Language In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying
In the novel, As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, Addie’s passage is used to convey the idea that words cannot be exchanged for actions and the artificialness of language. Faulkner demonstrates that words often fail to connect, how words are used to imitate experience and the significance of actions over words. In this passage, Faulkner uses Addie’s own experiences with language to show her difficulty in communicating with the school children through language. In addition to the struggle to communicate through language, Addie struggles with the significance of words when they cannot replace experience. Words often are deviant to true emotions and reality. Through Addie, Faulkner shows the limitations of language and what it tries to imitate.
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Addie states “that we had had to use one another by words like spiders dangling by their mouths from a beam, swinging and twisting and never touching...” (759). The spiders represent communication with words between people and the struggle and difficulty it is for people to communicate with language. Addie states “That’s when I learned that words are no good; that words don’t ever fit even what they are trying to say at,” which demonstrates the underlying theme of this passage, which is that words are used to explain an experience often by people who have not experienced it. Actions are seem as important in the true importance and meaning of language. Addie insists that “words are no good,” (759) and are just used in an attempt to imitate feelings or actions that cannot be and are just trying to imitate feelings or actions that cannot be embodied by language. The word ‘motherhood’ is used as an example of one of those words that was “invented by someone who had to have a word for it” (759). Faulkner places emphasis on how language is simply an invention by humans and that words cannot substitute reality. The term ‘motherhood’ is further stated as having no longer significance once it has been experienced. Addie states that, as being a woman who has gave birth to a child, she does not “care whether there was a word for it or not” (759). Addie believes that when a woman gives birth, she does not need the term to represent the concept of motherhood. In the text it is stated that the word ‘motherhood’ is only a word given to explain an action for those who have not experienced motherhood. When reality is felt through feelings rather than words, implementation of language is
Addie states “that we had had to use one another by words like spiders dangling by their mouths from a beam, swinging and twisting and never touching...” (759). The spiders represent communication with words between people and the struggle and difficulty it is for people to communicate with language. Addie states “That’s when I learned that words are no good; that words don’t ever fit even what they are trying to say at,” which demonstrates the underlying theme of this passage, which is that words are used to explain an experience often by people who have not experienced it. Actions are seem as important in the true importance and meaning of language. Addie insists that “words are no good,” (759) and are just used in an attempt to imitate feelings or actions that cannot be and are just trying to imitate feelings or actions that cannot be embodied by language. The word ‘motherhood’ is used as an example of one of those words that was “invented by someone who had to have a word for it” (759). Faulkner places emphasis on how language is simply an invention by humans and that words cannot substitute reality. The term ‘motherhood’ is further stated as having no longer significance once it has been experienced. Addie states that, as being a woman who has gave birth to a child, she does not “care whether there was a word for it or not” (759). Addie believes that when a woman gives birth, she does not need the term to represent the concept of motherhood. In the text it is stated that the word ‘motherhood’ is only a word given to explain an action for those who have not experienced motherhood. When reality is felt through feelings rather than words, implementation of language is