Addie Bundren arises from a family with a clear answer to the philosophical inquiry surrounding the meaning of life. In the beginning of her solitary chapter, she provides the reader with this credence from her father, “I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time” (169). Just as the statement is juxtaposing living with dying, Addie recounts this memory in correlation to her memories of going down a hill to be alone after the school day in the early spring of her teaching career. She claims that early spring was the best time for “the quiet smelling of damp and rotting leaves and new earth” (169). This imagery reveals the contrasting aspects of nature; whereas even in the season of new life, death is an ever present force. This mirrors Addie’s own conflicting
Addie Bundren arises from a family with a clear answer to the philosophical inquiry surrounding the meaning of life. In the beginning of her solitary chapter, she provides the reader with this credence from her father, “I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time” (169). Just as the statement is juxtaposing living with dying, Addie recounts this memory in correlation to her memories of going down a hill to be alone after the school day in the early spring of her teaching career. She claims that early spring was the best time for “the quiet smelling of damp and rotting leaves and new earth” (169). This imagery reveals the contrasting aspects of nature; whereas even in the season of new life, death is an ever present force. This mirrors Addie’s own conflicting