The characters in "As I Lay Dying" tend to bring different colors and perspectives to the sequence of the plot in the novel. One of these characters is Anse. Anse is the husband of the family. Together with Addie he has fathered: Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell and Vardaman. He also has a step son named Jewel.
William Faulkner, the author, describes Anse as lazy when he references his inability to sweat. Anse alos has deformed physical characteristics such as his hump in his back and the lack of a full set of teeth. In terms of relationships with his family and his close friends we can say that he is a very non-emotional person. Through the passing of Addie, his wife, and their journey to her burrial, Anse seems unaffected by this and carries on with his own personal, which is to get to Jefferson and get his new teeth.
His personality and role in the story can be summed up as the role of a flat character. He seems to be two dimmensional due to his lack of showing his emotions, better yet, emotions period. If it can be argued that there is a disconnect with Addie and her family then there is a bigger disconnect with Anse and his family, because Addie is dead and maybe has lost her chance to be there for her kids, but he is alive but he puts their feelings to the side so that he can cater to his own needs.
In this novel the overall complexity and multi dimension of all the characters is used by the authors to portray the different points of the story and reveal more in detail the importance of each character and family member.
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2 comments:
i totally agree johnny. anse is completely apathetic, stubborn, lazy, and just flat out unlikeable. For instance, after the wagon topples in the river, he says (about cash) "ere such an unfortunate man." This shows that he simply comments on everything, and does nothing to help his own family. And yes, all he wants to do is to get to Jefferson, to be "respectful," but he goes and gets his false teeth (by stealing Dewey Dell's abortion money) and getting a new wife while he's there. He only cares about himself, and lets his family do all of the work. What a character.
I can see why Anse does not get much narration within the novel: he is a complete arse. When it comes to doinog any manual work he sits like a log with his gaping mouth. When we discussed the plotline in class and it was brought up that maybe Anse played a major role in them going to Jefferson for himself only, and not his dead wife to respect her last wishes; only to get a wife. Anse is one of the most annoying characters I read about in any book, and when he takes Dewey Dell's abortion that was the last straw. Anse is a complete mess.
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