Truth Revealed in As I Lay Dying :: As I Lay Dying Essays

Truth Revealed in As I Lay Dying Addie Bundren conjures up the central darkness derived from her death and directly or indirectly causes motions in which each Bundren character takes advantage of Addie. With the characters actions revolving around her death, William Faulkners As I Lay Dying reveals the truth about the people who surround a person may take advantage of him or her. The death of Addie Bundren shapes all of the characters actions in life including Addies final request before her death. Addie takes advantage of her death by using it for revenge and inflicting final pains upon some characters, while the other characters use her to get what they want for their personal needs. Addie causes all the painful actions around her family every directly or indirectly. Addie is foremost the prominent abuser of her upcoming death in As I Lay Dying. She predetermines her time to die, and she makes sure that the people in her family whom she dislikes must experience her wrath befo re she moves on to the next life. Addie is the one who is dying, but she makes revenges run throughout the family and extend beyond (Wadlington 35). Inflicting pain mostly on Anse, Addie enjoys herself. Anse, a lazy man, is forced by his wife to take her to Jefferson to be buried as her final request. Addies revenge on Anse was payback for all the propagation when he just sat around while Addie, her children, and sometimes neighbors do all the hard work for him. Also Addie reacts to Anses arid conventionality by having a clandestine affair with minister Whitfield (Wadlington 31). Addie also indirectly hurts one of her favorite sons, Cash. Cash is hurt indirectly when he helps his kinfolk carry his mothers coffin to Jefferson, where along the path, he breaks his leg while crossing a flooded river. Although Cash is one of Addies favorites besides Jewel, Addies cruel revenge carries over to Cashs broken leg, which later becomes infected. also her indirect action on Cashs leg, Cash i s the most favorite of Addie. As Wadlington states, He is very much his mothers son in expressing his feelings through physical action rather than through words by building a coffin for the mother he loves (Wadlington 41). Jewel, Addies second favorite next to Cash, seems to be cursed by his callous mother.