Tag Archives: Anse

The Different Purposes of the Bundren’s family on its Journey to Jefferson

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The major purpose of the Bundren’s family going to Jefferson is supposed to bury Addie. As we go through the monologues of these different characters, we notice that they have other purposes for going to the town. Anse, the father, intends to fulfill the promise he made to Addie of burying her in “New Hope”, where she wanted to be buried. However, he is more willing to go to Jefferson so that he can get new teeth. It becomes a selfish desire because his wife has just passed away and he is only thinking about his appearance. 

As Carolyn Porter states, “The extended and grotesque funeral procession, then, is a travesty of bereavement, carried out by Anse Bundren on the grounds that he promised Addie he would take her to Jefferson to be buried, but driven by his desire to secure a new set of teeth and a new wife” (67). Anse seems to not care about the promise that he made to his wife because he is more worried about arriving in the town and finally getting his new set of teeth. Ironically, that is the only hope he has in a moment where he should be thinking of how his life and his children’s lives will be without his wife and their mother. 

On the other hand, we also perceive how another member of the family gives the idea of considering more important a personal “issue” than the death of her mother. Dewey Dell finds herself pregnant a few days before her mother’s death. She thinks that Darl might know about her pregnancy and she tries to keep it secret from the other people around her. Dewey Dell says, “He said he knew without the words like he told me that ma is going to die without words, and I knew he knew because if he had said he knew with the words I would not have believed that he had been there and saw us” (AILD, 27). Through the novel, we can see how Darl can know what is happening in his house while he is away with Jewel. It seems believable that he might know about Dewey Dell’s pregnancy without her having to tell him or without him having to be present in the act. Dewey Dell believes that the doctor Peabody could help her with it. Thus, she goes to Jefferson hoping that she could get an abortion. Carolyn Porter affirms, “Dewey Dell is equally committed to this mocke1y of faithful memorialization because she is pregnant and seeks an abortion, which she hopes somehow to get in town” (67).

Apparently, Dewey Dell and her father, Anse are using Addie’s death as an excuse for going to modernity: new teeth, abortion. However, it can also be a way of coping for their loss as Cash does focusing on work, as Jewel does cursing on his siblings and wishing to have his mother only for himself and as Darl does focusing on mentality and his ability to be in two places at once. Even Vardaman who is only seven or eight years old wants to go to the town so that he can get a toy that he saw on Christmas. Finally, they all, except Jewel, resemble having different purposes to go Jefferson, and Addie’s hope to be bury in “New Hope”  and have her family together at her funeral looks like something that only she seems to care about.

3. Blood guilt and the fish

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Anse Bundren doesn’t understand the concept of responsibility unless it is to make demands of the people around him. Whether he is aware of it or not, he takes advantage of his status as patriarch. As Carolyn Porter describes, “Consider that he does no real work. He depends on his children, his neighbors, and the good Lord to take care of him” (79). His only action is to reject help as a show of his pride. The death of his wife, Addie, comes as a result of not sending for a doctor sooner.

The fact that he does not take responsibility for her death is apparent in two places. First when he says, “God’s will be done” (AILD 52) right after Addie’s death. Second and more significant is before her death in an interaction with Vardaman after he cleans the fish he caught, “Vardaman comes around the house, bloody as a hog to his knees… ‘Go wash them hands,’ I say… ‘Pa,’ he says, ‘is ma sick some more?’ ‘Go wash them hands,’ I say” (AILD 38). It is notably odd that even though Vardaman is bloody “to his knees,” Anse only tells him to wash his hands. It is possible to read this in the classic sense of washing one’s hands of metaphorical blood. In other words, cleaning themselves from the responsibility of a killing. On page 37, Anse tried to downplay Addie’s condition to Dr. Peabody. This, combined with how long it took for him to call the doctor, implies he might be suffering from subconscious guilt in his response to Vardaman. Anse’s avoidance of Vardaman’s question of Addie’s status by repeating his command is indicative of this.

Additionally, this is possibly the reason Vardaman becomes fixated with the fish and later associating it with his dead mother. Because Anse told him to only wash his hands along with Vardaman having been the one to have caught the fish in the first place, he could be misplacing the responsibility of the death onto the one who last physically dealt with the deceased. Later Vardaman seems to be having a breakdown in the barn when he repeats, “He kilt her… She never hurt him and he come and kilt her” (AILD 63) about the doctor. Doctors often deal with patients by surgically opening them up to fix them. However, it seems that Vardaman’s earlier act of cleaning and gutting the fish became associated with the doctor’s role of surgeon. He thinks that just like he killed the fish, the doctor killed his mother. The concept of blood guilt could have been introduced to him first by his father, Anse, because he was told by him to wash his hands even though he was almost entirely covered in blood.

This shows the dysfunction of the Bundren household. Through Anse making demands without partaking in his responsibilities, his children have twisted misperceptions of themselves and their roles. Vardaman, in particular, is actively processing what blood guilt means by equating his mother to a fish. This is the result of his father’s inability to take responsibility.

