The Good, The Beautiful, The True

Going back to Chapter 5 of Booth, there are many things, of course, that caused me to continue reading As I Lay Dying. When I finished the book, I could not believe that I stuck around for the rest of the book only to figure out that Anse is just ridiculous and just completely does not care about anything but himself. In the last section, Anse has just sent Darl, his second oldest son, to an insane asylum, and all Anse has done since is gotten his fake teeth and a new wife. I read the book with Practical Interest, expecting something bad to happen to Anse, as a way of karma for his lack of care towards his children. Of course, nothing happens. That was highly disappointing.

Another thing that kept my interest throughout the book was Darl. I wanted an explanation for his ability to see things that have not happened near him, such as when he knew his mother had died even though he was not at home with her, and understand the emotions of his siblings so well, especially Dewey Dell. Aside from these odd things, I enjoyed Darl as a character because he seemed to be the only person that even attempted to connect with Vardamen at all. To me, this was huge. Everyone else sort of brushes Vardamen off as a child and focuses on their own problems, but Darl actually talks to him and answers his questions. Specifically, when Vardamen was worried that his mother was a horse, Darl made sure to let him know that only Jewel’s mother is a horse, instead of ignoring him or saying no one’s mother is a horse. This kept my Practical Interest, even if later they just threw Darl into an asylum. I guess him being crazy is some kind of explanation for his weird sort of powers? Or not.

Overall, Faulkner employed a really odd sort of truth to the story that held my Intellectual Interest. The story was following the most dysfunctional family I have ever heard of, and there is no happy ending for anyone but Anse. Really, I took this story as a chapter of reality. Nothing in life turns out how it is expected to and people that stick out get sent to asylums and when parents don’t care about their children, they get pregnant, get their prized horse traded without permission, think their dead moms are fish, and get their broken legs cast in cement. Really, neither Addie nor Anse seem to have wanted the children at all, or each other, even. This family sticks together for completely unknown reasons. If there was no explanation that they were related, the characters would have no premise for being together through the whole story. My real question was why stayed together, and the only answer I got was that staying together was that staying was easier than leaving.

Did Faulkner do that on purpose? What was his reasoning for all this imperfection and dysfunction in the family?