In this article, Barbara M. Cross lays out two peculiar aspects of As I Lay Dying. While Cross acknowledges the importance of psychology of the Bundren children, he claims the novel’s meaning is constructed on the “narrative texture and the events of the plot.” (Cross, 251) The argument he presented is that the key to grasp some understanding of this book lies in the ironical interaction of low comedy and apocalyptic fervor. In addition to the analysis of the use and existence of comedy and apocalypse, Cross appreciates the beauty language within the text. The structure of this article is series of transformation between tragedies and comedies within each character. First, Cross puts out some ridiculous images in the novel in relation with death: “ Cora’s hymn singing, Addie's stinking corpse, Cash’s cemented leg are farcical.” ( Cross 251) Then the article expands into explaining how each character’s encounters in the novel are the demonstrations of apocalypse and in many ways they are also ironic. In the end, Cross terminates the apocalyptic imagery by reasoning the events and decision of each character: “ Since it is a novel, the characters are not submerged in their symbolic roles, bizarre, exaggerated, outlandish,…show more content… Cross provides double perspective of As I Lay Dying, results a well rounded piece that is purely informational and uncontroversial. This kind of article ultimately appeals an extensive spectrum of readers. Statements like “This double perspective provides the key to the novel. On one level, the narrative is appalling: the selfish, private stratagems of each Bundren reverberate again the symbolic objects and gesture by which Western man has made sense of life… There is ground for laugher”(Cross 258) enhances his argument by reassuring the readers that he understands the concern of many people and he indeed supplies what they wanted. Thus Cross persuades his audience in an even- handed
