Morality In As I Lay Dying

In As I Lay Dying there is the question of whether or not the Burdens are trying to honor each other or trying to betray each other before and after the death of Addie. The characters in the novel are met with many difficult situations in which very difficult decisions must be made. Most often it would appear that the characters try to solve these situations in ways that help themselves the most, rather than the others. However, there are some instances in which their seemingly selfish acts are justified and what would seem like an attempt to cause a struggle for others was actually an attempt to help the others from going through with something they don 't have to. A few characters stood out more than others. Darl is a character who would appear to be mostly understanding of everything that happened. The death of his mother, the situation at the river, but something that he could not get over was the fact that Jewel had a different father and he didn 't know who it was. In his attempt to figure it out he nearly killed his his brother and managed to take one of the most important …show more content…
However, unknown to most, she had had an affair with another man even after having had children with the man she was married to, and then had more children with the man she was married to. This she felt was in no way dishonoring Anse but was instead doing something that was only for her. As she said here, “I would be I; I would let him be the shape and the echo of his word. ...Then I found that I had Jewel.”(174-175). She had this belief that she had fulfilled her duty as a wife and that she would now do something that was of her own will and that this child that she had would be something in the world that was not just of her. This both betrayed the family as a whole and honored her own