Repetition and Futility

[nzahorodny09]

A close reading of the initial chapters of As I Lay Dying suggests rather strongly that Faulkner employs repetition as a means by which to emphasize the futility essential to the atmosphere of this narrative. The most prominent example of this repetition resides in the omnipresent “Chuck. Chuck. Chuck.” of the adze Cash uses to carve out Addie’s coffin. Unceasing in his labor, the eldest brother moves his saw incessantly, with a constancy and inevitability evocative of death itself, parallelism especially relevant given the ultimate object of his task. The backdrop of these first chapters, it serves, not only as a reference to the inescapability of Addie’s death, but also as a shadow that hangs over the action of the entire novel. In other instances, one observes repeated phrases, such as Anse’s “no man mislikes it more”, blatant demonstrations of the close connection between repetition and the inability to act in a meaningful way. He protests, and yet cannot, in the end, accomplish anything. Resonating in much the same way are Kate’s constant protestations that “[the wealthy women in town] should have taken [Cora’s cakes] anyway”. Once again, a fruitless preoccupation with the trite and unchangeable manifested by Faulkner’s characters draws the reader into a rather pessimistic perspective on his narrative as a whole. In addition, Cora’s circular thought process, resolving itself always in a consideration of these cakes, reinforces the idea that the characters in Faulkner’s novel are trapped, even mentally, in a destiny dominated by the meaningless and the absurd.

Does this seem like reasonable commentary to anyone else in the class? Most of it is pure speculation, but then again, perhaps there is a grain of truth in it, somewhere?