Character Analysis: As I Lay Dying

Plot: The matriarch of a poverty stricken southern family, Addie Bundren, lays dying in her bed. Married to Anse Bundren, she births five children: Jewel, Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman Bundren. Her neighbors, Vernon and Cora Tull (as well as their children), care for Addie in her final days as her family keeps the house running. Cash, the oldest, spends most of his time building a coffin for his mother right underneath her window. The second oldest child, Darl, and the youngest, Vardaman, just try to survive during the time of the book. Dewey Dell, the only daughter in the family, becomes pregnant and acts as if she does not care about the death of her mother, only the abortion of her bastard child. Jewel, known as Addie’s favorite child,
He enjoys connecting objects to characters. The wagon in the first section “stands beside the spring, hitched to the rail, the reins wrapped about the seat stanchion. In the wagon bed are two chairs” (Faulkner 4). The wagon belongs to the Bundrens neighbor Vernon Tull. It represents wealth, as most families cannot afford wagons, let alone wagons with seats. Addie’s object--her coffin--is mentioned before her. It definitely represents her death, and also the journey ahead, as the family has to transport her in it: “Addie Bundren could not want a better one, a better box to lie in” (Faulkner 5). Faulkner also uses large amounts of imagery. “The rain rushes suddenly down, without thunder, without warning of any sort” (Faulkner 77). He sets up the tone of the scene as it proceeds forward. Complex writing, often found in Faulkner’s writing, mixed with very simple sentences. “Beyond the unlamped wall I can hear the rain shaping the wagon that is ours, the load that is no longer theirs that felled and sawed it nor yet theirs that bought it and which is not ours either, lie on our wagon though it does, since only the rain shape it only to Jewel and me, that are not asleep” (Faulkner 80). Being such a long line, it gives the appearance of disarray, just like the family. But Faulkner pairs these lines with shorter lines such as “I don’t know what I am” (Faulkner 80). This line lays next to the long one, giving the story a choppy feel. Faulkner’s personal style differs from story to story, but he uses the same devices, just mixing and matching them.