October 28, 2016 - 16:21
Author Suzan- Lori Parks is known for writing plays and novels that are spins off of, or take inspiration from, classic literature, but gives the story a twist by including different characters and conveying different themes. This was the exact case in her novel, “Getting Mother’s Body”, which she took inspiration from William Faulkner’s novel, “As I Lay Dying”. Her story parallels both Faulkner’s structure and plot; however, the story follows a pregnant teen, Billy Beede, and her family as they go on a journey to retrieve Willa May’s body. By taking from the classic novel, “As I lay Dying”, Parks adds many dimensions to her story. She takes Faulkner’s fictional tail and portrays it in a way that seems like situations could happen in real life. Taking from a classic and putting a different family in the same story offers another perspective but also shows that people of different races and backgrounds can share experiences.
Parks was fascinated by Faulkner’s structure as he developed the story through the voices of multiple characters speaking in first person. Each chapter is a different character’s voice as they react to what is going around them. In “Getting Mother’s Body”, almost half a dozen characters are given a voice but their narratives all seem to focus or have some relation to Billy Beede. What this does for the novel is give the reading a better understanding of each character’s feelings and reactions to what is going around them. It also leaves the reader wondering what the actual true story is because each character can have their own bias about events in the story. This leaves it open to interpretation by the reader as they find their own meaning to the story. These multiple characters create more dimension in the story. Multiple perspectives allow the reader to identify with at least character based on their language, actions, or emotions. Doing so, Parks makes her characters less racialized and more universal. The main focus on her characters is not necessarily their race as she tries to focus on the Beedes similarities with the Bundrens. Reader can identify with a character that is not necessarily "like them" and build a bridge between racial and class divisions.
The use of multiple perspectives also add depth to characters that may have remained shallow otherwise. Parks uses Faulkner’s structure to uncover the many layers of the Beede family. An example of this is Park’s character, Dill. If Dill wasn’t given a voice or if other characters didn’t describe her in their narrative, readers would have been more likely to believe that Dill was a man. At the time, many people were not open about their sexuality because society still looked down at people in the LGBTQ community. Dill cross dressed and came off more masculine so many people in the town saw her as a man, but her family new she was a women and had been in a relationship with Willa Mae. Also, if Dill wasn’t given a voice, the reader would believe that the jewels were in Willa Mae’s coffin, but in Dill’s narrative, she reveals that she had kept the jewels for herself to keep her business and the family afloat. The majority of Park’s characters add something deeper to the story by adding details either said by the character themselves, or an observing character.
Along with paralleling Faulkner’s structure, Parks also made parallels to his plot. “As I Lay Dying” follows the story of a family, whose mother recently passed, as they go on a journey to bury the body. As the story unravels, Faulkner reveals that each member of the family had a different reason for going on this journey other than to take care of their mother’s body. In many ways, the journey was taken on the basis of greed. For example, Anse Bundren goes to town to bury Addie but also get himself new teeth to be more appealing to the younger woman he’s been seeing and introduces her to the family as Mrs. Bundren. Faulkner’s story also has this shock factor as it is hard to imagine a situation a family faces quite like this. They go through many disasters along the way as their mom lays in a coffin decaying and reeking of rotting flesh. Faulkner’s story is made to seem more unbelievable because of the grotesque nature of it. There is one point in the Bundren journey where they encounter a river and attempt to cross it. They drop Addie’s decaying body into the river when the wagon tips over and have to fish it out before it is swept away. Typically, when thinking of a burial, it is more of a peaceful occurrence of mourning and celebrating the lie of a lost one. A lot of care is put in to prepare to body for burial and loved ones come with flowers. In the case of the Bundren family, it seems like they have little care for their mother’s body as they tried to take a short cut across the river which almost made them lose their mother’s body.
What Parks does is take this unbelievable story and creates a situation the seems more realistic. A poor African American family, that faces many struggles in the society they live in in the 1960s, sets off on a journey to retrieve their relatives body before the land she rests in is covered by a supermarket. Parks shows that something like Faulkner’s story could happen in a less grotesque way, and adds humor to the story that makes it more light hearted. Again there is this concept of greed, and how it motivates people to do things for the wrong reasons. Billy Beede has little appreciation for her dead mother, yet takes from her in every sense. She takes the lessons she learned from her mother such as taking advantage of people by finding their “Holes”, or soft spot. Although Billy acknowledges that she learned this from her mother, she refuses to give her any respect and thanks for it. She physically wants to take her mother’s jewels so she can abort her and Snipes child out of spite for his infidelity and dishonesty. Also, Parks includes controversial social issues for the time such as teen pregnancy, single motherhood, and lucid gender identity, which are still relatable today as topics of negative stigma. Making these connections creates a more realistic and relatable story that’s more impactful and resonating. The issues touched on are more universal and aren’t necessarily divided by race. Many of these controversial issues were taboos in many different cultures. Creating a more realistic story makes a more relatable or perceivable story that the reader can relate to.
The Bundren and Beede family are very different, but having them take similar journeys bridges gaps between them. The Bundren family was a poor, white family from Mississippi. The Parks family was a poor, black family from Texas. Though these stories take place decades apart, the tension in the South between blacks and whites was still present. By recreating Faulkner’s story in the perspective of a black family, Parks shows that seemingly different people can share similar experiences even though they come from different background. This eliminates that experiences are specifically black or white, rich or poor, etc. In this case, the families are only different in their race and their oppression. The stories told in the voice of multiple characters, gives the novels depth and dimension that other novels lack. Ultimately, Parks parallels to Faulkner’s structure and plot uncovers the many layers of the Beede family and conveys similarities between people of different backgrounds.
Citations:
Parks, Suzan-Lori. Getting Mother’s Body. New York: Random House, 1964. Print
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. New York: Random House, 1964. Print.