No Need to Speak

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From the very start of As I Lay Dying, Darl is established not just as a primary narrator in the novel, but also as the most eccentric character. Often, narrations given by other characters are sandwiched between his own in a constant affirmation of his primacy. At the same time, though, his peculiar perspective only sets him farther apart from, rather than above, the rest of his family; indeed, it alienates him from them, as sometimes his singularity elicits an almost prophetic nature. I argue, however, that this capacity for clairvoyance runs through the Bundren family with more fluidity than readers, or the characters themselves, may naturally perceive. Granted, Darl often appears to be the common force bestowing this special ability upon the others; still, in different degrees they all reflect a common sensitivity.

Products of their parents, the Bundren children (excepting Jewel, on account of his only partial biological relation) all reflect the strange influence of Anse and Addie’s complicated union. In other words, the way the Bundren children relate to their world is inherently based on how they relate to their parents’ idiosyncrasies: their collective criticalness of Anse’s moral deficiencies, and simultaneously, their inheritance of his tendency towards metaphor; from Addie, they assume a drastic stoicism and a confused relationship with words, names and labels. Indeed, even Addie’s sole narration in the novel reveals, for example, a likely source of the similarly existential crisis Dewel Dell experiences in her own nightmare-state: “I couldn’t think what I was I couldn’t think of my name I couldn’t even think I am a girl I couldn’t even think I” (121). Similarly, Addie’s assessment of words combined with Anse’s metaphorical reasonings regarding the physical formations of all God’s creatures seems to similarly influence Vardaman’s conception of his mother as a fish, his brother Jewel, a horse.

Moreover on the discourse of words, Darl and Dewey Dell exhibit a relationship in which words are often unnecessary, if not outright irrelevant. They communicate, the both of them, and comprehend each other, “without words” (27). In fact, as Dewey Dell notes, the certainty of their mutual understanding would actually be compromised if the expressions were vocalized: “[I]f he had said he knew with the words I would not have believed that he had been there and saw us” (27). The notion that non-verbal expressions can manifest such power is further emphasized by Dewey Dell when she describes the immense capacity embodied in Darl’s eyes: “The land runs out of Darl’s eyes; they swim to pin points. They begin at my feet and rise along my body to my face, and then my dress is gone” (121). In this instance, Darl doesn’t just successfully express a simple sentiment to Dewey Dell; he penetrates her psyche, disarming her with one sweeping, yet incisive look.

Darl and his older brother Cash, too, reveal an ability to understand one another outside the realm of verbal communication. Before the catastrophe at the river, for example, Darl describes this nature: “[Cash] and I look at one another with long probing looks, looks that plunge unimpeded through one another’s eyes . . . When we speak our voices are quiet, detached” (142). Clearly, the brothers engage more naturally through facial expressions than verbal ones. Indeed, twice more in the same narration, Darl and Cash communicate without words. First, Darl describes a memory of Addie holding Jewel on a pillow longer than his infant body, but he doesn’t speak his remembering. So when Cash so casually responds as if, with ease, he could hear Darl’s thoughts aloud, readers may almost miss the unspoken transmission that has taken place between the brothers. And again, as they reach the place where they will attempt the river-crossing, Cash must merely look at Darl in order to ask if he join in the undertaking.

Similarities between the Compson and the Bundren Family

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As I Lay Dying has many analogous ideas and themes to The Sound and The Fury. Many of the contrasting ideas and themes are metaphoric representations of the protagonist through different objects, time unable to move forward, and similar character roles each family member play. In As I Lay Dying there are various accounts of human- animal interconnections that relate Addie to a fish and a horse. Similar to The Sound and the Fury, Caddie is symbolized to Benjy as fire, a caddie in golf, and a slipper. Faulkner uses these projections to symbolize that Caddie and Addie are always internally present within their family despite Addie’s death and Caddie’s lack of presence.  On pages 53, 67, and 84, Vardaman’s narrative focuses on the dead fish to embody Addie’s existence. Vardaman’s paranoia arises as he becomes unable to articulate and differentiate Addie’s existence from the fish’s existence and concludes someone killed Addie while she has been dead in her bed for ten days (54). Through Vardaman’s narrative, Addie is able to remain present in society only if the fish is devoured by each family member thus each family member will embody a part of Addie’s spirit (66-67), an example of animal magnetism;  “A magnetic charm or appeal” (Merriam Webster) towards the perseverance of Addie’s existence.   Furthermore, instead of an embodiment as a fish, Jewel perceives his mother as a horse. On pages 135-136, Jewel purchases a horse with his own money saved from “cleaning up forty acres of new ground Quick laid out last spring,” he also tells Anse the horse will never eat anything that belongs to him which shows Jewel’s separation in the family as well as his affection for the horse. By comparing his mother to a horse, we come to the realization Jewel isn’t cruel or mean hearted as Cora perceives him to be (21), instead he’s misperceived.

