Space and time come together in As I Lay Dying through a pattern that provides the background upon which the Bundren's journey through a perpetual landscape. The two phenomena merge and dispel into each other in the novel, creating an element that cannot be easily separated, but better understood through a cyclical symbolism. The circle implies the adjoining nature of not only space and time, but also life and death, where both sets of binaries deny the existence of fixed boundaries. There is a lucid air of the expanding circle of impact of the Bundrens' venture, an effect that corresponds with the circular, multiple perspective, technique of the book with its recurring images of the circle: all from circling buzzards to the wheels of the wagon.

It is primarily through Darl's monologues that the nature of time and space are opened up and the difference between the two becomes of common nature. His consciousness is a fluid body that leaps over barriers, and lacks the boundaries that the rest of the family members share within their thoughts. Darl seems to possess a gift of clairvoyance, which allows him to narrate in the way that he does, foreshadowing events and readi

This binary relationship between space and time can also be conveyed upon the Bundren's journey to Jefferson in its entirety. The destructive power of time has shown its gruesome effect on Addie's corpse, and though they are closer to their goal, moving in a linear space toward her burial, time shows no mercy. Later in the novel, the family actually becomes a mere point on a geometric figure, a circular one, in Darl's view as the wagon "wheels up like a motionless hand lifted above the profound desolation of the ocean; beyond it the red roan lies like a spoke of which Addie Bundren is the rim" (Faulkner, 123). Again the circle appears in the image of a giant wheel along which Addie travels. The continuity of life is the Bundren's journey and it parallels that of a spinning circle, surrounded by opposing forces. One other major cyclical motion, encompassing space and time is that of Dewey Dell's unwanted pregnancy which repeats the situation Addie found herself in when she was pregnant with Darl. After Dewey Dell fails to get an abortion, Darl thinks the life Dewey Dell will suffer through will resemble Addie's bitter life.

Throughout the novel different perspectives prove that this concept of motion must be violent to overcome a seemingly intrinsic and undeniable force (fate) that is allowing the Bundren family to continue beyond natural boundaries, yet without true progress. Darl characterizes the progress of the wagon as having "a motion so soporic, so dreamlike as to be uninferant of progress, as though time and not space were decreasing" (Faulkner, 101), therefore switching the positions of the dimensions and obscuring the boundaries between them. The image of the wagon struggling to move through the river, symbolically time, accentuates the complexity of defeating the unchanging nature of existence, life, and death.

Each member of the Bundren family displays their grief over Addie's death in different ways. They are all based on the comparable dichotomy of Darl's and Jewel's emotions (Wadlington, 56). Whereas Darl's suffers primarily in this thoughts and mind, Jewel expresses his anguish through the physical. The two states of cacophony, mental and physical, are connected, yet one may lead the other. Darl spends much of his time speculating on the meaning of is while Jewel is

Some common words found in the essay are:
Lay Dying, Dewey Dell, Dewey Dell's, Vernon Tull's, Whereas Darl's, Jewel Anse, Addie Bundren, Darl's Jewel's, dewey dell's, lay dying, life death, bundren's journey, bundren family, relationship space, breaking circle, wheels motionless, faulkner 153, mental physical,
Approximate Word count = 1553
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)