The Christmas Program

When we were approaching the chapter about the Christmas program, I wasn’t sure exactly what it was going to look like – I wasn’t sure if Grant was going to skim over the Christmas program like As I Lay Dying skimmed over Addie’s burial, or actually give some details about it. Since it doesn’t seem particularly monumental in the grand arch of the story, I could really see it going either way. But as we’ve seen, Grant isn’t really the type to skim over things. He gives tons of information as to what happens in the Rainbow Club and gives a long, detailed monologue concerning what it means to be a hero.

It’s not surprising, then, that Grant does cover the Christmas program with a certain amount of detail. But when I read the chapter, it did surprise me a little exactly how much detail he gave. I was expecting something more like a list of the songs they sang and maybe a couple of highlights. Instead, Grant describes the members of the audience, elaborately describes every aspect of the dramatic reading of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, and even gives quite a lengthy excerpt of the program’s dialogue at one point. Why might Grant give so much effort telling us about an event which likely won’t have too great an impact on the events of the rest of the story?

To me, it seems like Grant is sort of taking this chapter as an opportunity to redeem himself in the readers’ eyes. At this point, he hasn’t made too much progress with Jefferson (although it isn’t far off!). Personally, I would be disappointed, apprehensive, and doubting my ability to make any impact on Jefferson before his execution. This chapter might serve as a reminder both to the readers and to Grant himself that he is, in fact, capable of making a difference as a teacher, and capable of success in general. In light of the imminent progress Grant will have with Jefferson, perhaps the Christmas program really worked as a self-esteem booster. 

How Addie's chapter changes the narrative

In any form of entertainment, there are people who stand out with their ability to stay relevant even through the dynamic interests of their audience. Ryan Higa, a popular YouTuber, has been creating videos for over 10 years now, but still has millions of views on his most recent videos. Addie seems to have achieved a similar feat in As I Lay Dying. Despite the fact that she dies relatively early after the beginning of the novel, she narrates her own chapter once the trip to Jackson is well under way. So how, or why, is Addie’s point of view still pertinent when she’s dead?

There is obviously a reason why Faulkner included multiple narrative points of view – if they contributed nothing to the story, it would only be useless and confusing to have them. The purposes, as I see them, are to give us various points of view on the same person (as we saw through the class activity about Anse) as well as a sense of each character’s unique qualities based on how they narrate (e.g. we learn that Cash is diligent but not all-too-interested in narrating to us, and that Vardaman is truly trying to make sense of what’s going on with Addie’s death and all). Readers can expect, then, that reading a chapter narrated by Addie herself will give us some insight into her feelings about her own life and death, about the journey to Jackson with her body, about the other characters, etc.

What we see in Addie’s chapter reflects these things and more. She starts off by telling readers “In the afternoon when school was out and the last one had left with his little dirty snuffling nose, instead of going home I would go down the hill to the spring where I could be quiet and hate them” (169). Well… Addie is not the most sympathetic person, it seems. This apathetic and somewhat contemptuous attitude continues throughout the chapter. Near the end, Addie says, “And now he has three children that are his and not mine. And then I could get ready to die” (176). This sentiment reflects a notion Addie learned from her father, that “the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time” (169). Addie apparently thinks herself ready to die after having corrected the situation with her illegitimate child. Around the middle of the chapter, Addie discusses the word “love” and how she doesn’t see a place for it, but doesn’t really care if Anse uses it. Also, Addie says that she’ll get Anse to take her to Jackson when she’s dead as a form of revenge.

By making Addie seem wholly unconcerned about her life once all her mistakes had been corrected, I think Faulkner is trying to make the reader less likely to pity Addie during the journey to Jackson. If Addie had portrayed herself as someone who loved life, loved those close to her, and whose only dying wish was to be buried in Jackson, As I Lay Dying would have been a very different story. Addie’s corpse is terribly abused in the course of the journey, and if Addie had cared about her memory being honored, then the journey would be an abysmal failure and really quite hard to stomach. However, since Addie seems not to have cared too much about anything, we as readers can see the journey less like something which was truly important to Addie and more like something which she requested just for the hell of it; rather than feeling bad that Addie’s corpse is constantly being treated irreverently, we can focus on the journey itself and the characters who are still alive.