Is it Hopeful or Cynical? Members with see Faulkner find it difficult to square their heartbreaking and you may, on the surface at the very least, cynical really works specifically those out of their very early so you can middle field such as Once i Lay Perishing to the optimistic comments of your own Nobel Prize speech. Certain argue that this new speech are mere rhetoric (the kind you to definitely Addie Bundren carry out deplore), a public posturing who may have little benefits on the higher fictional. Other people accept the brand new attitude of your own speech once the legitimate and you will respectful. The situation get lay somewhere in ranging from, given that Once i Put Passing away generally seems to show. Discover no matter that Bundrens (whoever name is suggestive of “burdens”) survive an organic problem, social scorn, and you will violent conflict within their own relatives to achieve its try to get back Addie where you can find Jefferson for burial.

And you will, no less than into the a great legalistic experience, your family equipment is actually restored at the end toward acquisition away from a new spouse and mommy. Nevertheless Bundrens’ win was a lot more affected because of the heartbreaking effects of its journey. Anse possess yet another wife and a collection of incorrect white teeth, however the remaining family unit members appear to have shed a great deal more than a father or mother: Darl is actually declared crazy that will be forcibly brought to the fresh new asylum in the Jackson; Dewey Dell has failed to safer her abortion and, on attempt, might have been sexually victimized once more; Bucks might have been crippled, possibly for a lifetime; Gem has lost his horse; and Vardaman has don’t even find, way less and acquire, the doll show that he covets.