As I Lay Dying Analysis
There is no love so lasting, so strong, so disinterested, so unselfish, so devoted as the first and purest of all loves, a mother’s love. In literature, the concept of a “mother’s love” exists as an important motif, frequently referred to by authors and readers alike as the most sacred of literary loves. Written nearly sixty years apart, Beloved, by Toni Morrison, and As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, explore the motif of motherhood and a mother’s love. At their cores, Beloved and As I Lay Dying are stories about mothers and their children. Published in 1987, Morrison’s Beloved tells a heart-wrenching story of the everlasting effects of slavery in America by centering around the relationship between Sethe, an escaped slave, and the daughter
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In the text, Addie ponders the violation she felt from becoming a mother. In her chapter, Addie states, “I knew that it had been, not that my aloneness had to be violated over and over each day, but that it had never been violated until Cash came. Not even by Anse in the nights” (As I Lay Dying, 172). It seems very puzzling that a mother would refer to her child as a violation, considering that children are often referred to as gifts and angels. Only a mother could possibly understand her sentiments, because only a mother can relate to not only the physicality of motherhood but also the mentality. Faulkner also exposes Addie’s peculiar sense of motherhood for her other three children. In her chapter, Addie states, “I gave Anse Dewey Dell to negative Jewel. Then I gave him Vardaman to replace the child I had robbed him of. And now he has three children that are his and not mine. And then I could get ready to die” (176). Addie uses a strange arithmetic to add and subtract children. Faulkner reveals a complicated woman with five children, only two being hers, and the rest being Anse’s. Beloved helps the reader grasp the strangeness of motherhood. Beloved allows the reader to see an extreme abnormality of motherhood—Sethe killing her child—which helps the reader understand Addie’s more mild and peculiar sense of what her maternity
In the text, Addie ponders the violation she felt from becoming a mother. In her chapter, Addie states, “I knew that it had been, not that my aloneness had to be violated over and over each day, but that it had never been violated until Cash came. Not even by Anse in the nights” (As I Lay Dying, 172). It seems very puzzling that a mother would refer to her child as a violation, considering that children are often referred to as gifts and angels. Only a mother could possibly understand her sentiments, because only a mother can relate to not only the physicality of motherhood but also the mentality. Faulkner also exposes Addie’s peculiar sense of motherhood for her other three children. In her chapter, Addie states, “I gave Anse Dewey Dell to negative Jewel. Then I gave him Vardaman to replace the child I had robbed him of. And now he has three children that are his and not mine. And then I could get ready to die” (176). Addie uses a strange arithmetic to add and subtract children. Faulkner reveals a complicated woman with five children, only two being hers, and the rest being Anse’s. Beloved helps the reader grasp the strangeness of motherhood. Beloved allows the reader to see an extreme abnormality of motherhood—Sethe killing her child—which helps the reader understand Addie’s more mild and peculiar sense of what her maternity