Tag: time

As I Lay Dying, Faulkner: Bryant Magdaleno, Limits of Vision

“ It means three dollars,” I say. “Do you want us to go, or not?” Pa rubs his knees. “Well be back by tomorrow sundown.”
“Well …” pa says. He looks out over the land, awry-haired, mouthing the snuff slowly against, his gums.
“Come on,” Jewel says. He goes down the steps. Vernon spits neatly into the dust.
“By sundown, now,” pa says. “I would not keep her waiting.” “ (Faulkner 6)

Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying, New York Vintage, 1990.

This text I think demonstrates a clear example of lack of vision given to the idea of death and how these characters are dealing with Addie’s soon to be death. The boys wanting to make ends meet by getting the three dollars from Tull for the delivery can’t truly know if they will make it back or not to be with Addie before their death, that is why Anse is hesitant to let them go. He knows in reality they can not know the time they have left so he gives the boys a time limit on their job, hoping it’s enough. But both are uncertain if they will make it in time for while they made a promise to Addie they simply seem to don’t know what to do in this situation, they lack the foresight to make the right choices in times of uncertainty so they do the best they can and simply try to create a sense of order with there time limit. Will Addie’s death abide by this time limit and the boys get back in time, it’s uncertain, so they simply hope.

Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf Commonplace Past – Bryant Magdaleno

“And she wasted her pity. For he was quite happy, he assured her — perfectly happy, though he had never done a thing that they talked of; his whole life had been a failure. It made her angry still.” (Woolf 7)

Woolf, Virginia, and Bonnie Kime Scott. Mrs. Dalloway. A Harvest Book, Harcourt, Inc., 2005.

Within this text we can gain glimpse to the mindset of Mrs. Dalloway, where she contemplates her past with Peter Walsh. She speaks of how life had passed them by with her never marrying a Prime Minister and him never marrying her, life as she put it was not done the way they spoke of. He was a failure to her for never really making it, she reflects on this idea of the past and ones place to the future, how they promise and hope for the best but she is angry at the thought of not completing what they set out, it brings to mind if she is angry of her past promise or her future never getting it done.