Q: Faulkner's modernist masterpiece As I Lay Dying as essentially comic, in the broad sense of "life-affirming" rather than tragic or entirely confined to the facts of suffering and death, important though those things are to the story. You might take that as your starting point and go on to explore some key passages in As I Lay Dying in this light. Of course, you might also take up a contrary view, which would be that the story is closer to tragedy in its manner and outcome than it is to dark comedy. Either way, the point would be to back up what you argue by means of discussing selected portions of the text carefully.