As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner Summary and Literary Analysis

## Historical Background

**As I Lay Dying** was written by William Faulkner in 1929 and first published in 1930. The novel’s creation and initial reception occurred within the framework of the late 1920s and early 1930s in the United States, a period characterized by significant historical developments in both national and regional contexts.

### The Interwar Period

The period between the end of World War I (1918) and the onset of World War II (1939) in the United States is commonly referred to as the Interwar Period. During this time, the nation experienced both prosperity and crisis.

– The 1920s, often labeled the “Roaring Twenties,” were marked by economic growth, widespread consumerism, and cultural shifts, particularly in urban centers.
– However, the decade also included underlying economic instability, especially for farmers and rural populations, who did not share fully in the decade’s prosperity.
– The stock market crash of October 1929 marked the end of the economic boom and triggered the most severe economic depression in modern history, known as the **Great Depression**.

### The Great Depression

The Great Depression began with the stock market crash in late 1929 and continued throughout the 1930s.

– The economic crisis led to massive unemployment, loss of savings, and bankruptcies across the United States.
– Rural communities, such as those in Mississippi where Faulkner lived and set much of his fiction, faced additional challenges including plummeting crop prices and environmental difficulties.
– The agricultural South was already facing widespread poverty and limited access to banking and credit before the crash, which only worsened conditions.

### The Jim Crow Era

In Faulkner’s Mississippi, as in most of the American South, the era was marked by the continuation of the **Jim Crow** laws and customs.

– These state and local statutes enforced racial segregation and limited civil rights for African Americans.
– Social stratification, legal discrimination, and widespread disenfranchisement shaped everyday life and community structures throughout the region.

### Broader Literary and Cultural Developments

The literary field was undergoing substantial change during this period.

– The 1920s and early 1930s saw the emergence of Modernist literature, characterized by experimental approaches to narrative, point of view, and subject matter.
– European literary movements, such as stream-of-consciousness narrative, exerted a significant influence on American writers seeking new methods of depicting consciousness and realism.

## Social and Cultural Environment

The social and cultural backdrop to **As I Lay Dying** reflects the interplay of regional and national trends, with a particular emphasis on the unique characteristics of the American South at this time.

### Southern United States in the Early 20th Century

– The South was predominantly rural and agricultural, with economies based largely on cotton and other staple crops.
– Widespread poverty, economic uncertainty, and limited industrialization characterized much of the region, especially relative to the more rapidly urbanizing North.
– Social structures remained rigid, informed by both economic class and entrenched traditions.
– Family and community were central to daily life, with most inhabitants engaged in subsistence farming or sharecropping.

### Effects of the Great Depression

– According to historic population data and government reports, rural families in the South experienced severe hardship as crop prices collapsed and credit became scarce.
– Agricultural workers faced uncertain futures, leading to population movements, increased reliance on extended families, and diminished access to education and healthcare.
– The expansion of New Deal policies (beginning after 1933) had not yet significantly altered the situation at the time the novel was published.

### Regionalism and Identity

– Southern writers and artists during this period often contended with issues of identity, tradition, and the distinctiveness of southern culture.
– There was increased literary interest in representing the daily realities, dialects, and worldviews of rural southern communities.
– Such regionalism sometimes entailed a focus on poverty, rural customs, and the struggles of ordinary people.

### Intellectual Climate

– Modernist ideas were circulating widely in literary and artistic circles. Modernism encouraged experimentation with form and content, as well as skepticism about traditional narratives and representations.
– Writers in the United States and Europe were questioning earlier conventions regarding subjectivity, chronology, and realism.
– Literary innovation included the adoption of multiple perspectives, fragmented narratives, and the foregrounding of interior consciousness, all of which were becoming more accepted in literary fiction in the late 1920s.

## Author’s Situational Context

### William Faulkner in 1929–1930

– At the time of writing **As I Lay Dying** (October–December 1929), William Faulkner was living in Oxford, Mississippi, a small university town and his lifelong home.
– Faulkner was in his early thirties and was not yet widely recognized outside literary circles. He had published several previous novels, but major commercial and critical success would come later.
– His financial situation was unstable. He worked intermittently in a variety of jobs, including as a postmaster at the university, and occasionally wrote screenplays for Hollywood studios.
– Faulkner frequently drew from the culture and history of the region in which he lived. His writing environment was closely connected to the traditions, speech patterns, and social customs of rural northern Mississippi.
– According to his own accounts in interviews and correspondence, Faulkner composed the novel quickly over a period of several months, reportedly writing late at night after working during the day.
– **As I Lay Dying** was accepted for publication by Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith, a firm known for publishing modernist and experimental works in the United States.

## Relevance of the Context to the Book

Understanding the historical, social, and cultural context surrounding the writing and publication of **As I Lay Dying** clarifies the environment in which the novel emerged, as well as some of the factors affecting its composition and early reception.

– The stresses and uncertainties of the **Great Depression** and the lingering economic difficulties of the rural South formed a backdrop for many works of this period, including Faulkner’s output.
– The persistence of traditional social structures and the complexities of southern rural life were familiar realities to contemporary readers and shaped expectations about literary representations of the region.
– Modernist literary experimentation was becoming more visible and accepted in American literature, creating publishing opportunities for works employing unconventional narrative techniques.
– The combination of evolving literary methods and enduring regional conditions influenced public and critical responses to novels such as **As I Lay Dying**.
– Awareness of the author’s location in Mississippi, as well as his personal experiences during a time of economic instability, helps contextualize the factual circumstances of the novel’s production and the interests it engages with regarding everyday life in the South.
– Knowledge of the social environment, cultural trends, and dominant intellectual approaches of the time allows contemporary readers to situate the book within the broader developments characterizing American society and literature during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

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## Related Sections

Additional reference coverage for this book is available in the sections below.

Historical context
Fact check
Early reception

Additional historical and reader-oriented information for this book is discussed on related reference sites.

Tags: Historical Context / Fact Check / Early Reception