“Without stopping it overends and rears again, pauses, then crashes slowly forward and through the curtain. This time Jewel is riding upon it, clinging to it, until it crashes down and flings him forward and clear and Mack leaps forward into a thin smell of scorching meat and slaps at the widening crimson-edged holes that bloom like flowers in his undershirt” (222).

The movement of the river rushing the casket downstream compares to a wild horse attempting to thrust Jewel off it. From the beginning of the novel it is clear Jewel treats his horse with tough love, caring for it through derogatory movements (13), but for Jewel to risk his life to safe the casket would emphasis his care for his mother is a mere reflection for his care of his horse. Thus, for Jewel to state his mother is a horse only further indicates his feelings towards his mother is more personable and more profound which leads to the question if Jewel is not able to perceive his mother as a horse would he have rescued his mother from the river?

Time unable to progress forward is made clear from each family member’s inability to cope with Addie’s death. After Addie’s death each family member develops onset of problems: existence for Darl, sexuality for Dewey Dell, and the parallels of reality for Vardaman and Jewel. This exemplifies Addie’s death only hinders each family member’s ability to progress in life.  On page 146, “It is as though the space between us were time; an irrevocable quality. It is as though time, no longer running straight before us in a diminishing line, now runs parallel between us like a looping string, the distance being the doubling accretion of the thread and not the interval between,” implicitly draws upon the burden of Addie’s death as an entropic effect not only on her children but on time as well. The idea that separation of Addie and her children is not a spatial factor but a temporal factor implies Addie’s death disrupted the continuous rhythm of time moving forward, instead, time is now hindered and doubling backwards into the past. A disastrous foreshadowing for the Bundren family once Addie died. This is very much contrasts to Quentin’s narrative in The Sound and the Fury; his constant battle to irrevocably attempt to escape time and his past leads him to commit suicide since the progression of time and the memories from the past are inescapable.

Lastly, from Addie’s narrative it is clear Jewel is the “black sheep” of the family due to an erroneous affair Addie has with Whitfield. Addie favors Jewel and firmly believes Jewel will be her salvation saving her from water and fire (168), similarly to Mrs. Compson with Jason in The Sound and the Fury, she believes Jason will rescue her from the downfall of the family’s name as she constantly reminds him he is a Bascomb and not a Compson. Dewey Dell relates to Caddy as they both are impregnated out of wedlock and is at a threshold between womanhood, Benjy and Darl would relate to one another due to their observant personas but Darl is able to comprehend what he sees, every character but Anse would relate to Quentin due to them repressing time and their inability to cope with their past, and finally, Anse and Mr. Compson are both not present/ active father figures in the story since Mr. Compson’s most indicative role in The Sound and The Fury is to leave Quentin at a threshold between time and the meaning of life in comparison to Anse who sells Jewel’s horse

Alternative Motives within the Bundren Family

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The final moments of Addie Bundren seem to reflect the disharmony in the family and the separation they have from the outside world. Cash, who has only spoken once says “She’s gone” (48), brings about an eerie mood; he acts almost as a death reaper as he constructs a casket for Addie outside her bedroom. Cash may foreshadow the bad luck the family will carry once Addie is dead or Cash may be taking the bad luck, Addie Bundren, away from the family.  Cora and Jewel seem to be the most emotionally distant from Addie’s illness, as Cora wants acknowledgement and possibly be rewarded for staying by Addie’s side while Jewel doesn’t seem to be emotionally impacted. On page 19, Jewel mentions, “If everybody wasn’t burning hell to get her there… with Cash all day long right under the window, hammering and sawing at that”, her father responds by “You got no affection nor gentleness for her. You never had.” All the while, on page 22, Cora commends for watching over Addie as she hopes one day her family will do the same for her. From those two comments it would seem they would be unreliable narrators as they are biased and out for self-pity. Darl’s narrations are more evoked with imagery and sound and quite reminiscent of some of Benjy’s characteristics from TSAF. Darl is most in touch with Addie’s illness as he is able to sense the oncoming death (27, 40) and is the only person who is insistent on mentioning if Addie is going to die. Darl is very conscious and aware of his surroundings like Benjy to Caddy. However, on page 40, Darl’s conversation with Dewey Dell “You want her to die so you can get to town is that it?” transitions Addie’s death as a means of escape. Also, Anse’s constant mention of teeth “God’s will be done, now I can get them teeth” (52) may present Addie Bundren as a burden and possibly bad luck on the family.

The entropy that exists in this book lies from the Bundren family’s want to escape to the outside world, a world beyond their home on the hill. On pages 32 and 42, it mentions the fixation Anse has towards leaving his home, “Eyes look like pieces of burnt-out cinder” and “Anse has not been in town in twelve years.” The references of road and town once Addie has died lead me to believe she held the family together while Anse is the person tearing the family apart. Nonetheless, Addie’s burial ground will be in Jefferson in which during the journey will clarify how Addie Bundren contributed to her family, what each family member’s true motive for “escape” is,  and the definition of “bad luck” which has been repeated on numerous occasions.