. Consider some of the other ways love is expressed among members of the family.
A note on appropriate and scholarly sources - any source found through a strict web based search using a search engine such as Google that is identified with a URL; any source with "overview" in the article title; any source that is biographical in nature or is a reference work; magazines and/or newspapers; reference works such as Masterplots, Magill on Literature, Novels for Students, Poetry for Students, or Short Stories for Students; or any source that does not analyze the actual literary pieces are not acceptable and are inappropriate for this assignment. If in doubt, ask the instructor!
Grading criteria:
1. Page length is at least 5 full pages in correct MLA format excluding the works cited page.