Exact Emblem

A crystal Coffin containing Fire is the emblem which I chose to create. I was contemplating the fact that the coffin with its ties to six was so exact when I realized that Faulkner uses exactness on a literary level to build characters and plot rather than to serve as a theme for his story. Thematically As I Lay Dying is closer to fire, creating something beautiful as with ‘order out of noise’
The coffin visually contains the flame just as the order that Faulkner bequeaths to the novel contains the beautiful break down. The emblem is repeated in a pattern to visually remind the reader of the ability of six to work cohesively in combination with itself to form airtight spaces. A flame should not be able to live within the confines of a coffin, but just as Addie’s energy is still the driving force behind the novel even when confined within a coffin, so too does the flame burn with purpose despite its wretched state.
Fire is present in the novel literally when Darl burns down a barn. The coffin is within the barn at the time and is in peril of burning down with it until Jewel extracts it. In a reversal of roles, the flame now surrenders to the coffin.

Exactitude Intro

Exactitude is the preciseness and thoroughness of wording that also conveys the subtleties of thought and imagination. It is the quality that can paint an entire landscape in the mind through the use of particularly chosen words and wording. It is how a story becomes a reality to the reader by arbitrary symbols on a page (text).

Calvino emblemizes exactitude as a crystal with an’ invariance of internal forms’ and vagueness as flame that has a ‘constancy of external forms in spite of relentless internal agitation.’ The crystal accomplishes beauty through the precise alignment of elements while flame becomes beauty through ‘order out of noise.’

Precise Alignment

Order out of Noice