Addie Bundren in Faulker's "As I Lay Dying" Essay Sample

Through the narration of several characters, it becomes apparent that the ill-fated relationship between the Bundrens stem from their inability to communicate to each other. This is then exacerbated by the death of Addie as her children try to find ways to cope with it. Most intriguing is the way that they depend on animals to help them through their circumstance. By utilizing numerous literary techniques in describing animals, Faulkner is able to expose the characters’ hidden persona to thoroughly characterize their individuality. In particular, these comparisons reveal intimate details about how the Bundren children perceive their surroundings. In As I Lay Dying the use of animals, specifically Jewel’s horse and Vardaman’s fish, function as a symbol of Addie to comfort the characters as they come to terms with her death.

As the only child who is not biologically a Bundren, Jewel is viewed as an outcast and is often misunderstood by others as indifferent and callous. On account of his inability to express his affections for others, particularly Addie, his horse becomes an outlet for his manifestations of love for her. This seems apparent to Darl as he notes,“‘Jewel’s mother is a horse’”(Faulkner, 53). Jewel  expresses the love he possesses for his mother to his horse in an attempt to show how he feels towards her, both when she is alive and dead. It is then no surprise that Jewel becomes overly agitated, clearly showing how much Addie’s death affects him. Though Jewel cannot express to Addie his love, his relation to his horse reflects the relation that he wants to have with his mother and it seems enough for him. This is shown to be true in an encounter with his horse before he joins Darl on an errand: 

 When Jewel can almost touch him, the horse stands on his hind legs and slashes down at Jewel...Then they are rigid, motionless, terrific, the horse back-thrust on stiffened, quivering legs...Jewel with dug heels shutting off the horse’s wind with one hand, with the other patting the horse’s neck...and caressing, cursing the horse with obscene ferocity(13). 

As indicated by Jewel’s behavior, the horse acts as a substitute for his mother giving Jewel a way to show what he feels. His instinct to caress the horse even after its actions, parallels the relation that he has with his mother; although Addie does not verbally communicate her love for him, he is knowledgeable of it through her actions. In the same way, Jewel nonverbally shows his love by being soft with the horse even though it is clear that he is agitated when he begins to curse at it. In this instance Jewel seems to mimic Addie’s tendency to berate him and then dote on him. Darl’s perceptive nature makes him aware of this as he mentions, “I told them that’s why ma always whipped him and petted him more”(15). It is quite obvious that Addie treats Jewel differently from the others emphasingher favoritism towards him. Therefore, Jewel naturally adopts his mother’s violent way of showing love and projects it on his horse; this brings him a level of comfort as he is able to direct his emotions at something. Additionally, the words “rigid” and “motionless” depicts the relationship between Jewel and Addie as they both struggle to express their emotions in ways that are reflective of their feelings. After Addie’s death, Jewel helps to move the coffin to the wagon: “In between them his flesh is greenish looking...his face suffocated, furious, his lip lifted upon his teeth”(63). Jewel’s chosen way of showing affection is through violence; his agitated state seems to stem from his frustration and sorrow for Addie. Instead of showing his grief in a way that would reflect his unhappiness, he shows it in a way that is more habitual to him. In that way, the horse aids to expose Jewel’s love for his mother. 

As the novel progresses, Jewel’s tendency to indirectly show affection for Addie changes when he decides to surrender his horse. The day after Jewel ran away with his horse due to Anse’s decision to trade it, a worker surprisingly appears with a team of mules:“ ‘I didn’t know who brung it,’ Eustace said. ‘I never see them. I just found the horse in the barn this morning when I went to feed, and I told Mr. Snopes and he said to bring the team on over here’”(119). Jewel’s sacrifice of his horse further exemplifies his love for Addie as he forfeits it on account of Addie’s last wish. In his action, Faulkner is able to showcase the degree to which Jewel adores and respects his mother through the horse. Furthermore, Jewel’s surrender of the horse can also be a symbol of Jewel’s decision to accept Addie’s death. By surrendering his horse, Jewel is able to directly show his love to Addie in a way that is reflective of his feelings and not through violence. Through this, Faulkner not only depicts Jewel’s acceptance but his maturity. This is demonstrated in Jewel’s actions when he decides to evade confrontation while in town by stating,“ ‘I didn’t mean it’”(140). Through many violent outbursts elicited from Jewel on the way to town, it is surprising that he doesn’t seem to want to engage in a dispute. This clearly shows Jewel’s maturity in the way that he no longer needs to engage in violence, which would have derailed the trip even more. By doing this he demonstrates his ability to directly display love for his mother (since his horse is gone) as he chooses to go against what he would normally do in order to bury Addie. Through this, the horse becomes crucial in revealing Jewel’s true emotions as it further developed and illuminated other aspects of his character that would not have been divulged. 

Addie’s death came as a struggle that each family member is observed to have dealt with differently. Most peculiar is the reaction elicited from Vardaman where he begins to associate his mother to a fish he caught prior to Addie’s death. This is illuminated by Vardaman’s contemplation about the state of his mother after his tussle with Peabody’s horses in the barn: “It was not her because it was laying right yonder in the dirt...now it’s all chopped up...It’s laying in the kitchen waiting to be cooked and et. Then it wasn’t and she was, now it is and she wasn’t”(43). As Vardaman tries to understand his mother’s current state, it becomes obvious that he is oblivious to the concept of death. Vardaman understands that the fish is no longer a fish  and begins to compare what happened to the fish to what happened to his mother. He is able to understand that like the fish his mother was once alive and like the fish his mother is no longer there. Since the situation of his mother is comparable to that of the fish, Varadaman comes to the understanding that his mother must also be a fish. The phrase “then it wasn’t and she was, now it is and she wasn’t” suggests the extent to which he is confused by the death of his mother being that the only way he can make sense of Addie’s death is through comparison with a fish. In the narration of one of his chapters, Vardaman comes to the conclusion that his mother is not the same and he declares, “My mother is a fish”(54). This indicates Vardaman’s resolution in identifying his mother as a fish and further illustrates his confusion with the situation pertaining to Addie. It also reveals the childlike intellect of Vardaman and how the lack of exposure to the matter of death has confused him. Moreover, as Vardaman’s thought processes unfolds, it becomes more evident how alone Vardaman is as no one seems to have bothered to explain the situation to him, making him insistent that Addie is a fish. After the wagon fell over causing Addie’s coffin to fall into the water, Vardaman remarks, “ ‘Where is ma?... You never got her. You knew she is a fish but you let her get away”(94). Vardaman’s repetition that his mother is a fish, further demonstrates his ignorance of death due to his lack of knowledge. In addition, his choice of “fish” while Addie’s coffin is in the water can be associated with Addie’s escape from the family which frightens Vardaman; being as young as he is it is obvious that he may be afraid of losing his mother, even though she is dead. Based on the tone depicted, Vardaman seems perturbed by the fact that Darl was not able to recover Addie’s body. The metaphor of the fish highlights Vardaman’s solitude as he struggles to process Addie’s death due the failure of his family to clarify the situation.