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.

Exact Analogy

Nekromantix is a “Danish-American psychobily” band whose logo is a six sided coffin with their name inscribed inside. Faulkner’s most meticulous character Cash focuses his obsessively precise nature on the construction of his mother’s coffin, which is shown in a small picture to be six sided. There is an entire chapter dedicated to the painstaking thought process Cash undergoes to decide how to best create the coffin.

Coffin Logo for the band Nekromantics

The Nekromantix coffin becomes three dimensional through the use of six rectangular (four sided) panels. Four’s ability to create depth is obvious in this role. The name of the band is contained within the six sided top of the coffin which works to complement sixes ability to bring pieces together to work seamlessly. The name of the band is a portmanteau of two words “necromancy” (communicating with the dead) and “romantics.” These seemingly disparate words are graphically forced onto one another with the effect of creating a neologism, nekromantix.
A coffin then is both numerically symbolic of the number six, but as it is a skewed hexagon, the meaning behind six becomes slightly skewed. While still numerically the most ordered number, the coffin is symbolic of death and decomposition and contrasts with sixes connected nature. The coffin then is close to Faulkner’s own use of six. He employs the values of six to create a tightly knit experience that is actually an experience of decomposition (both of the family, and literally of the body of Addie).

Exact Design

When talking about Faulkner’s efficient use of language the number six springs to mind immediately. With its extreme efficiency and ability to have many parts working together as a seamless whole, six is able to represent Faulkner’s use of multithreaded narratives that intertwine to form one cohesive novel. Six is a structurally flexible number just as the narrative is extremely flexible. Faulkner can pick and choose who relates each experience and in doing so adds layers of information to the plot. Sections where Faulkner wants to create a detached feeling are told either by townsfolk or the catatonic Cash, but he has the ability to use highly emotional characters such as Jewel to emphasize a point.
Six is a precise number and Faulkner’s style is equally precise. His characters are meticulously shaped from their actions, to their words, down to their basic thought processes. From a connectivity level, six is seen as the magic number that connects all humans to one another in just as many steps. Although the townsfolk are usually only one degree away from the Bundrens, it is interesting to see how Faulkner brings his other stories into play in As I Lay Dying. Specifically, Tull mentions a neighbor who may have the provisions that Anse needs. That person is Flem Snopes who is the protagonist in a trilogy that Faulkner later released. He managed to not only create Snopes in passing, but transform him from a passing remark into an entire trilogy. Like a hexagon within a circle, Faulkner creates complicated yet purposeful connections within a space that is highly efficient at filling that space.
No other number represents so strict a discipline as the number six which is in turn exactly how Faulkner constructs his novel. There are no vagaries, or rather there are no meaningless loose ends, in As I Lay Dying, there are snug tight relations. The irony of the meticulous nature of the novel is the apparent downward spiral towards chaos that the entire family is bent on. It is as though Faulkner realized that a loosely created story that begets a loosely tied family that falls apart is apropos and boring, but degeneration within a solid foundation is beautiful enough to grasp the reader.