Anse Bundren example essay topic

Few novels delve into the depths of the human psyche as effectively as William Faulkner's eccentric novel, As I Lay Dying. Written in a stream-of-consciousness style and narrated by fifteen different characters, As I Lay Dying not only reflects the religious and moral values of a family torn by the death of its matriarch, but it sprouts forth each and every characters innermost thoughts and feelings, suspended in a timeless setting where past, present, and future fuse together to create a journey an odyssey in which there is one destination, but many different routes. Above all, this novel is about how the conflicting and individual agendas of a family tear it apart. The Bundrens are one in their mission to bury their beloved Addie, yet each member of the family is isolated from the rest, each with their own secret mission, and each with their own selfish expression of grief. The family bond in As I Lay Dying is so lonely and weak that it is almost non-existent. Throughout the physically, emotionally, and psychologically stressful funeral journey that takes place in the novel, the Bundren family travels in isolation, torn apart by broken-down values, selfish motives, and silently bred grief in their attempt to complete Addie's dying wish to be buried with her kinfolk in Jefferson.

Each member's internal flaws clash with the situation at hand and in a way contribute to the many things that go wrong along the journey. Anse Bundren, the patriarch of the family, is perhaps the most pivotal and effective character in his representation and reflection of the family's flaws and weak bond. At twenty-two, Anse becomes sick from working in the sun after which he refuses to work claiming he will die if he ever breaks a sweat again. Anse becomes lazy and turns Addie into a baby factory in order to have children doing all the work, inhibiting Addie and making her bitter. Anse is begrudging of everything.

Even the cost of a doctor for his dying wife seems money better spent on false teeth to him. "I never sent for you' Anse says. "I take you to witness I never sent for you' (36) he repeats, trying to avoid a doctor's fee. Throughout the journey, Anse plays to perfection the role of the grief-stricken widower while secretly thinking only of getting another wife and false teeth in Jefferson. When it becomes necessary to drive the wagon across the river, he proves himself to be undeniably lazy as he makes Cash, Jewel, and Darl drive the wagon across while he walks over the bridge, a spectator. What defies explanation is why Anse is so cold-hearted and indifferent to his children.

What has changed him from the hard working twenty-two year old man he once was? By thinking only of himself, Anse indirectly destroys his family. He is selfish whenever his needs conflict with those of his family and his motives for cheating and lying range from the greed of money to self-pity. Instead of what can I do for them Anse will always be the one thinking what can they do for me. The family's lack of a central bond, or rather a natural love that usually binds a family together, is epitomized by the one monologue that Addie has in the novel, wherein she remembers her tortured existence as a schoolteacher, her almost empty and child-bearing marriage to Anse, and her brief but passionate courtship with Whitfield. With her description of Anse as bachelor and of his matter-of-fact courtship methods, his idiosyncrasies as a widower become much more understandable.

Addie comes off as being a lonely character, searching for divinity that she could not find in Anse, therefore made it tangible with Whitfield. She bore Jewel as a bastard son, which more than explains his overwhelming reaction to her death. Through her monologue, Addie gives the reader a sense of understanding why the Bundren family is as disconnected as it is. She has an inner, spiritual struggle, with which she creates a ripple that travels to every member of her family and puts distance between them. She favors her bastard son, Jewel, which not only sets aside her love for him more than for her other children, but it in turn isolates Jewel from the rest of the family, as can be seen by the way he acted throughout the journey. Burying Addie and fulfilling her final wish is the ultimate goal of the journey or is it?

Jewel, Cash, Darl, and Var daman grieve in their own erratic ways for the loss of their mother grieving genuinely but alone. Yet Anse and Dewey Dell have agendas of their own. Anse needs new teeth and a new wife (of course) and Dewey Dell, along with her libido, travels with them to obtain an abortion pill. The fact that they were so quick in deciding to send Darl away to a mental institution speaks for itself there is no bond that runs through the Bundrens and keeps them locked into place by love, caring, and family values. Each member of the Bundren family has no sense of what the other feels, no sense of what should bring them together in this supposedly grief-stricken time of their lives. They travel together, but they travel alone.

They endure an odyssey, yet they all battle their own monsters. Their weakness makes them a family of lonely warriors, with all odds against them and no bond to get them through.