While I am skeptical of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying as a hero’s journey, some of the Bundrens can still be characterized as heroes, while others fail to live up to heroic standards. Seeing and hearing about each individual character from multiple perspectives gives the reader a lot to take into account when considering the morals of each character. But not every outsider’s opinion is valid, just as not every Bundren’s opinion is justified. Some characters though are objectively bad. Anse and Jewel are some of the worst and most selfish in the Bundren family. Anse is proven to be selfish multiple times and rarely shows concern for his children. He moves on quickly from Addie’s death and becomes fixated on buying teeth. He expresses that he dislikes his children many times and does not care for his children very well. Anse is characterized as lazy by all his neighbors and almost no one views him in a positive light. Even strangers often see him as stupid and criticize his actions.
Murdock’s diagram of the heroine’s journey starts with three steps: identification with the masculine and gathering of allies, the road of trials, and finding the boon of success. Much like how we saw Siddhartha repeat a certain cycle and be reborn multiple times, Helga also seems to go through these three steps in the heroine’s journey multiple times. Her starting a new cycle is often represented as her moving to a different city. So far we have seen Helga repeat these three steps three times, when she moves to Chicago, then New York, and Denmark. Although Helga repeats these three steps, she is still progressing in her journey and can be seen moving forward with other steps while simultaneously repeating the first three. The first step in the heroine’s journey is identification with the masculine and the gathering of allies. When Helga moves to a new place, she is always very excited. Although in this story I believe identification with the masculine is not always present. Instead, H