The Journey of No Heroes
The book As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner seems to have a hero's journey style narrative but at the same time it seems to really test the boundaries of what classifies a hero as a hero. There is no clear "main character" of the book, who would normally be classified as the hero on the journey, and none of the characters that do exist in the book have heroic qualities. All members of the Bundren family have their own selfish reasons for going on the journey, which were ignited by the death of Addie. The characters that I think are most interesting to analyze in this sense are Jewel, Anse, and Cash. We do not see much from the perspective of Jewel but we can tell a lot about him from other people's chapters. Throughout the book he has been written as distant and aggressive, and is very independent. He does not ride with the others on the wagon, instead opting to ride separately on his horse. He is often viewed by the neighbors as strange too, compared ...