Death: An Opportunity for a Better Life in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

Social class has always been prominent in the minds of southerners of the American South. It was discovered and founded by the dreamers, adventures, and entrepreneurs of the early antebellum time period with its incredible displays of wealth and the underlying extreme poverty this status was built on. Gigantic columned houses and huge stretches of land allowed for the growth and harvesting of cotton, the magic golden crop of the south. This wealth and class was paid for with the blood, sweat, and tears of the starved, overworked slaves and barely held together by the poor white lower class overseers. With William Faulkner, we explore the societal constraints of small town farm life and the burden it presents to those poor and lower classes making up the bottom levels of the social hierarchy. A family is burdened by their wife and mother's last request to be buried in Jefferson County, which happens to be quite far away from where they're from. We follow them along on their tired and trying journey, and through the incredible insight of Faulkner, we experience the very thoughts and emotions of a poor white farming family and notice the contrast of those town residents compared to the poor farm workers: the Bundrens.

The Bundrens matriarchal head, Addie dies, but her last wish is to be buried with her kinfolk in Jefferson which starts out the long perilous, but also rather futile trip to bury her rotting corpse as if she could be aware of where her body was disposed. This trip was not only fueled by the dying woman's last wish, but Anse her former husband, and Dewey Dell her former daughter have their own reasons for seeking out civilized life. They both seek material things and medications that aren't available to them in their present place of residence. They both content with the unfortunate circumstances of the bridge being washed out, and paying for a new team of mules, but they still persist on the premise that Addie wanted to be buried in Jefferson all the while really hoping to attain their material items in the town. Anse wants to go to town to purchase some fake teeth, but he later has to spend this money on a new team of mules. Dewey Dell wants to purchase a medication that will abort her fetus, but is refused by the patronizing and condescending pharmacist behind the counter who suggests that she get married. He says." The Lord gave you what you have, even if He did use the devil to do it; you let Him take it away from you if it's His will to do so. You go on back to Lafe and you and him take that ten dollars and get married with it." which is also just about as ignorant as Dewey Dell having unprotected sex and not expecting the little bundle of joy that shows up nine months later to change everything she knew about her little country life. No one really treats Dewey Dell with any dignity. The townsfolk treat her with distain at best, and she is described as, "she looks like a pretty hot momma for a country girl" and "one of them black eyed ones that look like she'd as soon put a knife in you as not if you two-timed her. She looked pretty good." She avoids looking them in the eye, and due to her vocabulary, they treat her like a person of lesser intelligence. Not only was she objectified as a woman, but classified as a person of lesser value due to her appearance. No one takes the time out to understand why she is selling the cakes for money, and no one really helps her because the life on a farm isn't one of gossip and party talk. Her situation is kept private simply because there is no other way for her to express it. Being secluded on a farm keeps her away from any knowledge she may obtain through other female friends about pregnancy and reproduction, much less how to prevent an unwanted child. She is the representation of isolation on a farm considering she barely talks throughout the entire novel. Not to mention the townspeople do not make opening up to them very welcome. Not only was Dewey Dell treated with distain, but the marshal even argues with Anse saying "don't you know you're liable to jail for endangering the public health?". They obviously treat the Bundrens as a nuisance.

It seems as though the only character throughout the story that really understands the black humor, and ridiculousness of carrying a dead and rotting woman halfway to hell and back is Darl. Poor Darl is burdened with his awareness of life, and the world outside the tiny town, so much so that he cannot relate or possibly appreciate the life he came back to after he was sent off to the war; all of it is so contained and simple. He is isolated and alienated from those around him because he thinks and acts differently, but it does seem as though Vardaman understands his older brother in the truest light without adult preconceived notions. The contrast of someone who has actually seen and felt the world's harsh brutality through war, against that of his family simply trudging along trying to stay alive is quite apparent with the passage "A car comes over the hill. It begins to sound the horn, slowing. It runs along the roadside in low gear, the outside wheels in the ditch, and passes us and goes on. Vardaman watches it until it is out of sight". It's as if only Darl, Vardaman, and the angry townspeople are aware of the advancements in technology around them unlike the rest of the Bundren family. The family does what they have to do and they never think beyond it, and through Darl we also become frustrated at the futility of complacent containment, and through the townspeople we see how the family is perceived among more civilized society.

The Plight of Dewey Dell is also very socially significant as well as manifesting the gender bias that existed in small farm lands and small towns of the time. Her inability to even attain the proper prescription to abort her unwanted fetus paired with her unawareness of the consequences her sexual exploits produced are very indicative of the limited knowledge held by a poor young girl out in the middle of nowhere. It is a tragic story of adverse reactions to abnormality. She is kept in the dark about the most natural of processes, which also seems to doom her forever in the ignorant lifestyle she currently lives in. Her mother, in most traditional senses, was supposed to be the one to inform her of pregnancy and childbirth, but she died without caring enough to impart this knowledge upon her daughter. No one from the town, no neighbors, not even her parents tell her anything about any type of birth control or contraception that may have existed at the time as was manifested when Moseley said, "why not talk to her about it before you take any medicine. Any woman would have told you about it". She is isolated and completely without the knowledge of a choice, much less the ability to afford to make it herself. The family with which she endures so many ridiculous hardships is completely unaware of her perilous condition, but small town farm owners rarely relent to talking to their young fertile daughters about their budding sexuality. The pharmacist in the first town, through some cruel societal 'rule' that only marriage and abstinence are the available choices, refuses to help this poor girl with her unfortunate situation. The townspeople view this family cruelly as uneducated outsiders, and do not offer any compassion

The unwillingness of the people to realize and acknowledge the paths their lives are taking will one day condemn them just as they condemned someone all too aware of the possibilities: Darl. He is aware of the distain the towns people hold for the Bundrens, but also aware of the kindness displayed when they borrow mules and tools from their nearest neighbors. He knows about Dewey Dell's secret, and he probably also knows that being an underclass, poor, white, and unmarried girl she will not get the medicine she needs. He knows Anse's proclaiming the new lady as Mrs. Bundren holds more implications socially than emotionally. Life on the farm needs a woman to take care of the house and cook, and not necessarily emotional support and mental stimulation. Quite unlike the town folk who socialize daily, the Bundrens spend their time working the farm to make a living.

These immense differences are hard to ignore. Faulkner contrasts the vivid life experienced outwardly by the townspeople with their general stores, pharmacies, and stability in the way he describes the moments in the imagination of the Bundrens. They plod through these towns dreaming of a better life, and wonder about all the afforded liberties and possessions the townspeople enjoy. Yet they pass through the town on the journey to bury Addie, since that was the initial reason, and only enjoy the amenities on their way back to the simple isolated farm. Their life as hard working country folk is driven by what is done, and not what is said. Their image is constructed by their own personal morals and by what their farm produces from their own hard labor, and not by the fa�ade of who they are because of their wealth and what they buy. Their actions will always prove to be more elaborate than their words, but like the townspeople they have the ability to dream and imagine a better life.

Works Cited
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. New York: Random House, 1990.