Teachers are Important

           Teachers play a very important role in A Lesson Before Dying. This is because teaching is one of the only available professional jobs for black people in this time and place (according to Grant), and they are in a position to have a tremendous impact on the students in their community. Grant, the narrator of this story, is a teacher himself, and we see that he was both impacted by his past teachers and that he is playing a significant role in influencing others as a teacher. The teachers in this story are not the typical inspirational teachers that we are used to seeing in novels. They are completely the opposite: they have a grouchy and negative attitude, and they display little to no hope or expectation for their students. This attitude is understandable, because they are aware of the vicious cycle in the South and the reality of being a black student in the South. However, this cycle is the obstacle that Grant has to help overcome, and he shows some hope as he continues to teach despite the fact that he understands what he is going up against.

            We see the importance of teachers in Grant, but also in his past teacher: Matthew Antoine. Antoine was not a great teacher: he told his students that they should all run away, and he basically gave up on hope for breaking the cycle. He discouraged Grant from seeking an education, and he told Grant he will never be able to do anything significant. Despite this, Antoine obviously had an impact on Grant’s life as we see that Grant visited Antoine many years later after becoming a teacher. Grant also isn’t the greatest teacher, and he shares some of the attitude that Antoine had. However, one of the reasons why Miss Emma chooses Grant to undertake the mission of making Jefferson into a man is because he is a teacher. Teachers are figures of hope and change in this society and community, whether or not they are the traditional inspirational teachers or not.

            The main obstacle that both Grant and Antoine face in this story is the cycle of the South. Both of them know how difficult society makes it for black students to succeed, and that everything is put up against them. Grant understands the vicious cycle for black students both from his experience as a student and his experience as a teacher. The majority of Grant’s classmates from when he was younger is in jail or dead, proof of the effects of the cycle. Grant also sees the cycle as a teacher, one example being when the superintendent Dr. Joseph comes by to check up on the students and treats them in a disrespectful way. All of this explains why Grant is a grouch: it is hard to find hope in his community’s situation. However we can see that even though Grant has a negative attitude, he also has some qualities of a good teacher and a hero. He actually cares for his students, because he gets upset when they aren’t learning properly. We see this in the following quote:

"Exactly what I'm trying to do here with you now: to make you responsible young men and young ladies. But you, you prefer to play with bugs. You refuse to study your arithmetic, and you prefer writing slanted sentences instead of straight ones. Does that make any sense?" (5.47).

Grant shows that his motive is to make good citizens out of his students, people who can rise up and break the cycle that black people have been struggling with for generations. This is also what he is doing with Jefferson. Although Jefferson doesn’t have much time left, Grant is trying to pull out Jefferson’s potential with what is left and make him into an example for others.

            Although Grant often acts hopeless, he still perseveres as a teacher because he loves his people and his community. Grant sees some hope in Jefferson, since he continues to make him into a man. In recent chapters we have seen how Grant has made some breakthroughs with Jefferson. Jefferson has actually started to talk to Grant, and he agrees to write his thoughts down in a journal. Jefferson even shakes hands with Grant at one point. Grant is continuing to play his part in breaking the cycle through his interactions with Jefferson, and through this he is showing what an impact a teacher can have on others and his community. 

Works Cited

Gaines, Ernest J. A Lesson before Dying. New York, Vintage Books, 1993.

Observations on the Role of Women

            The role of women in As I Lay Dying is confusing. I had trouble understanding how women fit in Faulkner’s story, and I couldn’t exactly tell how much power a woman had in this society, because roles and power balances seemed to vary depending on the couple. In the end, I concluded that women have certain set roles in this society and that women have more power in marriage than one might assume.

            The main role of a woman in this society appears to be having babies for her husband. We see this clearly in the marriage of Anse and Addie. The way that Anse and Addie discuss having children is almost business-like, and this shows that there is really no intimacy in their relationship. Anse says the following to Addie: “you and me aint nigh done chapping yet, with just two”. We can see from this quote that the focus of having children is more on the number of children rather than the value of having children with someone you love. After Addie had Cash and Darl, she described her role of bearing children for Anse as a duty. Addie says that she gave the children to Anse, but she had not asked for them. This statement shows that Addie is not bearing children for Anse because she wants to, but rather because this is her role as a wife and she in a way owes Anse children. Due to the fact that Addie’s main role is to produce children for Anse, it is hard for Addie to have her own identity in the story.

