Clownish Goobers

Blog 4 Prompt 3      

     When you think of the hero’s journey, you are reminded of books like The Hobbit or Harry Potter, where main character heroes go on journeys along with side characters encountering obstacles and saving the world from evil. It’s true that Faulkner’s unique storytelling tactics in As I Lay Dying provide many different perspectives for the reader to understand the narrative completely, but Faulkner’s story does not align at all with the template of the hero’s journey. The criteria to classify a story as a hero’s journey are not met and the determination of the hero is unclear. The telling of a story from countless perspectives just doesn’t work to tell a hero’s journey story. There are too many opinionated tales and flashbacks, instead of the main storyline being focused on. Some flashbacks or anecdotes also contribute little to nothing towards the main journey. For these reasons and more, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner does not classify as a hero’s journey story.

This book does not align with any criteria that establishes stories as hero’s journeys. The template of storytelling is broadly met, but some stretches are made in order to correlate events that happen within the book to stages in the hero’s journey. Furthermore most of this story takes place before even passing the first threshold. A lot of the buildup to the journey takes place at the Bundren household while Addie is dying. After they leave, this book follows multiple people on different journeys according to their perspectives, rather than one singular hero on a journey. Faulkner makes it unclear who the real main character is, and the journey is not focused on at all. Most of the characters voice their opinions through the telling of the story from their perspective, but this way of telling a story does not align with the principles of a hero’s journey story because it includes way too many personal anecdotes and flashbacks rather than focusing on the present journey at hand. 

Faulkner makes it excessively unclear as to who the main character/hero really is. It seems that the whole time reading, I was looking to find a main character instead of understanding their change throughout the storyline: which is what the hero’s journey is supposed to represent. There are way too many family members on this journey, and all of them have given reasons as to why they are not the hero. Even in the beginning of the book, characters give reasons to be unlikeable by the reader. Anse is lazy, Addie is dead, Jewel is selfish, Darl is hateful, and Dewie Dell is secretive. The title “As I Lay Dying” is misleading, as it seems to refer to Addie, but it’s hard to picture a dead person as an active hero in this journey. Overall it’s impossible to find a hero within this torn apart and broken family, due to the representation of their dynamics throughout the story.

Although these are reasons to think that this story is not a hero’s journey, this story has potential for a comeback. Of course I’m not done reading, but I can foresee a big plot twist or reveal of background information that will change the perspective of the reader permanently. This story could become a hero’s journey by following the template laid out by Joseph Campbell and starting to focus on the development of one or more family members through the end of this journey. At the stage I’m at right now, the Bundren family has reached Jefferson but hasn’t returned, so there really is strong potential to develop characters before the book ends. I really hope that something happens that changes how we view at least one family member, because as of now I do agree that all of these family members are clownish goobers.


-Tristen

Comments

  1. Ansh SinghDecember 14, 2024 at 2:13 PM

    Hey Tristen, I loved your analysis of how Faulkner’s broken-up narrative and unclear protagonist go against Campbell's hero’s journey template. I agree with you that the multiple perspectives make it pretty hard to focus on a single hero in the book. In fact, I wrote on a similar topic to yours. I wonder if you think Faulkner could be critiquing or even mocking the hero's journey with this fragmented writing style of his.

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  2. Kaylee ZhengDecember 15, 2024 at 9:18 PM

    Hi Tristin! I completely agree that none of the characters are suited for the hero title. Your interpretation of the lack of focus in As I Lay Dying effectively highlights its misalignment with the main odyssey. Still, I believe that the narrative, despite all the digressions, covers most of the steps from Campbell's hero’s journey template pretty well, which I describe in my blog.

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  3. Larissa DolcosDecember 16, 2024 at 8:30 AM

    Hi Tristen, I like how you emphasized that the chaos of Faulkner's novel makes it difficult for readers to see a hero's journey. I do think, though, that Faulkner does mostly follow the steps, but just in a *very* unique way. I think that Faulkner probably purposefully veered away from the traditional steps to show that a hero's journey isn't some perfect predetermined storyline. Great job!

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  4. KaiDecember 18, 2024 at 7:38 AM

    Tristen! I agree that As I lay Dying is very chaotic and doesn't follow the hero's journey conventionally. I see what you mean about Faulkner making the novel hard to follow, but I don't think the odd structure means it can't be some sort of journey. Personally I think Faulkner makes a bunch of small hero's journeys. However, I 100% agree with you on the characters. They are certainly Clownish Goobers. But I love them for it.

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  5. AlyssaDecember 18, 2024 at 7:43 AM

    Hi Tristen, I really like how you took the less common take on As I Lay Dying. I wrote a similar blog, but I focused less on the fact that none of the characters fit the hero role. You make a very good point about how Faulkner almost purposefully makes it unclear who the main character is. You really highlighted what qualities of this story set it a part from a typical Hero's Journey through the characters specifically, good job!

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  6. AthenaDecember 18, 2024 at 7:58 AM

    Hi Tristen! Your idea about how Faulkner's style misleads the reader into overlooking the Hero's Journey/character growth is really interesting. I didn't consider the fact that by trying to figure out who the hero is--probably by rule of elimination, etc.--it could distract from active character growth. I found it hopeful that while reading, you were able to identify the chance that the style of book can still set up a hero's journey.

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