The Bundren Family In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

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With a mother close to death, a self-absorbed father, and children uninvolved with each other, William Faulkner portrays the Bundren family from the beginning of his novel, As I Lay Dying, as disjointed and dysfunctional. The family’s journey to Jefferson to bury Addie further exposes their singular, competing agendas, leading the reader to believe that the purpose of the trip is not just to lay Addie to rest. Two of the more ostensibly single-minded characters, Dewey-Dell and Anse, appear to have clear-cut agendas that disregard Addie’s death, but a closer analysis reveals that they are in fact closely related to her. Dewey Dell’s intense focus on getting an abortion initially makes her seem unconcerned with the death of her own mother; …show more content…
While travelling to Jefferson, Anse’s main focus is on fixing his teeth—not on grieving for his wife or engaging in anything sentimental—until finally, in the end, he “got them teeth...his head up, hangdog and proud too’” and along with them, a brand new wife (261). But, his disrespect towards Addie’s death stems from something much deeper in their past relationship, more specifically her lack of commitment to the family. “In the afternoon when school was out and the last one had left with his little dirty snuffling nose, instead of going home I would go down the hill to the spring where I could be quiet and hate them” (169). Although Addie marries Anse and starts a family with him, she resents the children that they have created together. This type of marriage is not what Anse expects when he courts Addie with the intent of starting a family with her. In fact, Addie notes that Anse is emotionally invested in their relationship, saying that he “had a word, too. Love, he called it” (172). Addie’s feelings are certainly not reciprocal; she does not love Anse, and after Darl is born even says that she “believed that I would kill Anse” (172). Anse becomes emotionally involved in a relationship with his wife and children, just to be hated for it, setting the stage for his treatment of Addie when she dies. Addie has robbed Anse of a true family; instead he is stuck in a dysfunctional one built on hatred and lies, which justifies his desire to get rid of Addie and move on with a life of his own. “And now I got to pay for it, me without a tooth in my head, hoping to get ahead enough so I could get my mouth fixed where I could eat God’s own victuals as a man should, and her hale and well as ere a woman in the land until that day” (37). Anse’s loss
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