Fraternal Feeling rising through the Darkness
             William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is dark, gruesome, and somewhat comedic portrayal of a southern family who has to travel across the countryside to bury their dead mother. Faulkner uses each character's point of view in different chapters to tell the story. In doing so, Faulkner gives us an insight on who each character is as well as showing us how the world that we live in is nothing more than the way we perceive it to be. At least one critic has argued that As I lay Dying is "the bitterest of Faulkner's early novels... presenting human existence as an absurd joke." Where as others argue that the novel is "a triumph of fraternal feeling...a comic novel rooted in the earth and country folk and lighted by a new faith in humanity." Both of these arguments, although opposites, can be shown throughout the course of this novel. As I Lay Dying conveys a conflicting message, causing the reader to think about how he or she portrays his or her own life. The reason that As I Lay Dying is a triumph of fraternal feeling, and lighted by a new faith in humanity, is because of the harsh circumstances in which the family must pull through in order to show feeling.
             As I Lay Dying makes the reader think about the value of a human life. Through its twisted plot and its characters it asks the reader to answer a simple question: who's to say what the value of a life is? Darl, Jewel, and Vardaman have different opinions about their mother. Darl says, "I cannot love my mother because I have no mother. Jewel's mother is a horse"(Faulkner 95). Even after your mother is dead you should still be able to love her and she should still exist. Jewel's mother is a horse. We find out that this is true because this is what Jewel loves the most. He worked hard for the horse and seems to love it even more than his dead mother. When we get to Var...