Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- What is more important in As I Lay Dying – form or content? That is, is the concept of multiple narratives more important than the story of the Bundrens?
- Which character is the reader meant to relate to in this novel? Does the answer to this question change as the novel progresses?
- What is the effect of hearing narrative perspectives from outside the Bundren family, in addition to those from the members of it?
- How is As I Lay Dying a portrait of its setting? What do we learn about Mississippi in the 1920s from reading this novel?
- How is information revealed to the reader in this novel? When are we intentionally left confused, and how does this affect the way we process the story?
- How does the narrative structure change over the course of the novel? (Start with the fact that we begin in Darl’s perspective and end in Cash’s.)