As I lay Dying

Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying by William Falkner is a weird woman to be observing considering she is pretty such dead the entire book. The only time she is able to speak is a lone chapter; the weird part would be that she is speaking after her death. Until this chapter most of what you learn about her is from her children. They say that they treated them not the nicest and they blame her for many of the problems they now have in their life. This is typical for a patriarchal mother; the males have more power and seem to blame woman for everything. A good example of this would be my mother screaming “why do you bring me into everything” all the time. Even with this slight hatred towards her, the family still has the power to pick up their feet and carry her casket many miles to bury her. This is the main topic of the book.

The word sin is used a lot when Addie is talking about sexuality or sexual desires. Since the novel is such a religiously guided book it is no surprise that Addie getting pregnant without being married is seems as a sin. Her children would be natural if I may bring in a King Lear idea. Sin is not seen in Dewey Dell who is also pregnant without marriage or parent approval. The only sin would be the abortion which she so slowly treks towards. Having all this “wrong:” around her, Addie feels her death to be righteous, kind of like she deserves it. In her one passage she talks about the devil and hell a bit, but fear is shown. As I lay Dying exemplifies the determination and power of a woman in Addie Bundren. She treated his kids un-kindly and thought herself as invisible. In the end, her importance in life is shown by the family’s determination to bury her throughout the book.

The final word I have to say about this book would be from the basic understanding of a feminist lense. William Falkner is a man and it is questionable is he can write or understand feminism or females. One main intention of a feminist is to have woman speak for themselves, but it’s hard to do that when you are a male. In the end Addie’s frustration and pursuit of a voice and be seen as motivation for any females who read the book.