As i lay dying

1. What does the critic claim about As I Lay Dying? William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying is a critique of the Southern Way of things of which the novel was situated. Faulkner was quite vague of what he implied to be disdainful about the South as he was not specific about it. What was certain was that his main character, Addie, a wife, does not want to be buried in the land of her husband, which is the Bundren’s. Her husband Anse who is from the South was characterized as ineffectual in the novel reflective of Faulkner’s disdain of the Southerners.
Such, the plot revolved around Addie with her last wish to be instead buried in her family tree in the Jefferson and the trouble the whole family has to go through to fulfill this last wish. In contrast, her husband’s motivation in going to Jefferson is really not just to fulfill Addie’s wish but to get a new set of teeth and possibly a wife to illustrate how feeble minded Southerners are that justified Addies wish not to be buried there.
2. What evidence is used to support this claim?
Faulkner’s in lieu of his characters disdain or critic for Southerners was evident with his character Addie. Traditionally, wife in the Southern states during Faulkner’s time were supposed to be subjugated to the husband and is supposed to be buried where the family is. But no, the whole novel revolved around the universe of travelling to Jefferson despite the bridge that was obliterated and the menacing river they have to go through that Cash, her son, even broke his leg. To confound Faulkner’s critique, Addie’s body was already decaying and yet, they still have to go to Jefferson for her to be buried there. The flies that were following her rotting body symbolism of how desperate Addie to be away from the South and the travel was so long and tenuous that Vardaman, her mentally retarded son burned the barn where the coffin was situated during their rest to end their ordeal but still, they have to go to Jefferson.
When Addie was finally buried, the novel justified why she wanted to return to Jefferson and not remain in the Bundren’s land as illustrated with the allegory of her husband Ansen getting a new teeth and wife just after she was buried.