who could've saved the bundrens?

In every good story there’s the major plot points: exposition, rising actions, climax, falling action, denouement. These all come together to make an exciting and worthwhile tale. When coupled with the ingredients of a hero’s journey (as taken from that worksheet Mr. Mitchell gave us), these points also make an engaging story. However, in my opinion, the most important parts of a story are the characters. Modernist works like William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying understand this and able to create the most interesting tales with some of the least interesting plots.

(Sidebar: I don’t actually believe this is true for As I lay Dying, rather I believe it blends a unique plot, a creative take on the hero’s journey, and the most memorable characters into one of the most, like, fun books I’ve read in a while.)

My favorite aspects of storytelling—messy situations, hapless characters with lots of development, and difficult dialect—come together very well in Faulkner’s book. However, my favorite aspects of stories also leave lots of room for imagination, as does As I Lay Dying. The biggest question I have now that I’ve finished the book, is, basically, what went wrong? Should Addie and Anse not have married? Should more attention had been paid to their children? Should 1930s public works projects have been brought to rural Mississippi? Most importantly, I ask myself, “whatever went wrong went wrong, but who could’ve changed it? Who was the Hero?”

In class, it was first presented as Anse. I find this a compelling idea. He is the one trying to honour Addie. He is the one everyone, begrudgingly, helps. He is the one most traditionally, as the pater familias, set up to be the hero. And yet, I don’t think he could’ve saved the Bundrens in the way a hero would. As much as he drives the story, he also is the cause for most of its trials, heartbreaks, and, ultimately, plot twists. Thus, he, to me, is not my candidate for the hero.

(Sidebar 2: I’m using hero in the “I can be your hero baby” way. Where the hero is the strong, charismatic, all-around winner. Obviously, there are so many other layers to heroes and their role in hero’s journey narratives and more. But, I don’t care about that for this short analysis.)

You know who is perfect for the saviour? Jewel.

Think about it. He’s the hero of the story and it was Faulkner’s direct intention. For one, he’s Addie’s, arguably the real main character, favorite, showing us that he’s special in some, almost divine way. Two, we hear his narration once, and it’s a complaint against the disrespect his family is showing to their dying, case-could-be-made-for matriarch. This chapter paints him as a honourable man, one with a higher moral code placing him above the rest. Three, he is the one willing to give everything to the family, even his precious Snopes’ horse. Not only does this show his selflessness, but it also shows his understanding of the role he must play as the future inheritor of the pater familias title.

Now, I know what everyone’s thinking. Nope. Tina, did you forget he’s a massive a**h*l*?

I did not.

If anything, I think that he seems so entirely unheroic by nature, and so only through his actions becomes heroic, is the point. Yes, he’s weird, doesn’t act normal, and is generally abrasive. But also he knows he’s different and he still stays. He knows Addie loved him best, and that he doesn’t look like his siblings, and that his silent strength is something his family will never respect. But he still fulfills it.

Much like Anse is never taken seriously as the Bundren patriarch, but yet still is respected, Jewel is not Bundren yet is the most loyal to the Bundrens. Once again, I refer to the selling of his horse. Or the saving of his rotting mother not once, but twice. And though he does have issues with Darl, it turns out, Darl’s tendencies were destructive, making him a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Furthermore, in reporting Darl, Jewel was protecting the Bundrens as a family with an arsonist son would most certainly be isolated in rural Mississippi.

I know this idea seems far-fetched and reeks of conspiracy. When I mentioned it to my friend, she said something along the lines of, “it’s As I lay Dying, not the Illuminati.” But I also think Jewel as the hero of a narrative not intended to be his is far more interesting than one intended to be Anse’s. Jewel may not be a Bundren by blood on this Bundren family journey, but his actions show that he has as much right to be on their crazy train wagon as the next.

- Tina
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