Essay about Addie Bundren in William Faulkner’s As I Lay...

Addie Bundren in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying Woman is the source and sustainer of virtue and also a prime source of evil. She can be either; because she is, as man is not, always a little beyond good and evil. With her powerful natural drive and her instinct for the concrete and personal, she does not need to agonize over her decisions. There is no code for her to master, no initiation for her to undergo. For this reason she has access to a wisdom which is veiled from man; and man’s codes, good or bad, are always, in their formal abstraction, a little absurd in her eyes . . . 1 In William Faulkner’s â€Å"As I Lay Dying,† all roads lead to Addie. As Diane York Blaine aptly observes: â€Å"The title†¦show more content†¦Addie narrates a significantly shorter portion of the novel than the rest of the Bundren family (only one chapter, in fact), and her death occurs well before the story’s conclusion. For these reasons, earlier criticism evaluated Addie not as an individual, but in relation to the other members of the Bundren clan, specifically, the men. Overall, Addie’s importance to the novel was grievously underestimated by early critics such as Edwin Muir, who observes: We are told far more about Addie Bundren’s corpse . . . than about herself . . . The most interesting character is the corpse, not in its former incarnation as a human being with feelings, affections, and a soul, but simply in its dead, or rather gruesomely alive state . . .3 Just as Anse is unable to discern the difference between words and acts, Muir is unable to recognize Addie in anything but a symbol, defined by the physical presence of her dead body. Other critics were more overt in their patriarchal assessments. James Burnham sternly commented on the theme of un-romanticized sex in the novel. Dewey Dell and Addie are seen as guilty of this charge; their rejection of maternity as a consequence of sex deems them unnatural, contributing to the theme of â€Å"moral nihilism†4 that pervades the novel. Thus, early criticism, still largely dominated by conservatively patriarchalShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of As I Lay Dying1599 Words   |  7 Pagesthe story, by William Faulkner, As I lay Dying, the Bundren family suffers the loss of Addie Bundren a beloved wife and mother. In honoring Addie’s last wish, the Bundrens 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 completely unstable psychological state of the Bundren family. Through a psychoanalytical approach of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, readers will seeRead MoreWilliam Faulkners As I Lay Dying Essay1482 Words   |  6 PagesIn As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner uses the characters Anse and Cash, and a motif/symbol in My mother is a fish, to reveal the psychological and societal problems of the twenties and thirties. Written as soon as the panic surrounding the stock market in 1929 started, Faulkner is rep orted as having, â€Å"took one of these [onion] sheets, unscrewed the cap from his fountain pen, and wrote at the top in blue ink, As I Lay Dying. Then he underlined it twice and wrote the date in the upper right-handRead MoreThe Effects of Bad Parenting in As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 1109 Words   |  5 Pageslife of their child. Both William Faulkner’s â€Å"As I Lay Dying† and Toni Morrison’s â€Å"The Bluest Eye† demonstrating a principle that when parents are bound to their twisted, manipulative, and even immoral values that their children will ultimately be the ones to pay the price as they either embrace the similar hollow values themselves or set out to fulfill their own desires through often times self-destructive means. In â€Å"As I Lay Dying† by William Faulkner Addie Bundren seems to portray hollow valuesRead MoreFeminist Lens : Addie Bundren And Blanche Dubois1247 Words   |  5 PagesThrough A Feminist Lens: Addie Bundren Blanche DuBois An astonishing story with fifteen narrators, As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner and a scandalously invigorating play, A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams revolve around the notion that society’s standards and beliefs limit the happiness and freedom of women through the hands of men. Since patriarchal societies have disregarded women for centuries, literature contends to expose and enlighten readers to the rough situations womenRead MoreWilliam Faulkner s As I Lay Dying Essay1672 Words   |  7 PagesIn As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner captures the reader with reality in a perplexing and unequivocal portrayal of a Mississippi family. Born in Mississippi, Faulkner’s expertise in innovative techniques of language qualified him for his accomplishments in the Nobel Prize for Literature (1949), the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1955 1963), and the National Book Award (1951 1955) (William Faulkner Biography). Although referred to by some critics as a simple nove l, Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying uses technicalRead MoreAs I Lay Dying by William Faulkner997 Words   |  4 PagesAs I lay dying is an American novel authored by William Faulkner. The novel is among the best-ranked novels in the 20th century literature. The Faulkner’s seventh novel derives the title from the book XI of the homers the odyssey. In the introduction, Agamemnon converse with Odysseus: ‘’as I lay dying, the woman with the dog’s eyes could not close my eyes as I descend into Hades’’. The book consists of fifteen characters with more than fifty-nine chapters. It narrates the narrative of the bereavementRead MoreThematic Correlations Between As I Lay Dying And The Old Testament1383 Words   |  6 PagesSince its original publication in 1930, the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner has drawn much exploration and critique. Though this analysis is very far reaching and broad in topic, one interesting route of investigation is the novels connection to the Old Testament. One does not have to be a Christian to study the similarities in theme; there are very many occurrences of biblical subject matter and correlation, these having been studied by student and scholar alike. The Old Testament is knownRead MoreEssay on Critical History of As I Lay Dying3014 Words   |  13 PagesNashia Horne 28 November 2011 English 290 Critical History Assignment Many of William Faulkner’s books, especially ‘As I Lay Dying’ focused on the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. The themes of his and other Southern authors included: a common Southern history, the significance of family, a sense of community and one’s role within it, the Church and its burdens and rewards, racial tension, land and the promise it brings, one’s social class and place, and, sometimes, the use ofRead MoreAnalysis Of William Faulkner s I Lay Dying 1486 Words   |  6 PagesOn the back of my edition of As I Lay Dying there is a quote from William Faulkner on the subject of his novel. The quote says: I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I even put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall. The end result is a work of precision and care. Each word has been carefully chosen and carefully ordered to create his â€Å"tour-de-forceâ⠂¬ . This can be both a comfort and a frustration toRead MoreAnalysis Of William Faulkners As I Lay Dying1840 Words   |  8 Pagesgroups can be applied to a 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 family, demonstrating the struggle for peace within