Title- lack of love, and loneliness
Conclusion- Addie Bundren is egocentric, interested more in forcing an awareness of herself on others than she is in caring for the needs of her children.
Thesis- Addie Bundren's attitude at the time of the birth of each of her children is reflected in the personality and actions of the child.
Conclusion paragraph - Faulkner's purpose was to show how the Bundrens are unable to establish satisfactory relationships within the family. Addie Bundren is egocentric, interested more in forcing an awareness of herself on others than she is in caring for the needs of her children. On page 104 of her book, Ineke Bocting writes “Addie’s family members were part of the situation that she needed to create to sustain herself: Anse is thus linked with aggression, Cash with symbiosis, Darl with denial, Jewel with guilt, and Dewey Dell and Vardaman with death”. All of this can be determined by her reaction to the birth of each child, and the way she treated them up until her passing. Her attitude toward her children, whether love, hostility, or indifference, helps them define themselves and their response to her death. She substitute’s negative values for love, which in one way or another, are reflected in her children.
Addie Bundren was born an isolated and lonely soul, openly unloved by her family and rather strongly affected by the nihilistic philosophy of her father, who had taught her that the reason for living was no more than an extended preparation for death. Addie felt that during her whole life she had been neglected, and when she married Anse, she hoped that through the violence of birth she could achieve an awareness of life and force her presence upon others. Addie Bundren's attitude at the time of the birth of each of her children is reflected in the personality and actions of the child.
But then, as she came to this conclusion, she discovered that she had Darl. Thus Addie felt that somehow she had been tricked by Anse's words, and because she had been tricked, she could never accept Darl. The very fact that the words had tricked her was proof enough that Darl could never help violate her aloneness.
And it is ironic that Darl is the one son who continually inquires into the intricacies and awareness of life.
And finally Vardaman, born not from love but to replace another child, reflects this by replacing his dead mother with a dead fish.
Vardaman's repeated statements that he is not "anything" reflects Addie's opinion that people are nothing when they are not "violating." Dewey Dell is nothing because "I am alone." And Dewey Dell also shows Addie's egoism as she acts only for her own selfish satisfaction. Addie's need for violence is reflected in Jewel, and her desire to let the act replace the word is seen in Cash, who speaks only after some act is definitely performed or completed.
Darl, it will be remembered, was born unwanted and at a time when Addie came to the realization that she had been tricked by words. Darl, therefore, has Addie's awareness of the complexities of life, but as the rejected son, he rejects Addie's nihilistic philosophy of violence and destruction.
Faulkner's purpose was to show how the Bundren’s are unable to establish satisfactory relationships within the family. As far as they are concerned, their dysfunctions are sufficiently explained, but it all starts with the mother. The novel depicts a family in which the mother substituted negative values for love. Addie Bundren is egocentric, interested more in forcing an awareness of herself on others than she is in caring for the needs of her children. All of this can be determined by her reaction to the birth of each child, and the way she treated them up until her passing.
=== The novel's great dramatic conflict has nothing to do with the journey to Jefferson, it is only incidentally concerned with it. It is essentially a novel of the tensions between Darl and Jewel, the one an unwanted and the other an
