The Collapse Of The Bundren Family In As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying is one of William Faulkner's best works and, since its publication, many critics have made arduous efforts to study it from various perspectives. This thesis focuses on the collapse of the Bundren family and explores the causes of the family's disintegration. On the basis of a close reading of the text, the thesis employs some literary theories such as culture studies and feminism. The author of the thesis believes that the novel, by presenting the Bundren family's collapse, explores the universal predicament of mankind in the modern world.Besides an introduction and a conclusion, this thesis has three chapters. Chapter One examines the family's tragedy of isolation, which is largely a result of the fact that all the Bundrens are excessively individualistic and do not have a sense of family. It shows that they would sacrifice others for their own interests and furthermore, they are walled up in their solitude with their own secrets and even hurt each other. So, the family members are not inter-dependent but estranged from each other, which destroys the family relationship.Chapter Two concentrates on the failure of the parents, Anse and Addie, which is the ultimate cause of the collapse of the Bundren family. The parents should be the center of a family: the mother the emotional centre and the father the authoritative centre, which are vital to the stability and harmony of a family. However, as this chapter reveals, they fail their responsibility as parents: Addie, the mother, refuses to love her children, while Anse abuses his fatherhood to benefit himself. Their failure as parents leads to the tragedy of their children and the collapse of the family.Chapter Three studies the Burdrens' spiritual predicaments, which are also rooted in social and historical environment. In the early part of the twentieth century, the South was at the historical crossroads and the profound changes bought about a spiritual crisis. This chapter explores that, in this social and cultural context, the Bundrens are thrown into a severe spiritual crisis caused by the collapse of morality, repression of conventions, and disintegration of the traditional value system. Tragically this family, owing to its own problems as having been discussed in the earlier chapters, is unable to meet the challenge, the family members become alienated, and the family falls apart.The thesis concludes that the collapse of the Burdren family, a miniature of the modern South, is the result of the joined forces from both inside and outside of the family.