Undying Malice
Addie Bundren is a rather mysterious figure in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying . The first portion of the book has her sitting in the death-room not saying a word to anyone, or even looking in Anse's direction. Only at the moment of her death does she call out to Cash. The next portion of the book sees Addie dead, in the coffin (accidentally augured), and on the road. She is very dead at this point, but she still maintains a significant presence in the plot, with Anse's adamant declarations that "this is what she wanted" or the omnipresent stench that follows the cart like a blight on the land. In the paradigm of the Hero's Journey, Addie, residing in her coffin is a Talisman, but she seems to be a bad-luck charm or a harbinger of misfortune as well, given the reactions of people outside the Bundren family. After the river crossing, we get a chapter narrated by Addie herself, even though she has been dead for a week at that point. We learn that Addie Bundren is