An Ethical Interpretation Of As I Lay Dying

William Faulkner is not only an author of great importance in the history of American modern literature but also a famous master in the world literary circles. He was awarded the1949Nobel Prize for literature in the December8,1950because of "his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel". In1951and1955, his Collected Stories of William Faulkner and A Fable respectively won the National Book Award twice and his A Fable won Pulitzer Prize in May,1955.It is estimated that the number of reviews, essays and dissertations on William Faulkner published in America since the middle of the1980s is next only to William Shakespeare in English world. As I Lay Dying, the novel this thesis attempts to analyze, was finished in the smoothest and fastest way in only6weeks and without changing a word, which was claimed more than once as "a simple tour de force" in French by its creator, William Faulkner. The studies of As I Lay Dying in China and abroad have achieved some place with three general perspectives including theme, writing techniques and genre. The recent studies proceed by mingling with modern literary theories and interdisciplinary theories. However, there are no further findings as for the underlying reasons of the collapse of the Bundrens. Lack of systematical research on it from ethical perspective makes readers fail to find the connections between historical background of the story and the personalities of the characters, disenabling readers to grasp the motives of the author behind this novel.The present thesis, based on ethical literary criticism put forward by Professor Nie Zhenzhao in2004, attempts to take two steps in order to expound the ethical relationships and then the driving causes behind them in As I Lay Dying. Starting from the analysis of three pairs of relationships-familial relationship, man and society, man and God, this thesis finds that the leading cause of the intensified conflict in the story is the ethical paradox existing in burial journey, which is in turn due to the alienation of the Bundrens. The alienation is on account of not only the nihilist mother and selfish, lazy father but also the economic gap between town and country as well as the absence of sincere belief in God in contemporary society. Later, in order to further unearth the historical reasons for the weird plot of As I Lay Dying, through analysis of the historical context of the novel creation and author’s personal experiences, this article finds out that with too many different traditional values, the North’s occupation in South after the Civil War did great harm to the southerners’dignity, especially for the proud and rich nobles such as the author and Addie. On one hand, they constantly recalled their honorable and prosperous past. On the other hand, they felt pessimism toward the future. In comparison, the poor whites, such as Anse Bundren and his children, could open their arms widely to embrace their own future with formidable self-sacrifice and endurance by overcoming all kinds of difficulties.The analysis above paves the way to the conclusion that Faulkner depicts in As I Lay Dying the burial journey of the Bundrens as a miniature modern world from three pairs of ethical relationships, namely, familial relationship, man and society and man and God relationships. It reveals the world-shaking changes of the society and its effect upon South America after the Civil War, showing the author’s humanism position. He is convinced that only by sticking to love, honor, pity, pride, compassion and sacrifice can human race finally survive.