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.
I feel like the only reason Vardaman is okay right now, is because he's so young. Growing up in a household this dysfunctional/crazy is not going to exactly help his development into a for lack of better word, respectable young man.Though I do agree, Dewey Dell definitely got the shortest end of the stick. I'm left worrying about what's going to happen to her...
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely agree that Anse is the sole winner of this trip. Even Addie and Mrs. Bundren end up in a bad position at the end of this story. Addie has had holes drilled into her head, been submerged in water, and carried all over the place. This is definitely not the way that she would have wanted her body to have been treated, though it does have the plus that it ruins the Bundren's lives which is something that I would say she would find joy in
ReplyDeleteThe new Mrs. Bundren also ends up in a bad space. She's married to Anse. Anse was and probably will be a terrible husband, and given how emotionless she appears I doubt that this marriage will be much better than the last.
Not only did the Bundrens these very material things, but all of them have suffered some level of emotional trauma from the whole journey, especially Dary and ESPECIALLY Vardaman. I feel like there's something about losing one's own sanity and innocence that seems so much worse than losing a toy train. Anse's journey has seriously taken its toll on the family.
ReplyDeleteI really feel bad for the Bundrens at the end of this book. They all just get wrecked in one way or another and it's so infuriating. While all his children are left miserable at the end, Anse gets off completely free. It might be because he was incapable of doing work but at sometimes it seemed like he was just against anything that didn't directly get him closer to the town. Like when Cash's leg breaks he's just like "Seal it up and lets go!". Just really annoys me that in the final look of this family, only Anse comes out positive.
ReplyDeleteYou mention Anse's utter incompetence at caring for his children (with Cash's ill-advised cast as exhibit A, and Peabody certainly agrees with you), and this does seem to diminish any heroic status, as he keeps crowing about "doing for me and mine." But does it make any difference that his *intentions* are good? So he doesn't know how to set a cast--but he *tries*?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. There are rebuttals to Anse's good intentions throughout the novel, especially voiced by the wives of the husbands who keep helping him out. ("Do? He's done enough already!" as Moseley's wife says.)