Within the first 84 pages of As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, the content of the text is about a lady who is very near her deathbed. She is over watching Cash making her coffin and a lot of family members are present at the house. Within Faulkner's writing about this, religion plays a key roll in this death. The family seems to be very religious or is perhaps just taking upon a religious affiliation in the time of this crisis. One thing I do not understand is why the lady watches Cash building her casket? Also, why does the family seem to do nothing to prevent her death?

William Faulkner's writing style in the novel As I Lay Dying is quite unique. Each chapter is about 2-6 pages long and seem to each be in a different point of view of a diffferent character. The diction that Faulkner uses would definitely be considered southern slang as he uses words and phrases like "I reckon". He also uses gramatically incorrect phrases and improper puntuaction which suggests that the characters are not very well educated compared to people of this day and age. Faulkner's style of writing is very casual and uses improper grammar and southern phrases which fits the characters of the novel.

Does any story still have the same effect on a listener if he/she later finds out that the plot of the story isn't true?

I think this question is important to discuss because this is the main question of what O'Brien is getting at the whole novel. I would be interested to hear everyone's opinion and wether or not they agree with O'Brien.

Throughout the whole novel The Things They Carried, the reader struggles to understand what is and what is not the truth in O'Brien's stories. By the time the reader finishes one of the last stories "Good Form", he learns that a majority of the book is made up which blew my mind. O'Brien talks throughout the entire novel about what makes a story true and how to tell a good story and then tells us that all his examples of "true" stories are not even true.

I believe that his point of this novel is not only to tell the reader about the environment of war but to illustrate what truth really is. I think that in O'Brien's view truth is whatever the story teller wants it to be. The message I got from his book is that as long as the theme and intention of a story is what the story teller wants it to be, the actual plot of the story does not matter.

Why is O'Brien writing a fiction war story and not a true one?

O'Brien is writing a fiction war story in order to get a reaction from the readers, as well as convey the characteristics of war, since he does not believe that a true war story will create a reaction.

Why does Jimmy Cross love Martha?

He loves the innocence of her and she gives him hope from the terrible life of war.

At the end of the first story in Unaccustomed Earth, the action of Ruma sending the post card that her father left behind is a symbol. This action symbolizes Ruma accepting that her father choose to live alone rather with her and her family. The post card represents the life of travel and secludedness    that her father desires because it is addressed to Ms. Bagchi, who is the new woman in his life.

When Ruma discovers the postcard in the garden her first impulse is to shred it but something within her restrains her from shredding it. This represents her decision and realization that her father actually just left her for a different life. Also, because the post card is in Bengali letters she can not interrupt what the letter says, just how she does not fully understand the life that her father is choosing over her. Within both situations of the foreign language in the post card and the unknown components of her father's new life, Ruma becomes accepting of them.  

If Ruma's father had not remarried and was living on his own, would he have moved in with Ruma and her new family?

If her father had not been married to Ms. Bagchi I belive that he would have moved in with Ruma. He still would have been hesitant of the move because he would still not want to invade into her new life but he would have moved in after the visit. His life with Ms. Bagchi is what is holding him back from the move he does not want but needs.

The title Unaccustomed Earth is very appropriate for the content of the short stories within the book. Unaccustomed means not familiar and out of the ordinary and there are many examples of this in the short stories. In Only Goodness, Rahul gets admitted into Cornell which is expected and glorified by his parents but the unaccustomed part is when the reader discovers his alcoholism. Another example is in the opening short short when Ruma's mother dies which neither her or her father was expecting.

The title also holds a deeper meaning to me. The fact that every human lives on earth makes it extremely familiar because it is our habitat and I find the phrase "Unaccustomed Earth" to be quite contradictory. However, as contradicting as that phrase seems I think that as a title it could also be interpreted to mean that no matter how familiar and predictable the world is, things still happen that no one can predict which is show throughout the short stories.

In Going Ashore, the final short story of Unaccustomed Earth, the 3rd person point of view plays a major part in how a reader interprets the story. Since this short story is in 3rd person, we have no insights into how Hema and Kaushik feel about their meeting of fate and affair in Rome. Without these insights, the reader is left to interpret each character's feelings by himself. A prime example of how this is important is when the reader has no possible way of knowing whether or not Hema will call off the wedding for Kaushika and I think this makes reading this story incredibly more interesting.

If I had known Hema's feelings and that she was not planning on canceling her wedding and staying with Kaushik it would have not been an interesting story. The ending to this story, with the characters splitting apart, would have been ruined or at least not as intriguing as it was with the 3rd person narrative.