The Comparison Of Motherhood In As I Lay Dying

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"[M]otherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn 't care whether there was a word for it or not," Addie Bundren reflects from beyond the grave in As I Lay Dying (171). Though she can hardly be considered the paragon of motherhood, Addie 's words have a degree of truth to them which can be interpreted in more than one way. Perhaps mothers don 't need a word for motherhood because their experience is one that transcends language. Or perhaps it is only men and childless women who care about defining motherhood, because those who are mothers have realized "that living [is] terrible and that this [is] the answer to it," and thus have no desire to concern themselves with the definition of a meaningless term (As I Lay Dying 171). The latter appears to be the case for Addie, whose favoritism and passive aggressiveness lead to the horrible neglect of almost every one of her five children, but specifically of her only daughter, Dewey Dell. In contrast, Ellen Sutpen 's understanding of the terribleness of living and her own dysfunctional relationships lead her to seek happiness in an illusory world of wealth and status, to the neglect of her only daughter Judith. Both …show more content…

I did not ask for them," Addie calmly explains, making it clear that motherhood was not an aspiration of hers to begin with (AILD 174). Even so, her explanation of Dewey Dell 's birth is particularly aloof: "I gave Anse Dewey Dell to negative Jewel" (AILD 176). It seems that in Addie 's eyes, the meaning of Dewey Dell 's existence lies in negating the unexpected birth of Addie 's illegitimate son Jewel. The girl 's only purpose is to help with "cleaning up the house" (AILD 176) – first metaphorically, in helping Addie to set her affairs straight so that Addie can begin "getting ready to stay dead" (AILD 175), and then literally, once Addie has died and Dewey Dell is the only woman left in the Bundren

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