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.
I agree with you that the fact that they make his journey is aggravating, but we also wouldn't have a story without some unnecessary struggle. I agree with your points about how many of the characters seem to have selfish motives for going to Jefferson, but if you think about it, Addie asked to be buried there as a punishment to Anse, and was very selfish about the whole situation. She wanted her family to struggle, so it's hard to have sympathy for her when she also had bad intentions.
ReplyDeleteI totally connect on your statement about As I Lay Dying being like one of those bad comedy movies. Anyways, I think no one is going to Jefferson to bury Addie. The characters' intentions are to do something else while in town. Even when we get to the burial scene, Faulkner just whips through it without any details.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the novel can be seen as a bad comedy, which is why I was especially surprised that the bits of the movie adaptation that we watched were so serious and emotional, it felt like the director had removed any hints at humor that Faulkner may have originally included. I wonder if Faulkner meant it to be a "comedy where bad things keep happening to the main chracter," or if he meant it to be a more serious drama like the movie.
ReplyDeleteI thought the story was more full of dark humor as opposed to bad comedy, which I think is a little different. There were parts we could definitely laugh at, especially regarding Anse and his uselessness, but nothing in the whole book seemed to me 100% comedic, because everything had some sort of consequence. Vardaman saying his mom is a fish was funny, but also a little strange and a tad bit worrisome, and Anse being so lazy is funny, but also sadly pathetic and makes things awful for his kids. I do like your comparison to those vacation movies and there definitely are some unnecessary problems that arise, but while I do find Faulkner's writing to be pretty enjoyable, it never quite pulls off comedy for me.
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