Monday, October 12, 2015
Response to As I Lay Dying ending
I hate Anse. He gets one son nearly killed, twice, steals the other one's horse (the one he demanded he'd never have to worry about feeding), throws one in an asylum (I guess this isn't completely his fault, but I am angry and he could have tried to stop it), and steals his daughter's abortion money. The only child he hasn't egregiously wronged is Vardaman, who doesn't even understand the concept of death yet (I feel it difficult to wrong someone who does not understand death, though as a self described understander of death I am slightly biased). And it seems by the end of this hair brained family ruining quest of theirs his primary motivation was getting new teeth and a wife. He even lectures his children on how his lack of teeth makes him morally better than them. It amazes me especially because Anse simultaneously seems so ditzy and moronic and absent minded (who the hell sets their sons leg with concrete when they could have just left him early on the journey? My god he literally could be of no assistance and the notion of funeral attendance on his part seems unnecessary considering she's been dead for days) that I wouldn't think him capable of actively being a horrible person but he is. He's like a spoiled, entitled child who does something forgivable and then just looks away instead of looking his parents in the eye (except in this analogy, the roles are reversed and his children are the ones he wrongs and cannot look at). He insists on self reliance and then proceeds to probably functionally bankrupt his family while relying on the non-consenting sale of his sons own property (I mentioned this but I think this made me angriest so I'm mentioning it a second time). If Faulkner set out to reveal the brokenness of the family he succeeded. Anse is the patriarch that a desperately hope the children band together to kill on the way back home.
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