Character Analysis: Addie Bundrun

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AP Freshman English May 28, 2013 Character Analysis: Addie Bundrun In 1985, Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying to display the irony of his simple, Mississippi life. Faulkner’s life is prevalent in his work, and it reflects upon his writing styles. In the novel As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner expresses the traits of spontaneous lust, indirect control, and life-driving influence through Addie Bundrun, dead mother and wife, to show the key theme of the relationship between childbearing and death. Addie Bundren was a slave to the gender roles of the 1930s. The primary job of a woman was to tend to the needs of her husband and her children. The concept of love was always fresh in Addie’s mind, and she craved it so much that she defied these gender roles (and religious norms) and had an affair with the minister. Addie was looking for a spark in her life, something that Anse couldn’t give to her. "He had a word, too. Love, he called it. But I had been used to words for a long time. I knew that that word was like the others: just a shape to fill a lack; that when the right time came, you wouldn't need a word for that anymore than for pride or fear. Cash did not need to say it to me nor I to him, and I would say, Let Anse use it, if he wants to. So that it was Anse or love; love or Anse: it didn't matter," (As I Lay Dying, page 171). The “love” between Addie and Anse was simply nonexistent. Addie felt as if “love” was a concept created to get women to adhere to men. If anything, Addie was curious and looking for a release. She wanted the taste of lust, not love. The lust here is something Addie never felt with Anse; it was new and exciting. Even after Addie died, she had the most important role for the plot. She was the driving force for the journey; she controlled the family from beyond the grave. The only person who realized this concept to its full degree was Darl. He

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