Addie Bundren Essay

is constantly tired and can not complete his daily chores. Addie gives Jewel’s jobs to Dewey Dell and Vardaman, and gives Jewel less to do. She prepares him special foods and hides it for him. At this time in the book, readers do not know the reason for Addie’s favoritism of Jewel but they find out when Darl says “. . . fix him special things and hide them. And that may be when I first found it out…” (Faulkner 130). Darl mentions that Addie believed that deceit was one of the worst things. This begs

psychoanalytical approach of William Faulkner’s, As I lay Dying. In this story, the Bundren family suffers the loss of Addie Bundren a loved wife and mother. Anse and the rest of the family, honoring her last wish, make the trip to Jefferson to bury her with her relatives. During the trip every thing that could go wrong does. This story is told from plentiful points of view and reveals the psychological state of the Bundren

takes place during the 1920’s in Mississippi and surrounds the Bundren family. The story is told by 15 different narrators as the Bundren family makes it to Jefferson, Mississippi to bury the mother of the family, Addie Bundren, while the characters deal with their own interests and conflicts. Due to the 15 different characters telling the story, each section can recount the same event differently

of fifteen characters with more than fifty-nine chapters. It narrates the narrative of the bereavement of Addie Bundren and the family expedition and motivations to honor her longing to be put to rest in the Jefferson town (Faulkner, William, & Michael 43) In the entire novel, Faulkner presents fifteen different points of views with each chapter narrated by a single character including Addie who expresses her though from the casket after her death. The chapters are narrated in such a way that the

The action of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is simple: Addie Bundren dies; and in answer to her wishes, the body is taken for burial to Jefferson, some forty miles away. But the weather intervenes, and floodwaters require that the cortege take detours. Some nine days pass before the coffin, which before long clearly announces its passing to neighboring places, is finally laid to rest. These days involve battling flood water and a fire set by one of the children, the threat of buzzards, the hazards

interpretations of her character. Addie could easily be seen through the modern day feminist’s lens, claiming that Addie felt suppressed by societies’ patriarchal values and struggled to find her proper purpose outside of motherhood and marriage. A more accurate and probably more relevant interpretation in consideration of the setting would be that Faulkner used her character to personify the intensity of human loneliness. Cora Tull, a neighbor of the Bundrens, said that Addie “lived, a lonely woman, lonely

in doing so damage their family. Anse Bundren treated his children like farm equipment. For example, he ignored Cash’s broken leg, left Dewey Dell to deal with her pregnancy by herself, robbed Jewel of his only treasure, and ultimately put Darl in a mental institution. His primary goal is to get to town to find a new wife for example Kate says, “Or if it aint her, he’ll get another one before contton-picking” (709). To me this is more damaging because Addie is not dead yet, and they are already discussing

atmosphere is ignorant and confusing because the characters are offbeat and unnatural. Moreover, both authors use symbolism to depict the bizarre atmosphere of their apocryphal works. Throughout As I Lay Dying, Addie Bundren’s coffin symbolizes the eccentric and unbalanced relationship of the Bundren family. Similarly, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother represents goodness and how it eventually can lead to death. These symbols influence and create the atmosphere of peculiarity in both pieces

seen with a negative perspective, it may also be viewed with a light. Darl and Jewel fight for the compassion of their mother, Addie. Darl is jealous of Jewel because of Addie’s favoritism towards him. While the story progresses towards Addie’s death, Darl forces Jewel to

in such a way that he is not narrating the book but his characters are. This technique is used to draw the reader’s attention in and through this technique, the reader is forced to figure out who each character is and their relationship to the the Bundren family. Faulkner creates an ongoing conflict between the family members and other outside characters.