The Dysfunctional Family of As I Lay Dying After reading As I Lay Dying, I was unsettled by something. It wasn't the plot, although As I Lay Dying had a singularly bizarre storyline. During the action of the novel a mother dies, and her family embarks upon a disaster ridden journey in order to fulfill her last wishes. The eldest son breaks his leg, the family has to sell or mortgage practically all it's worldly …showed first 75 words of 956 total…

…showed last 75 words of 956 total…seems fairly selfish, but turns out to be the closest thing to love that is found in the novel. After all, Jewel's description of the family as buzzards waiting for Addie to die turns out to be fairly accurate. In a sense all of the Bundren's except Darl and Jewel were buzzards who used Addie's death to feed their own desires. Darl turns out to be less appealing than Jewel because of his destructive jealousy.