Barnes & Noble East Lansing Essay Contest Winners

Second Place Award
Jenni Lamb
MSU student

If I were one of the “book people” in Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, and I had to memorize a single book to save it from oblivion, I would probably choose As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner. I remember reading the book in my twelfth grade AP Literature class, and I know that few other books have impacted me as much as it did. I must admit, I realize the choice may not be a popular one, as I recall that the other students in my class virtually hated the selection. But I couldn’t put it down. Once I started realizing the deeper message that Faulkner was writing about, I was enthralled. He expounded and emphasized the dysfunction of one family to such a length that most people are immediately appalled. Yet, I saw what Faulkner was really trying to say; I understood that his message was not to disgust us with the details of a miscreant family, where the children were building the mother’s coffin before she had died and the entire book is nothing short of one catastrophe after another. No, what I took from Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, was a far greater appreciation for what I do have in life and how wonderful my family is. His book helps one to see the beauty in love, the beauty in family ties, by exacerbating the predicaments of a family who appeared, on the surface, to have neither. At the very base level, a reader realizes by the end of the book that if such a hard-knock family was actually filled and brimming over with love and ironclad bonds to one another, than one’s own family couldn’t possibly be that bad! I came away from my twelfth grade reading of As I Lay Dying, not only with a great piece of literature under my belt, but also an admiration for the inner workings of families and loved ones. Suddenly, I saw every disagreement my younger siblings had as an aggressive display of love. I began noticing the various looks and mutual understandings my parents expressed between each other without ever saying a word. And I truly began to feel that without family, there is nothing. As I began applying this principle to my life, I saw that family did not only mean or include those with the same blood type and similar DNA. I found extended families in my church, in my network of friends, and as I began attending Michigan State University, I found my place in the Spartan family of 42,000 plus. Without an understanding of love, and without an understanding of family, I honestly cannot see how humanity would go on. Thus, if the unfortunate circumstances came down to memorizing only a single book, I would be compelled to choose William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, and attempt to hold onto the complex knowledge of love and family.

Back to the list of winners