blog #4

3. In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner’s experiments with interior monologue and mobile perspective allow us to see the Bundren family from multiple perspectives, including their own, their neighbors’, and outsiders’. Citing evidence from the text, make an argument for the dignity and/or absurdity of these characters. Are they (or any one of them) heroes? Or are they clownish goobers?

To be completely honest, I don’t know if any of them are truly bad characters (or good for that matter), aside from Anse. Anse clearly is incredibly selfish and takes advantage of others which makes him a rather dislikable character. I would argue the next in line for two most disliked characters would be Darl and Addie. Addie because of her hatred for her own children and Darl because he burned down the barn knowing the coffin was inside. While I can understand why many people would dislike him for that, I understand his attempt to be heroic in the scenario. In his mind, his mother had suffered enough and he wanted to put an end to it. Furthermore, I also read a theory that Darl has Schizophrenia which could explain his sudden change in character and constant battle between two voices in his head. At one point he even says, “I don’t know what I am. I don’t know if I am or not.” This signifies his clear confusion with his identity and the exhausting mental state he is in. 

Dewey Dell does have heroic aspects to her in my opinion. She is always taking care of her brothers and overall seems genuinely kind and thoughtful. However, I don’t think she is the hero in this story because ultimately her journey to Jefferson is for selfish reasons just like everyone else. She is not there to support Addie like she says she is. She is there to get an abortion. Regardless, I still don’t think she is nearly as “stupid” as the rest of the characters and I respect her. I have sympathy for her as well because of the situation that happened to her with the moseley character (I think that was his name - the guy that faked having the medicine)

  Cash could be seen as selfish for his obsession with his tools and for his indifference to his mothers death. Some perceive him to have made the coffin just to have shown off his carpentry skills. While I have a hard time finding Cash to be anti-her or foolish clowns, I could understand why one might think that way. Despite Addie’s clear words that Jewel is to be a hero (which somehow becomes true), “ He is my cross and he will be my salvation. He will save me from the water and from the fire. Even though I have laid down my life, he will save me." I can’t seem to forget the ugly position Jewel puts his family in at the beginning of the book because of his inability to work during the day. He is selfish and wants to buy his own horse so he sacrifices his sleep which ultimately shows in his day work for the family. They all have to make up for what he can’t complete. 

The one character that stands out to me is Vardaman. First of all he’s a kid, so him going along with all of the foolishness and chaos that his family creates is understandable. Whereas everyone else are adults, so it’s all the more stupid. Vardaman is wise beyond his years. Assuming he is probably 7 or 8 years old he is incredibly good and observing and making associations to things. His observations about the buzzards specifically were incredibly insightful. I think he is overlooked as a heroic character because he is young and doesn’t do anything technically heroic. He is one of the only characters that seems to really grieve Addie’s death. He says, “"Then I begin to cry. I can feel where the fish was in the dust. it is cut up into pieces of not-fish now, not-blood on my hands and overalls. Then it wasn't so. " This helps us as readers understand and see through the eyes of a young boy who has just lost his mother and can only associate that death with the death of a fish that he caught for dinner. Which honestly just further proves his innocence.