AAAAAAAI’ve had conflicted feelings about Anse ever since he was first introduced as a character. His wife has died and he wants to fulfill her last wish: to be buried in Jefferson. At first, it seemed like the honorable thing to do and I thought, “Oh, he seems like a decent guy.” But then, he says this "God's will be done . . . now I can get them teeth." Suddenly, this huge, emotional journey is transformed into an errand run. What makes this worse is that he criticizes his children (also with hidden agendas) for bringing the cake box and tool box and continues being “emotionally distraught”.
AAAAAAAAnother thing, Anse does nothing for the entirety of the novel. Often citing his injury as an excuse, Anse usually sits around and thinks about things rather than contributing in any way. When he does put in the effort, he bumbles through the task and turns out to be more of a hindrance than a help. For example, when he tries to help Cash and Tull assemble the coffin, he ends up getting in their way and just goes back to sitting on his porch. The only real thing he contributes to the journey is when he, without permission, steals money from Cash (whose unconscious), sells Jewel’s horse, and “borrows” from Dewey Dell. Even then, this isn’t him sacrificing anything. He is stealing from his children for his own selfish goal: getting his teeth.
AAAAAAAI can’t think of Anse as a hero in this story because he actually does nothing. Sure, he is the one who initiates the journey and wants to bury Addie, but everything has a double meaning. In this case, the real reason behind going to Jefferson is just not heroic in my eyes. If he really cared completely and unselfishly about Addie’s death, he would have at least treated her body with more respect. Throughout the journey, she has holes punched through her head, she is thrown into a river, and by the time they reach her final destination, her stench encompasses anything within 50 feet of her body.
AAAAAAAAnd, finally, during the funeral scene, Anse really doesn’t reach that final goodbye stage. He simply buries the body and moves on. It’s extremely underwhelming. The entire time he’s been saying how Addie needed to be buried in Jefferson because it was the right thing to do and basically getting emotional when he thinks about her. Then, just to have Anse bury Addie then quickly go get his teeth, everything seems off. Shouldn’t there be at least a few tears? I don’t know if Faulkner trying his hand at comedy when he created the hypocritical Anse, but I find it decidedly unfunny.
For the part about his achieving his goal of buying the teeth. I kind of disagree, we see that Anse actually put at least of his own teeth fund into the fund for new mules himself. So saying that he sold Jewel's horse for his own selfish goal seems a bit off. I really agree with how much of a hindrance is, and hypocritical, and I'd like to here more about what made it funny.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with a lot of points in this post. Trying to see Anse as the "hero" of the journey in As I Lay Dying is like trying to use a ridiculously small rubber band: it might work in the end, but you need a *crap* ton of stretching to make it so. I especially have a problem with him finding a wife almost immediately after burying his wife, though a part of me is mildly impressed as well XD.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Anse is extremely hypocritical, and aside from his laziness, this is the main reason that he is so unlikable. He keeps saying that he wants to be beholden to no one, and yet, as you say, he steals from Cash, sells Jewel's horse, and takes money from Dewey Dell. He doesn't seem to understand that doing this means that he is beholden to his children as well, and it's really frustrating to watch him exploit them without being punished at all.
ReplyDeleteI find it hard to believe that Anse can say he doesn't want to be beholden to nobody and at the same time get help from almost everyone he meets. I totally agree that he is a hypocrite, this clear contradiction in words and actions is by definition hypocritical, and adds to the many other points you made in your post.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness to Anse, Faulkner neglects to even narrate the burial scene at all, relegating it to an afterthought by Cash. We don't know how Anse behaved at that moment, and he has spoken about Addie's grave and his desire to bury her with her people with something like serious honorable intent throughout (mostly to attempt to passive-aggressively shame his children, but still . . .). And the "funeral" has already happened back at the Bundren home--the preacher is there, they sing, Anse mostly stands there bewildered and grieving.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really saying this contradicts any of your valid and strongly worded criticism of Anse's hypocrisy. I'm just saying we don't know what went on at the anticlimactic burial scene one way or the other. (We can reasonably assume Anse didn't do any of the digging, though!)