From our class discussions, it's pretty clear that we're not the biggest fans of Anse. Even the narrators, especially Vernon Tull, as lazy, weak, and clueless. Although these depictions are not unfounded, there are still some sympathetic parts to Anse that we should remember.
One of Anse's more notable traits is how he will die if he sweats. The lack of sweat on Anse's clothes is one of the main ways Vernon Tull can tell that it's not Jewel's clothes. As a result of his condition, Anse just sits on his porch and rubs his knees while his children work. Although this depiction is quite humorous, it is only applicable to Anse after his injury. It's mentioned in the story that Anse suffered a major injury. It's entirely possible that Anse's injury could've caused his current condition. In sports, there are injuries known as "career-ending." Perhaps Anse suffered a "work-ending" injury.
It's entirely plausible that Anse's current condition is caused by his past injury. His philosophy of vertical vs. horizontal beings, then, serves as a coping mechanism. Additionally, Anse has shown some effort to work in the story. For example, he offers to help Cash with the coffin (even though he ends up doing more harm than good).
Another moment where one can feel bad for Anse is when he's besides Addie's death bed. He "lays it [his hand] on her [Addie's] face and then on the hump of quilt where her hands are. He touches the quilt as he saw Dewey Dell do, trying to smoothe it up to the chin, but disarranging it instead. He tries to smoothe it again, clumsily..." (Faulkner 52). Anse is showing love in this moment, as he's trying to have a intimate moment with Addie before she dies. You can't not feel bad for a husband who's trying to be with his dying wife.
And the kicker is: Addie doesn't feel the same way about Anse. When Anse courts Addie, he's just a young man (without any parents too) with a little property looking to start a family. When they get married, Addie doesn't seem like the best wife either. The only child she willingly has with Anse is Cash. Even then, she still prefers Jewel, who isn't even Anse's son. Dewey Dell and Vardaman are only born because Addie feels as if she's obliged to, and the birth of Darl makes Addie want to kill Anse. She goes so far as to plan her revenge, which wouldn't happen for many years until she died.
Yes, Anse has a lot of flaws, but there are aspects of him which I can sympathize with.
He's doing the best he can.
Okay so I hate Anse in every scene of this book except the one where he's smoothing Addie's blanket down. Even after being in a loveless marriage and appearing to not care about anything, he still cares about her a lot. You could say that ignorance is bliss and because Anse never finds out about her affair it doesn't matter, but I'd imagine that Addie was always a distant with him--she didn't marry him because she loved him or because she saw anything she remotely liked about him except for the fact he offered her an escape from the teaching lifestyle, but he still was hurt by her death. I feel like maybe his careless, "now I can go get new teeth" attitude afterwards is more of a facade or a way to cope with the death of his wife. Overall, great insight!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree!The only positive aspect of Anse's, in my opinion, personality is the love that he appears to have for Addie. The downside of this is that I think it could be a possibility that Anse actually does know about the affair and about how miserable Addie was as his wife and so his determination to bury her in Jefferson could rise from a sense of guilt, rather than love.
DeleteBut then he marries someone else 2 weeks after she died, so he actually didn't seem to love her at all. He has no redeeming qualities. At all.
DeleteNice post. Real ass talk, I agree 100% with supporting Anse. Yeah he's useless. But he pulls as much of his own weight as he possibly can. Also Addie's blanket scene was probably the saddest scene in the book. When Mr. Mitchell reread that in class I got chills. Like many characters within the novel, I sympathize and pity Anse.
ReplyDeleteAnse is complicated. I don't think it's really fair to dismiss him as unilaterally lazy and selfish or praise him for being a super duper loving husband. His story is pretty tragic, like everyone else in his family, but we can also take a lot of the things that befall him to be the result of said laziness. Truly, I think 'he's doing the best he can' basically sums it up- I think we can take it as meaning he's good in his heart, but is severely limited in his execution.
ReplyDeleteNice post. I agree with a lot of your points. I think he really might be doing the best he can. I am still conflicted about him in so many ways though. At the end of the novel, he leaves his entire family disadvantaged, and causes the misfortune of Cash and Jewel, leaves Dewey Dell in the dust, lets Darl be taken away, and poor Vardaman gets no trainsets. I don't know - it might well be impossible to take good care of all of these characters, especially for Anse, but it doesn't seem like he particularly wants to either. He wants to get Addie buried, if we can even assume that. The whole odyssey might be about his teeth for all we know. He is the only one who finds what he's looking for in Jefferson - and he ends up with a new wife. I don't know. I'm really conflicted. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteI think that a compelling argument could be made for Anse, that he's just lost his wife, is attempting to help, all stuff that you lay out in your post. While I might be inclined not to feel sympathy for him, I do think that there are points that could portray him as sympathetic. You make the point that Addie doesn't even like him, which I think is easy for the reader to forget since we don't get her narration as often as his. However, I would say that the suffering he puts his kids through for the sake of his promise to Addie is frustrating because I do feel like as a parent, your loyalty should always lie to your kids and their wellbeing first.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate this post as a centering reminder about Anse. I think in this book I really get caught up in the moment and let some more negative moments in Anse's life color my whole view of him. To be clear I dont LIKE Anse, but in the last few pages of the book, especially in his interaction with Dewey Dell and taking her money I really got caught up in my disdain for him and how he expresses his leadership. Perhaps this trip really did Anse badly. Perhaps it made him more confident since we do see a transformation from a version of Anse that seems uncomfortable to just exist and is pretty pathetic to a strategic and selfish Anse we get details about at the end. I really appreciated reading your post and it helped me bring myself to a more logical place about Anse, thanks for that!!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you – Anse is a complicated character, and the case you make for his more positive traits is valid. I also feel kinda bad for him just because of how much his kids disrespect him. He tries to be the head of the family, the leader, have some sort of control, but literally everyone around him just dismisses him. To be fair, he isn’t incredibly assertive, and his ideas are sometimes dumb, but being shot down like that, constantly, must suck.
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