Anse comes out on top

It is extremely hard to like Anse as a person or a character by the end of As I Lay Dying. He is lazy, stubborn, and selfish. He forced his family onto this absolutely disastrous trip that turned out badly for everyone but him. He sacrifices his family's safety and well being to get to town, his alleged reasoning being to bury Addie where she would have wanted to be buried. Looking at how Anse turns out at the end makes the truth of his reasoning questionable. Anse ends up with a new set of teeth and a new wife. He had been talking about getting a new set of teeth since the beginning, and even if there was no mention of getting a wife, Anse could have just been hiding it in the back of his mind. To be fair, though, he could have just been extremely opportunistic with getting his new wife. But Cash's narration of him stopping in front a specific house could counter that argument. Either way, Anse ends up doing well for himself and everyone else is out something or in big trouble.

Vardaman is the least affected by Anse's destructive quest. Vardaman wants to get a toy train, but never gets it. So he is no worse off than before, except maybe a little disappointed.

Jewel's horse has to get sold for Anse to pay for a team of mules. That horse was most likely the most important thing to Jewel. He worked really hard for really long to finally get that horse, and he made sure that it was his. He allowed only himself to feed it and care for it. Jewel was truly dedicated to that horse, but Anse's stubbornness puts Jewel out of a lot of hard work.

Cash's leg is broken for the second time during this journey. The first time was falling off of a roof while working. But Cash suffers through it. He risks infection and worse because he doesn't want to complain, and Anse doesn't seem to think that it is all that important that Cash gets to a doctor because he simply doesn't care nearly as much for Cash as he does his journey - whatever the reason may be. Then Anse makes things worse by trying to make a cast out of concrete which shows off Anse's incredibly small amount of intelligence. Anse just doesn't know how to take care of his children.

Darl gets sent off to a mental institution. This problem is more ambiguous, because Anse was being threatened to do something about Darl setting fire to the barn. If he didn't send Darl away, then Anse would've gotten sued, which is interesting because he doesn't really have much that can be taken from him. But it is still pretty cold how Anse seems to have no second thoughts or regrets about sending Darl away. Or maybe Darl wanted to go away because he knew what would happen and didn't want to be a part of a family with Anse anymore. I think that's less likely, but who knows, Darl is a strange guy.

I think that Dewey Dell ends up worst of all at the end of the story. She is the only female character with any real voice and it seems that that makes her very alone in the story. Then she has the problem of being pregnant. This is a huge problem. It could potentially ruin her entire future, knowing what kind of culture there was back then. She tried to get an abortion, but couldn't find a place that would work out for her. Then she had her $10 stolen by Anse and is in an even worse position to do something about her pregnancy. Dewey Dell has no one she can talk to about her problem, being the only female. She is alone and in trouble and unlikely to get any help so you really have to feel bad for her.

When everything goes wrong

To me As I Lay Dying is like one of those really bad comedy movies about a family that goes on vacation and a series of accidents ruins it for them. Except that As I Lay Dying is fairly enjoyable once you figure out Faulkner's writing style. The Bundrens get themselves into so many unnecessary situations just because Anse is so stubborn about getting Addie to Jefferson so she can be buried where she wanted to be buried. Or maybe it's so he can go get his false teeth. Anse wants his trip to Jefferson to happen so badly he doesn't seem to realize that it is not at all worth the trouble that he is getting for it. In some ways this is admirable, but it is also annoying because it is so unnecessary. In my and the opinions of the non-Bundren characters, they should just go to New Hope to bury Addie. But they don't and so they get all the trouble of doing things the hard way.

There are some things that make me question the Bundrens' real devotion to delivering Addie to Jefferson though. The first thing is the teeth that Anse keeps on mentioning. It seems as though he really wants those new false teeth. Vardaman wants a toy that he once saw. Dewey Dell needs help with her pregnancy. These ulterior motives make the Bundrens seem less interested in what Addie would have wanted as opposed to what they want. I don't really think that they take too much away from the big purpose of the trip, but they are, especially in Dewey Dell's case, important to each character. Darl and Jewel don't have extra reasons for wanting to go to Jefferson. Jewel just doesn't want to go at all. Darl I think is the most genuine. He is the one who appeared most concerning for his mother as she was sick, and he goes along with the journey without complaining.