Novelists have conventionally written in the past tense, because it provides them with a maneuvering room to organize the data of their narrative into a comprehensive perspective. Yet more and more writers are recently adopting the present tense in narrating to bring immediacy and intimacy to their work. A large part of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is treated in the present time. Throughout the narrative, the first-person narration using interior monologue helps strengthen an ongoing action in the present and arouses a sense of urgency to readers. Accordingly, nothing is told by the author in his own authority; in actuality, no author’s voice or representative is identified to the last. In consequence, the lack of an authoritative presence requires our real commitment to the ultimate completion of the novel on the part of the readers.
1. Introduction
2. The Opening Scene
3. The Death Scene
4. The River Crossing and Barn Burning
5. The Closing Scene
6. Conclusion
Works Cited