As I Lay Dying :: essays research papers fc

As I Lay DyingWilliam Faulkners As I Lay Dying is a novel about how the opposed agendaswithin a family tear it apart. Every member of the family is to a degreeresponsible for what goes wrong, but none more than Anse. Anses laziness andselfishness are the underlying factors to all disaster in the book.As the critic Andre Bleikasten agrees, "there is scarcely a character inFaulkner so loaded with faults and vices" (84).At twenty-two Anse becomes sick from on the job(p) in the sun after which he refusesto work claiming he will die if he ever breaks a sweat again. Anse becomes lazy,and turns Addie into a baby manufactory in order to have children to do all the work.Addie is inbittered by this, and is never the same. Anse is begrudging ofeverything. Even the cost of a doctor for his dying wife seems money break upspent on false teeth to him. "I never sent for you" Anse says "I take you towitness I never sent for you" (37) he repeats try to avoid a doctors fe e.Before she dies Addie requests to be buried in Jefferson. When she does, Anseappears obsessed with burying her there. Even after Addie had been dead over aweek, and all of the link up to Jefferson are washed out, he is still determinedto get to Jefferson.Is Anse sincere in wanting to fulfill his promise to Addie, or is he driven byanother motive? Anse plays "to perfection the role of the grief-strickenwidower" (Bleikasten 84) magical spell secretly thinking further of getting another wifeand false teeth in Jefferson. When it becomes necessary to drive the wagonacross the river, he proves himself to be undeniably lazy as he makes Cash,Jewel, and Darl drive the wagon across while he walks over the bridge, aspectator.Anse is also stubborn he could have borrowed a team of mules from Mr. Armstid,but he insists that Addie would not have wanted it that way. In truth thoughAnse uses this to justify trading Jewels horse for the mules to spare himselfthe expense. Numerous times i n the book he justifies his actions by aninterpretation of Addies will.Anse not only trades Jewels horse without asking, but he also steals Cashsmoney. Later on he lies to his family saying that he spent his savings andCashs money in the trade. "I belief him and Anse never traded," Armstid said."Sho," they did "All they liked was the horse" Eustace a farmhand of Mr. Snopessaid.