Exploring Void in Faulkner's Addie Bundren

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Addie is actually the perfect character to try and describe the lack or void of words and meanings. The very fact that she is dead and is talking about this void from the dead is important. In a way she is speaking from a void between life and death. Morna Flaum expresses this idea in her article, “Elucidating Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying.” “Her condition of deadness, speaking from the void between is and not-is makes her the perfect vehicle for Faulkner to describe the indescribable, approach the unapproachable, express the inexpressible, as he so gracefully does, does-not. The placement of Addie’s chapter in the middle of her long journey from deathbed to grave is also significant.” Flaum goes on to say that this placement of Addie’s chapter …show more content…

This relationship is very similar to that of Jewel and Darl. Darl discovers that Dewey Dell is pregnant out of wedlock. None of the other family members know this. Her motive behind going to Jefferson was to get an abortion. This is due to the fact that her baby’s father left her, fear for her father’s rejection due to southern values and religion, and also due to the fact that she ( like everyone else in the family) can not and does not communicate with the other family members. They are all selfish and isolated. Once again Darl does not take any action over discovering her secret, but just continually taunts her over this. This causes tension to continually build until the end of the novel where Darl is being taken away to the insane asylum and Dewey Dell attacks him violently. It is also safe to assume that Dewey Dell is the one who turned Darl into the officials over burning down the barn. Only Vardaman and her knew about what he did. She wanted him out of her life for torturing her, because she did not want anyone to find out her secret. Even though everyone was going to find out sooner or later since she fails to get an

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