Controversial Thoughts about Anse and Addie

I will start with Anse. I have seen multiple blog posts and comments dedicated to the fact that Anse loves his wife, and that he has taken this journey to please her “soul” and “death-wish”. While I understand that most of these postings were done before the reading of the ending, some people still insist that he isn't all that bad. I would like to counter that argument.

It is true that Anse did not travel all the way to Jefferson for a new wife, but that fact that he asks a new woman to marry just hours after burying his own wife tells me something about Anse’s nature. He didn't actually care for Addie. She was just an excuse that he could make so that he could go to Jefferson with the help of his entire family, steal (not exactly, but kind of) his children’s money and get them fake teeth. And while he was at it, he also took a wife and a gramophone. Anse got golden because of this journey. Whenever he comes back, he’s come back with some new teeth, respected the “dying wish of his ex-wife”, has a brand new wife, and, the best part, he did it all without breaking a sweat. Of course, it came with its cost. Dewey Dell’s situation on her pregnancy just went from bad to worse. Cash is disabled for the rest of his life and he can no longer work around the house (but, at least he can listen to that gramophone). Darl is sent to a mental institution (and I wrote this on a comment somewhere: think about the fact that this family has no money. So if they don’t, how can they afford to send Darl to a good institution? They can’t. Which means that wherever Darl is going, he’s going to grow more insane than ever, because the facility will be a piece of s***) and is probably not going to see his family anymore. Vardaman has been exposed, as I have mentioned a lot of places, to acts of violence and tragedy which he shouldn't be at this age. All of this happens because of who? Anse Burden, the man to go to if you want a burden.

Now it’s Addie’s turn. I must confess, until her narration towards the end of the book, I had no qualms about Addie. After her own narration, however, my opinion towards her just flipped completely. Many of the things which happen with the Bundren family could have very easily not happened, had Addie been a nice mother. After admitting that she enjoyed to beat the snot out of the children she used to teach (and presumably her own children as well), I lost a faith I had in Addie. But what shook me the most was that she had an affair with Whitfield and Jewel was a result of that (it’s a betrayal of trust, my trust as a reader in her), and even after all this, Jewel is the one she is most pleased with, and the one she cuddles the most. To the people that say she should be pitied I say no. How can Addie be pitied? She chose this path herself. She had an option to say no, but due to “social norms” she decided to marry Anse. That’s some real bs. You don’t just go out and marry someone you despise of from the beginning just to “fit in”. And fine, even after you have done that, you can’t just go out and have an affair, especially with a priest (that was truly ironic).

Thursday, October 16

Darl vs. Bundrens (and Sanity)

Narrating more than a third of the chapters and almost half the book, readers see more of Darl than any character. In the recent chapters which we have read, Darl seems to have changed a lot (although, he was already quite different than the rest of the characters). Unlike any of the other characters in the book, Darl has this view upon things - he is able to view the world through a different lense- almost as if he is like a third person narrator. This starts in the first chapter itself, when Darl can see where Jewel is walking even though he is not looking at him. But after the incident where he burnt the barn, my thoughts were a little distorted. Sure, Darl had led most of this journey for us. But now, I wasn’t so sure about many of the things he was saying. Was he accurate? Or was he just toying with us? And we see Darl’s insanity growing as the book goes on: when Darl narrates, once, he talks about how his family members are like caged animals!

The barn scene is quite intense in its own rights too. Darl puts a blazing fire in the barn, which not only contains almost everything of value to the Bundren family (and to Gillespie, no doubt) including his dead mother’s coffin. Initially (when the family plans to send him to an insane institution), the family makes excuses such as how they need to send Darl otherwise Gillespie will sue them...But the part I love most about this is that Cash narrates this incident. Cash is a simplistic and straightforward narrator, so he conveys the point quickly and accurately (oh, and I can trust Cash, because he is really hardworking, and we haven’t seen him wanting to do any harm to the family). Here, he is trying to reason it all out: “Sometimes I ain’t sho who’s got ere a right to say when a man is crazy and when he ain't. Sometimes I think it ain't none of us pure crazy and ain't none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It’s like it ain't so much what a fellow does, but it’s the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it. […] That’s how I reckon a man is crazy. That’s how he can’t see eye to eye with other folks. And I reckon they ain't nothing else to do with him but what the most folks says is right.” Cash’s narration is really important here because it conveys the point that whether someone is insane or not depends a whole lot on each person’s viewpoint. If I think about it, I thought that Jewel was the crazy one for a while (sleeping while he’s suppose to be doing work, taunted by Darl about his father, working somewhere else where he doesn’t sleep for some reason instead of perfecting his own farm, his mother preferring him over the others). I guess that Darl being taken over to the “mental institution” is a mockery to much of the Bundren family, if not all. Each, in their own ways, is insane (Anse can’t sweat, Dewey Dell has her problem, Cash doesn’t complain and just bears the pain which screws him up in the end, Jewel is obsessed with the horse).

Wednesday, October 15

The significance of names (of main characters) in As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying is narrated by 15 characters, all of which have names with their own significance. Although I thought the names were slightly different because this was the “old south”, thinking about it for a while, I figured out that each name has its own part in the book. Below, I have attempted to decipher a handful of these names.

Darl-- The main character of the novel, Darl is the short form for “darling”, which I understood to mean as one of Addie’s most favorite children (More on this in Jewel).

Jewel-- Jewel is the prize child of Addie. As Addie tells us “herself”, she has always liked Jewel (because he is not from Anse, but rather from Whitfield). He is literally the Jewel child. An interesting point in the story is when Darl and Jewel, both the favorite children of Addie are not there for her when she is dying.

Cash-- An obvious connection to the fact that Cash is strong (Cash is always working hard, and even has his own small stash of money for his gramophone) \

Addie- Short for Adelaide. According to the OED, Queen Adelaide of England married a young German price, after he was rejected by many other noble women. This can be related to how Addie just accepts to marry Anse because of the social pressure/ norm.

Anse is short for Anserine. Anserine means someone who is stupid or silly. You don’t need to be Anserine to understand the connection-- Anse = anserine.  

Dewey Dell took me a while to figure out. I searched the web a lot for this and after much research I came to a conclusion. “Dell” means a young girl who is not rich (i.e. in the lower class). Dew (water which quickly goes away) might refer to the fact that Dewey Dell’s youth goes away pretty fast (thanks of her pregnancy). Putting it together, Dewey Dell is a young poor girl who has lost her “youth.”    

Vardaman- Ward-aman. Ward means a little boy in Old English, according to the OED (oh, and the Ranger’s Apprentice). He is a little boy who is placed into a world, into an atmosphere where he shouldn't be. At this young of an age, Vardaman should not be exposed to the things which he is, such as his mother’s coffin surrounded by buzzards (and many other such incidents), and wards were usually put into a similar situation (running around and doing work for their masters).  

And at the last we come to the family name itself.

Bundren-- Burden. The Bundrens are always facing problems and are bombarded by burdens, most of them they have brought upon themselves.

As you can see from the list which I have compiled above, names have a very special place in As I Lay Dying. Some of these, most of us can easily guess, but some are a bit harder. I’m sure, nevertheless, that Faulkner named each of his characters for a reason which reflects their own personality. If you guys can think of other names that relate, post ‘em in the comments below!

Monday, October 13

Last updated: Wednesday, October 15