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As I Lay Dying: Anse's Laziness - Term Papers

As I Lay Dying: Anse's Laziness

William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is a novel about how the conflicting agendas within a family tear it apart. Every member of the family is to a degree responsible for what goes wrong, but none more than Anse. Anse's laziness and selfishness are the underlying factors to every disaster in the book.
As the critic Andre Bleikasten agrees, "there is scarcely a
character in Faulkner so loaded with faults and vices"
(84).
At twenty-two Anse becomes sick from working in the sun after which he refuses to work claiming he will die if he ever breaks a sweat again. Anse becomes lazy, and turns Addie into a baby factory in order to have children to do all the work. Addie is inbittered by this, and ...

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determined to get to Jefferson.

Is Anse sincere in wanting to fulfill his promise to Addie, or is he driven by another motive? Anse plays "to perfection the role of the grief-stricken widower" (Bleikasten 84) while secretly thinking only of getting another wife and false teeth in Jefferson. When it becomes necessary to drive the wagon across the river, he proves himself to be undeniably lazy as he makes Cash, Jewel, and Darl drive the wagon across while he walks over the bridge, a spectator.

Anse is also stubborn; he could have borrowed a team of mules from Mr. Armstid, but he insists that Addie would not have wanted it that way. In truth though Anse uses this to justify trading Jewel's horse for the mules to spare himself the expense. Numerous times in the book he justifies his actions by an interpretation of Addie's will.

Anse not only trades Jewel's horse without asking, but he also steals Cash's money. Later on he lies to his family saying that he spent his savings and ...

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As I Lay Dying: Anse's Laziness. (2007, May 6). Retrieved January 13, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/As-I-Lay-Dying-Anses-Laziness/64419

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"As I Lay Dying: Anse's Laziness." Essayworld.com. May 6, 2007. Accessed January 13, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/As-I-Lay-Dying-Anses-Laziness/64419.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 5/6/2007 12:41:34 AM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Free Paper
Words: 664
Pages: 3

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