Lesson 1: Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Images of Faulkner and the South

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

Activity 1. Images of Faulkner and the South

Using the following websites, students will (preferably in groups) explore one aspect of or perspective on Faulkner's life and the culture of the South. Students should explore the webpage in detail and then write a brief summary of what they discover. If there are images on the website, students should also analyze them—what kind of image is it (graph, photograph, etc.) and what does it reveal about the subject? What does it obscure? The Document Analysis Worksheets, available via EDSITEment-reviewed National Archives Educator Resources, might aid in this process.

Questions that students might want to consider:

1. What is the 'voice' of their website? Who wrote it? For what purpose? [these are also good questions for students to ask when viewing any webpage for academic purposes]
2. What effect does the style or form of the source have on your interpretation of the content? Does it matter if you read a biography, a chronology, a map, or an image? Do certain forms illuminate certain things while obscuring others? In what way?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages to having multiple perspectives on the same subject?

The teacher should have each group present their findings, recording important aspects on the board (it might help the teacher to compile a list of possible findings on his or her own prior to class in order to supplement or confirm student findings).

Web Links:

• From William Faulkner on the Web 
  • Biography
  • Chronology of Faulkner's Life
  • Faulkner Family Tree
• William Faulkner: Nobel Prize Speech 
• Faulkner Biography at the Mississippi Writers Page 
• Faulkner Image Gallery at the Mississippi Writers Page has several interesting and useful images, including:
  • The Yocona River Bridge in the Early 1900s http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/faulkner_william/yocona.html
• Brief Faulkner biography 
• The South: What is it, Where is it?, excerpted from John Shelton Reed's My Tears Spoiled My Aim and available via EDSITEment-reviewed American Studies at the University of Virginia, might be a good way for students to examine the multiple perspectives of the South. The article is lengthy, and uses statistics ranging from the 1920s to the 1980s, so teacher guidance is advised.
• Teachers might want to include some of the sections of Literature in the American South (as detailed in Preparation Instructions above). Drawn from The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture edited by Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris, several excerpts have valuable information about the South in literature. Two valuable point of departure might be:
  • Civil War
  • Humor

Allow each group to offer a perspective, writing the information on a black board. After all groups have presented, you should have a list of different "perspectives." Discuss them and put them in the context of Faulkner's life and work. This activity serves two purposes. First, the fact finding aspect simply educates students about Faulkner's life, as well as some history of the South. Secondly, and equally importantly, the teacher can use this opportunity as an introduction to the idea of multiple perspectives or points-of-view in describing the life of one person. They are creating a narrative of Faulkner just as many perspectives help shape the narrative of Addie Bundren and her family.

Finish by reviewing the quotation by Evan Goodwin at the beginning of this lesson:

"[Faulkner] often told his stories using multiple narratives, each with their own interests and biases, who allow us to piece together the 'true' circumstances of the story, not as clues in a mystery, but as different melodies in a piece of music that form a crescendo. The conclusion presents a key to understanding the broad panorama surrounding the central event in a way that traditional linear narratives simply are unable to accomplish."

Discuss how Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, like history, can be made up of sometimes competing or confusing bits of knowledge, based on the perspective of the viewer.

Ask students to maintain a journal while reading As I Lay Dying, where they can write down thoughts, questions, and ideas about the novel. They should be sure to include page numbers to relevant passages in the text. Their first entry can explore the following question: what makes "the South" a compelling literary setting?