            Cora Tull believes that a woman should stay committed to her husband and children. Cora thinks that it is a woman’s role to stay beside her family, whether she is dead or alive. Addie rejects this standard, as she asks Anse to take her back to Jefferson when she dies. Addie clearly does not want to be associated with Anse or his children. I am not sure whether the standard that Cora states is something that everyone in this society accepted, as Addie and Anse broke this standard without much of a public outrage. However, many people did think it weird that Anse was burying Addie in Jefferson instead of with his people, so perhaps the idea that women are expected to stay with their husbands even after death is a common expectation in this society.

            Addie does not have much power in her marriage with Anse. Although Anse is an incompetent, lazy, and weak husband, he still has the majority of the say in things regarding their marriage. Anse decides how many children he wants, and also Addie needed permission from Anse to be buried in Jefferson. The power balance may seem heavily in favor of the men when you look at Anse and Addie, but there are several cases throughout the book where women seem to have a good deal of power in their marriages. We see this most clearly in the scenes where two different women angrily rant at their husbands about the way that Anse is disrespecting Addie’s dead body. The two women did not hold back their anger, and they both fiercely stated their opinions to their husbands. The husbands in return seemed to cower a little, and they didn’t really say anything in return. This shows that, at least for these two marriages, the women had a lot of say. The fact that they spoke their opinions in this bold manner indicates that they have some power and say within the family.

            These are just some of my observations about the way that women are portrayed in As I Lay Dying, and the roles that they are expected to have. It is hard to tell what the norm is at times, because Addie, one of the main woman characters in the story, is not a normal woman, and her family definitely isn’t normal either. What do you guys think about the role of women in Faulkner’s story?  

No joke- Addie might actually be the fish

I’ll be honest: As I Lay Dying is really confusing. I had trouble understanding what was going on because of the way Faulkner just started the story without any explanation or set up. He doesn’t even attempt to make things easier for us to understand in the slightest. There were many ideas that were vague and difficult for me to catch on to (ex: Dewey Dell talking about cotton-picking while also referring to the fact that she is pregnant.) What adds to all of this confusion is that every chapter is written from a different character’s perspective, and the chapters aren’t even in perfect chronological order. I have always struggled with this stream of consciousness/multiple narrators style of writing, and personally, I usually find this to be less engaging and entertaining to read. But one thing I learned from my past experience with this style of writing is that it provides more room for interpretation, and this is definitely true for As I Lay Dying.

In As I Lay Dying, there is no objective truth. We are never given any concrete facts, since everything that happens is filtered through the minds and thoughts of the narrators. What we might consider “facts” are actually just the opinions of the narrators. At first, I found this to be frustrating because I was so used to books that just had one perspective and gave me a clear, objective storyline. But now I understand why this style of writing may be considered as more intriguing: several people can read this same book and come out with totally different opinions on what happened. This is because this type of book provides several versions of reality. Every narrator has his or her own version of reality, and it is up to the reader to decide which character he or she wants to believe. Let’s take for example Addie’s death. Although this seems like a very objective happening, the characters interpreted this in drastically different ways. Dewey Dell seems to react to her mother’s death “normally”, as she wept and threw her body onto Addie’s dead body out of sorrow. Dewey Dell obviously accepts the fact that her mother is dead, and she doesn’t seem to have any strange opinions about this. However, Vardaman has a very different idea on what happened. First off, Vardaman believes that Peabody is responsible for his mother’s death, since his mother was “fine” until the doctor showed up. Vardaman eventually believes that the corpse is actually not his mother, because he says that Addie had left before she had become confined to her bed. Vardaman also believes that his mother is the fish and comes to the conclusion that once everyone eats the fish, Addie will become alive in all of them. Darl on the other hand believes that he doesn’t have a mom now. He also says that he thinks Jewel’s mom is a horse. These are three totally different interpretations of Addie’s death, and it all leads to this question: who are we supposed to believe?

Although Vardman and Darl’s thoughts and interpretations may seem really weird, their perspectives are still a version of reality that is given and must be considered. No matter how absurd it may sound that Addie is a fish or a horse, this is still a possibility since the truth depends on who the reader decides is trustworthy. I’m not sure if this blogpost made sense to you guys, but basically what I’m trying to point out is that because there is no objective storyline, the reader is given the power to judge which point of view is trustworthy enough to believe. There is no “right” or “wrong” because everything in this book is just different characters’ opinions on events that took place. So let me ask you this: do you believe that Addie is in fact the fish?