Throughout most of the novel I was pretty sympathetic to Anse. Even though he seemed to have brought most of his sufferings and inadequacies on himself, I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. It seemed like at the beginning that he really was doing this huge journey for Addie. And the main reason he was pretty much useless by the time Addie died and they had to journey to Jefferson was because of Anse’s illness (whether it was real or not). “He tells people that if he ever sweats, he will die. I suppose he believes it” (17). And this is what limits Anse from being any physical help to his family. So I thought, that at least he was trying to do one last thing for Addie, even if he wasn’t physically capable of doing it himself.
I couldn’t help but feel sort of sorry for this guy. He’s pretty pathetic, and his kids even dismiss him. Even Vardaman refers to Anse as a shadow, “Pa walks around. His shadow walks around, over Cash going up and down above the saw, at the bleeding plank” (65). And it’s really enforced throughout the novel that Anse is really no help to his kids in helping with Addie’s death other than reminding them that they have to get to Jefferson.
But then we get to the end of the novel where Anse reveals that he’s got a new wife, then my reaction to this whole journey becomes pretty similar to the moment when Anse is smoothing out Addie’s quilt. Like the tender moment when Anse awkwardly tries to smooth out Addie’s quilt, the whole journey in this novel is pushed forward by Anse saying that it was Addie’s wish. He’s doing it for his love for Addie. So I thought of him as the loving husband (though pretty bad at displaying those emotions). But when Anse brings out the new Mrs. Bundren, it felt like the similar disappointment that I felt when Anse suddenly brings up his plan to get new teeth after Addie’s death. He ruined such a tender moment and the basically the whole journey.
After this, I lost a lot of the sympathy I originally had for Anse. All of his family members got pretty messed up after their journey, and Anse’s intentions didn’t really seem like they were trying to honor Addie in any way. And it’s not like I’m outraged that Addie’s memory was so dismissed, because she probably wouldn’t care that much about it, but I lost any of the respect I had left for Anse at that moment.
Your perspective on Anse is very different from mine, but your thought process makes a lot of sense. Although I didn't sympathize with Anse at any point in the story, I could see how one could sympathize with him giving the different limitations he has. But even for people who sympathized with Anse, it is hard to continue supporting him when his selfish motives are revealed. I never sympathized with Anse because I saw no redeeming qualities in him. Even though Anse is inadequate and incompetent, if he had at least showed some type of heroic trait, then it would have been easier for me to be sympathetic. But everything he did seemed selfish, and his frustrating personality didn't make me like him any better.
ReplyDeleteWe touched on it in class, but it's a curious choice for Faulkner to choose not to narrate the burial scene at all (aside from a passing comment by Cash, once it had already been done). And Anse drops out as a narrator entirely after those early sections before the journey begins, so this means we're always seeing him from others' points of view, including Addie's, and Anse doesn't come off all that well from others' points of view.
ReplyDeleteWould we maybe see this ending differently if there were a similarly "tender" moment at the burial? Not a "finally, we've gotten this damn coffin into the ground" but something that reflects more closure, or even "tenderness," with Addie?
I don't know. We'd still be aware that the spade they dug the grave with is borrowed from the woman Anse is about to marry. He definitely makes it hard to sympathize at the end like that--it's almost like Faulkner is writing with that same "hangdog" defiance, as if daring us to swallow the fact that his "hero" is provoking such appalled reactions. "It's a outrage!"
I was also very disappointed by the ending, but mostly because I thought Anse was the only one rewarded for making the journey to Jefferson, and he didn't deserve it. I think I had a more cynical view of Anse when reading the book than you did, but I can understand why you felt sympathy for him and were disappointed by his actions at the end. I lost my sympathy for him long before the ending, though, when he used the money for the graphophone, sold Jewel's horse, etc.
ReplyDeleteYour post makes me wonder how long Anse had been planning on finding a new wife in Jefferson. Maybe his intentions became less than pure even before the family reached Jefferson, which is why we get barely any narration from him toward the end of the book? That would explain why Anse was so eager to go on this journey despite his "condition" even though he clearly got over his mourning real fast.
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