As I Lay Dying
Addie Bundren’s death in As I Lay Dying is the main catalyst for the family’s formidable two day journey to Jefferson. Her final dying wish was to be buried there, it was her own revenge for the terrible life her family has given her. The old southern family struggle and face terrible obstacles but their ultimate obstacle was each other. Horribly unlikeable, the main characters of the book are caught up in their own selfishness and stupidity that it makes the trip all the much worse. It strikes a cord within readers because the Bundrens are the worst aspects of ourselves packed into a seven person family. The burdensome journey that the Bundrens undergo highlights and emphasizes how selfishness can lead to obstacles.
All the …show more content…
When crazy Darl set Armstid’s barn on fire to “cremate” the body, Jewel rushed in to grab the coffin despite Darl’s pleas. Darl’s executive decision to get rid of the body instead of making the trip to obey his mother’s request caused Jewel to risk his life to save his mother’s corpse. Jewel comes out the hero.Yet, as his brother Cash observes, since Jewel traded in his horse to “get her that nigh to town” that in a way it was the “ value of the horse” (Faulkner 233) that would have burned up, not his mother’s body. So Jewel’s actions that appeared selfless were actually motivated by a self-serving ego. He risked his life so that his sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain. Some would say that Jewel sacrificing his horse would have really been the selfless act but it wasn’t. Much like his other siblings Jewel wanted to get to town for an unexpressed reason. He wanted to be apart from the family. Getting to town symbolized freedom for Jewel. Freedom from the burdensome Bundrens. So if the vessel to town, the corpse, had been burned by the flame so would his ticket to town and so would his beloved horse and all that he worked for. Another selfish character is the woman herself, Addie Bundren. Her husband Anse meant very little to her. She didn’t want to marry but in the 1930’s what was a woman to do? When she had her first child, Cash, she felt like her “aloneness had to be …show more content…
Anse’s ultimate egocentrism had by far the biggest effect on his family. He felt he was the father and would take responsibility for nothing. He wouldn’t even help his family in the face of disaster, disaster that was caused by his determination to bury Addie in Jefferson. It was for her, it was for her, he’d keep saying but really it was for his new teeth. His inability to take responsibility takes a negative toll on his children, who clearly have plenty of issues. Jewel is forever anger, Dewey Dell feels alienated because she’s a woman, Cash’s leg becomes broken and Anse aggravates it by pouring cement on it, Darl goes insane, and Vardaman has difficulty understanding and dealing with the situation. None of the children are educated and because of their father’s selfishness their quality of life is poor and so are their prospects. Anse never takes responsibility for this because he is selfish and expects everything to be handed to
Addie Bundren’s death in As I Lay Dying is the main catalyst for the family’s formidable two day journey to Jefferson. Her final dying wish was to be buried there, it was her own revenge for the terrible life her family has given her. The old southern family struggle and face terrible obstacles but their ultimate obstacle was each other. Horribly unlikeable, the main characters of the book are caught up in their own selfishness and stupidity that it makes the trip all the much worse. It strikes a cord within readers because the Bundrens are the worst aspects of ourselves packed into a seven person family. The burdensome journey that the Bundrens undergo highlights and emphasizes how selfishness can lead to obstacles.
All the …show more content…
When crazy Darl set Armstid’s barn on fire to “cremate” the body, Jewel rushed in to grab the coffin despite Darl’s pleas. Darl’s executive decision to get rid of the body instead of making the trip to obey his mother’s request caused Jewel to risk his life to save his mother’s corpse. Jewel comes out the hero.Yet, as his brother Cash observes, since Jewel traded in his horse to “get her that nigh to town” that in a way it was the “ value of the horse” (Faulkner 233) that would have burned up, not his mother’s body. So Jewel’s actions that appeared selfless were actually motivated by a self-serving ego. He risked his life so that his sacrifice wouldn’t be in vain. Some would say that Jewel sacrificing his horse would have really been the selfless act but it wasn’t. Much like his other siblings Jewel wanted to get to town for an unexpressed reason. He wanted to be apart from the family. Getting to town symbolized freedom for Jewel. Freedom from the burdensome Bundrens. So if the vessel to town, the corpse, had been burned by the flame so would his ticket to town and so would his beloved horse and all that he worked for. Another selfish character is the woman herself, Addie Bundren. Her husband Anse meant very little to her. She didn’t want to marry but in the 1930’s what was a woman to do? When she had her first child, Cash, she felt like her “aloneness had to be …show more content…
Anse’s ultimate egocentrism had by far the biggest effect on his family. He felt he was the father and would take responsibility for nothing. He wouldn’t even help his family in the face of disaster, disaster that was caused by his determination to bury Addie in Jefferson. It was for her, it was for her, he’d keep saying but really it was for his new teeth. His inability to take responsibility takes a negative toll on his children, who clearly have plenty of issues. Jewel is forever anger, Dewey Dell feels alienated because she’s a woman, Cash’s leg becomes broken and Anse aggravates it by pouring cement on it, Darl goes insane, and Vardaman has difficulty understanding and dealing with the situation. None of the children are educated and because of their father’s selfishness their quality of life is poor and so are their prospects. Anse never takes responsibility for this because he is selfish and expects everything to be handed to