How Can a Mid-Twentieth Century American Novel and a Twenty-First Century Bosnian War Movie Have Any Resemblance?

How Can A Mid-Twentieth Century American Novel And

A Twenty-First Century Bosnian War Movie

Have Any Resemblance?

It is interesting to realize that even though two very different stories delivered in two distinct ways can have resemblance. As I Lay Dying, a novel written by William Faulkner and No Man's Land, a film written and directed by Danis Tanović are indeed very different, but very similar as well. Both scenarios are not only written in different eras, and location but their format and structure are not the same as well. However despite the differences, there are many aspects from both the novel and the movie that are strangely very similar. As I Lay Dying and No Man's Land seem to share similar themes, approach, and both Faulkner and Tanović show but do not tell their stories. William Faulkner and Danis Tanović have very unique ways of transmitting their plots, which make them stand out from most known raconteurs.

As I Lay Dying was written at the end of 1929 and was published in 1930, right at the very start of the Great Depression. William Faulkner's novel is the story about the poor rural Bundren family's journey, to carry out Addie's, the mother and wife of the family, request to be buried in Jefferson far away from their hometown, Yoknapatawpha Country, Mississippi. The Novel is told from fifteen different points of view, where each character takes turns in telling their own personal perspective and feelings to the circumstances that occur throughout the fiction.

The story of No Man's Land, written and directed my Danis Tanović, takes place during the Bosnian War in 1993. It depicts the account of the difficulties of UN UNPROFOR's intervention in appeasing the Bosnian by helping three wounded soldiers trapped in a trench between the enemy lines. Throughout the film, five different frames of minds appear as the plot develops, which informs the audience not just one aspect of the war, but every facet.

The storied of As I Lay Dying and of No Man's Land are told in different formats, do not take place in the same continent, nor same epoch and do not share a similar scenario. However, they strangely have some features that link those two works together. One of those factors is their style.

Both, William Faulkner and Danis Tanović have a way of recounting events and settings by showing instead of telling. Rather than directly telling the literal sense of every mood, word, feeling, or event, Faulkner, in As I Lay Dying, and Tanović, in No Man's Land, allow the reader or viewer to "see" what is going on through the use of rich descriptions as evidence that would reveal the settings of the environment or the characters' feelings and reaction. Through rich and powerful descriptions Faulkner and Tanović are able to give the tone of each voice, the mood of the setting and many other aspects, which make both of those tales, works of art.

In As I Lay Dying, each narrator experiences many events all throughout the novel that influence the way they see, feel and react to each situation. Faulkner will use each character's perspective to develop his story without using an outside voice to explain each action, opinion or surroundings. By means of monologues, the raconteurs of the story will deliver their personal experience, feelings and observations as events occur. When conveying, in their own minds, the experience and approach to each event, the characters will never directly tell what is really going on.

When Dewey Dell, one of the five children of the Bundren Family, expresses her feelings about her pregnancy, she does not explicitly tell the reader that she is pregnant, "It's like everything in the world for me is inside a tub of guts..." (Faulkner 58). Dewey Dell Bundren describes her pregnancy as a "tub of gut," to show the reader how she really feels about it. Describing her baby as a "little tub of guts" allows the reader to see that she is not happy and confident about her situation. Instead of directly telling her emotions are unhappiness and fearful, Dewey Dell in some way may be also expressing her physical discomfort; having a knot in her stomach, by relating the "tub of gut" that is inside of her to her pain as well.

Vardaman, the youngest of the Bundren family, has a hard time understanding, especially accepting that his mother is dead. However, Vardaman will not tell the reader that, "It was not her. I was there, looking. I saw. I thought it was her, but it was not. It was not my mother. She went away when the other one laid down in her bed and drew the quilt up. 'Did she go as far as town?' 'She went further than town.'" (Faulkner 66). As for most young children, Vardaman has a hard time coping with death, his mother's death. Instead of telling us so that he does not believe that his mother is gone forever, he shows the reader what he believes or what he wants to believe. There is another incident in the same monologue, when Vardaman sees his mother in the coffin, he expresses his fear that she would not be able to breathe, so he decides to draw holes in the coffin to let air circulate (Faulkner 66-67). Vardaman again, expresses his objection and heartache towards his mom being gone without telling