The Burden Of As I Lay Dying
After reading As I Lay Dying, I was unsettled by something. It wasn't the plot, although As I Lay Dying had a singularly bizarre storyline. During the action of the novel a mother dies, and her family embarks upon a disastrous journey in order to fulfill her last wishes. The eldest son breaks his leg, the family has to sell or mortgage practically all it's worldly goods, and Jewel risks his life twice in order to get his mother's body to Jefferson, and not including the fact that there is next to no mourning following Addie's death, the most basic tribute a family can give, is only the tip of the iceberg of selfishness which seems to characterize the Bundren family.
The trip to Jefferson, a journey that under other circumstances could be seen as a family's tribute to a fallen matriarch, was ruined by the selfish motives of most of the family. Dewey Dell wanted to go to get an abortion, Vardaman wanted to go to get some bananas, Anse wanted to go to get a new set of teeth, and Cash wanted to purchase a record player. Not only were the motives selfish, but also they were very obvious. The Bundren's neighbor Tull expresses the absurdity of the situation best when he said, They would risk the fire and the earth and the water and all just to eat a sack of bananas. Indeed, the last images of the Bundren's as a family are of them eating bananas out of a sack, and sitting around a record player at home.
There were two members of the family, however, with no ulterior motives for going into town- Jewel and Darl. The two seem to have no object in getting to town other than the burial of Addie Bundren. Both Darl and Jewel had special connections with their mother. It is tempting to draw the conclusion that Darl loved his mother the most. He narrated the majority of the chapters in the novel. Cora Tull is certainly under the impression that Darl loves his mother the most when she says, it was between her and Darl that the true...
View Full Essay
