Anse Bundren is one of the most exceptional characters in “As I Lay Dying”. He was the husband of Addie Bunden. In the Story, he portrayed himself as being a very selfish individual.
During his journey to the burial site of his wife, he always was worrying about his well-being before the family’s well-being.
The only reason that he decided to carry out Addie’s wish was that he wanted to improve his image by getting false teeth. He did care for his wife, but this caring was overshadowed by his love to improve himself. In this story, it became evident to all of the readers that Anse was a very lackadaisical character.
This was shown through a passage where he said, ”If I work…. I will sweat… and if I sweat, then I will die.” This passage is precisely showing his lazy attitude towards life. In another passage, Addie said, ”Get up, and move then.” Even after that statement, he still didn’t feel the need to do anything to help others.
Another characteristic of Anse is that he is extremely thrifty. He didn’t feel the need to spend any money. This was clear when he didn’t call Peabody to observe Addie during her final hours.
Another scene that exemplified his laziness is when he is talking to himself about the roads. He said that the roads were a direct reason why he was forced to pay taxes. He was disgusted at the sights of roads because it enabled people to bother him.
During his journey to Jefferson, he had to overcome many obstacles to get to his goals like the flood, the crossing of the river, and the fire that was set by Darl. His main goal was not to look foolish but that was very unlikely because he was with a coffin with his son sitting helplessly on top with a concrete cast on his leg, and because of the hole in the coffin, the corpse smelled terrible. Overall, as they went through these small towns their appearance was awful.
In this novel, it was evident that Anse didn’t know how to express his true feelings. It seemed that he didn’t care for anyone but himself, but really it was a lack of knowledge of expressing feelings. Also, he was “not true to his words.” This means that he said false statements because he didn’t comprehend their meaning and he was a liar.
