As I Lay Dying: A Journey Without a Hero

William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying has an ambiguous relation to the hero's journey. Campbell’s traditional model of the journey follows a linear path and centers on a definitive main character, with specific steps delineating the hero’s progress. As I Lay Dying includes very few of these attributes, as it follows a fragmented narrative, impartially displays multiple characters’ perspectives, and fails to adhere to the steps laid out by Campbell. However, the most notable departure from the traditional journey is the lack of a main character—the lack of a hero. There are several arguments to be made about the heroism of various members of the Bundren family, however each character ultimately falls short of the attributes necessary for classification as a hero.

The first character with hero potential is Anse. When looking exclusively at behavior, Anse seems like a very unlikely candidate for classification as a hero. He is lazy, unaccountable, apathetic, unnurturing towards his children, and disrespectful to his dead wife. The main case for his role as hero is the title of the book—a reference to the words of a ghost in the Odyssey who was wronged by his lover. Anse, having been cheated on by his wife, shares the attributes of a wronged lover. However, the possibility of being the namesake of the novel is not so much an argument for Anse’s heroism as it is an argument for his role as the main character. We see him repeatedly display traits antithetical to that of a hero, specifically his borderline narcissism. For example, he deceptively barters off Jewel’s prized possession, a horse, in order to obtain a new team of mules. He then proceeds to justify his actions by going on a tangent about his own life hardships without teeth—“For fifteen years I aint had a tooth in my head… God knows it, and me saving a nickel here and there so my family wouldn't suffer it… I thought that if I could go without eating, my sons could do without riding” (Faulkner 191). This moment exposes his resentment towards his children and inability to empathize with Jewel. Paired with his other negative traits, it is impossible to categorize him as a hero.

The second contender for hero/main character is Darl. His case primarily revolves around the fact that he is central to multiple aspects of the story. The most obvious manifestation of this is the disproportionate number of chapters narrated from his point of view. Darl chapters appear at least twice as often as any other narrator, giving the reader greater insight into his character and his outlook on situations. Additionally, due to the warped, nonlinear narration style, the argument could be made that Darl is the sole narrator and the other chapters are only emulations of the other figures. However, despite his stylistic importance to the narrative, Darl’s character falls far short of heroic. Arguably the most selfish of the Bundren children, Darl displays little regard for the wellbeing of his mother or his siblings. He convinces Jewel to leave his mother’s side, causing him to miss her death for an unimportant trip to town. When Jewel hears of his mother’s death, his immediate reaction is to blame Darl, repeating “Goddamn you… Goddamn you” over and over (Faulkner 95). Darl, on the other hand is unaffected by the death, stating apathetically that “I cannot love my mother because I have no mother” (Faulkner 95). Darl’s general antagonism towards his family definitively disqualified him from the role of hero.

Similarly to Anse and Darl, Addie’s centrality to the narrative creates a case for her to be identified as the hero. Although she dies within the first few chapters, her dying wish to return to Jefferson sets the family off on their journey and forces them to confront their differences and work together as a family. Her influence persists throughout the story, and she even gets her own chapter in the latter half of the book. However, her chapter provides contradictory information regarding her character and puts her out of the running for the hero position. Her unadulterated hatred towards her husband and the family that they raised together casts her in an entirely new light. Her wish to be buried in Jefferson was made to spite her despised family, and their subsequent journey could be viewed as her final act of revenge rather than an act of benevolent heroism.