As I Lay Dying has no fixed narrator and is told by different members of the family. They each have their own way of telling the story as it happened. Darl –for instance- narrates in a storytelling manner while people like Cora and Jewel are often speaking in a confused way. Because of the fact that there is no objective narrator present throughout the book, the reader cannot really find out the truth. Positively, the reader is able to learn more about a character than in a novel where the characters keep to themselves pretty much. In this novel we experience the characters as they experience themselves. Faulkner wrote it putting an emphasis on what a character thinks, because he thought this was more important than what a character would say.
The way we get to recognize the characters is through recalling objects, when Cash has not even spoken yet we are reminded of his saw. The family’s neighbor –Tull- we recall because of his wagon, he is a man of industry and prosperity. And also Addie, who we associate with the coffin Cash has been crafting at the beginning, is an example. There are also a lot of things that aren’t said out loud, I’ve never come across a book in which mute interaction was of essence.
