Beginning of Essay
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 fa ....

Middle of Essay
.... she does, Anse appears obsessed with burying her there. Even after Addie had been dead over a week, and all of the bridges to Jefferson are washed out, he is still 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 specta ....