When Heroes Go Down

Branching off from my post about my perception of Anse changing (and losing his hero status, at least in my opinion) in the last section of the novel, I've noticed over time that being a hero doesn't mean that you're always going to be one. In the real world, there have been many people who have been regarded as heroes, but have had their recognition fall down, following an event or the release of any information that could discredit them.

One such example is that of Joe Paterno. A legend of football coaching, "JoePa" coached Penn State's football team for 46 seasons, up until he was 84 years old (which is pretty old to be coaching football…he wound up breaking some bone almost every year near the end of his career from sideline collisions). Paterno was considered to be the winningest NCAA football coach after getting his 406th win in 2011, against Illinois (of course). At this point, Joe Paterno had already become established as a hero and as a football legend. He played prominent roles in Big Ten advertisements, and was a hero of Penn State football fans and NCAA fans alike.

This all came crashing down however during his 2011 season, following the arrest of Jerry Sandusky in November, a former assistant coach at Penn State on charges of child molestation, including numerous incidences during his tenure as a Penn State coach from 1994 through 1999. Much controversy followed, and Paterno was found to have known about what was going on, yet did little to stop it. He was fired from Penn State, and died shortly thereafter. Investigations following Paterno's death revealed that he not only knew about Sandusky's actions, but covered up these actions to try and preserve the prestige of Penn State's football program. The NCAA took away all his wins from 1998 up until his firing. His statue outside of Penn State's stadium was removed. In a matter of months, Paterno went from being recognized as one of the greatest of all time, to becoming someone who could be seen in quite an unfavorable light. (Controversy exists to this day about this event, along with Penn State's and the NCAA's reactions to it)

The point I'm trying to make here is that it takes a lot to build up hero status, but it only takes a little to tear it all down. It took me 250 pages to really see Anse as a hero, but it only took another 30 pages to change my opinion, and for Anse to lose his hero status. With Paterno, he spent 46 years building a legacy only to have it torn down in a matter of two months.

This brings up an interesting aspect of the hero: the status of being a hero is not given, but one that is earned. And just because you earn hero status doesn't mean its permanent. In fact, losing that hero status is a lot easier than gaining it. I think a lot of the reasoning behind that is human nature. It takes us longer to develop a positive opinion of someone or something than it does for us to form a negative opinion. It's hard to build up trust as opposed to tearing it down.

And that's the same dynamic we have with heroes, both literary and those in the real world. When we see someone as a hero, we've developed trust in them as a hero due to their actions and qualities. That trust has to be built up as well. You may have an idea about who the hero will be when you pick up a book for the first time, but you can't be certain until you've built up that trust about the hero. And at the same time, it doesn't take much for that trust to be lost. If a character betrays their motives (kind of like what Anse does by marrying a new wife, at least in my opinion), it really hurts their heroic status, since it's your trust in the character, their motives, and their actions that really make a hero, a hero.

In closing, I guess this points out how harsh we can be to people, real or not. It takes a lot for us to see them in a positive light, and doesn't take much to make us disregard what made them a hero. I noticed this a lot with the characters in As I Lay Dying. There seemed to be a lot of Bundren-dissing throughout the class. The Bundrens are a rather easy target to make fun of them, being a poor Mississippi family that could be seen as "white trash". It's these preexisting views of the Bundrens which make it so hard to see them as heroic. Look at them. They go through a ton of hardship to bury their mother in town. Cash loses a leg, Jewel saves the coffin (and Addie) multiple times, from roaring rivers to burning barns. Darl's there as a leading figure, since Anse doesn't do much. Vardaman doesn't have many heroic moments, but then again, he's like six years old and isn't exactly focusing on being a hero. Dewey Dell struggles with a secret throughout the journey that she can't tell anyone, and will likely continue to face following the end of the novel. These characters are heroic in their own ways, but our perception of the Bundren family already discredits their heroicness, and it doesn't help that many of the events in the endgame hurt their reputation. After all, it is hard to think of the man who's being taken away to an institution (who then proceeds to narrate about his train ride from the third person) as a hero.
 see them as heroes.

As a final note, I'd like to thank Mr. Butler, his Flow of History, and Suzanne Vega for the title of this blog post. It would be a lot more boring without them.

That's So Anse...

If you read my last post, you may have a noticed my favorable, sympathetic and pitiful attitude towards Anse and the problems that he's faced, and the dedication and determination he's made to Addie to get her buried in town.

I made these statements before reading the last section of As I Lay Dying, which came across to me as rather anticlimactic and sad. To be quite honest, I was kinda pissed off about how Faulkner ended each character's story, though I can't say I'm surprised, since we're dealing with the Bundrens, after all. Between Darl going to the institution, Carl's leg being messed up for good, Dewey Dell's rape and

The biggest problem I had was with Anse though. In the end, we learn that Anse has gotten new teeth and a new wife…besides being unexpected, it basically tore down my impression of Anse and his dedication to Addie. The fact that Anse basically forgets about Addie once she's buried in the ground really bothered me. I felt like Anse's dedication to Addie would continue beyond her death…well, beyond her burial in this case. I guess I was wrong. Also, how he managed to get the teeth is a question I have…didn't he reallocate the "Anse Bundren Dental Replacement Fund" money to the "Dead Mule Replacement Fund"? The way in which he gets the money (especially after asking Dewey Dell for her $10) is unknown, but seems quite odd.

My annoyance at Anse turned into anger following our class discussion today. I missed the fact that Anse's future wife is the one who provided him with the shovels to bury Addie in the first place. The fact that Anse is going to marry the woman who allowed him to bury Addie and leave her behind (both figuratively and literally) just seems really wrong. I could understand if later on, after a while, Anse was to find a wife. While I'm taken aback by his move, it's not really out of character for Anse. #likeananse

We don't get much info on the whole false teeth/new wife situation, so if I had more info on it, I may feel more sympathetic (or even less so) towards him. But that's the way Faulkner meant to end the story. As it says on the back cover, Faulker said that he "set out to write a tour-de-force…", and that from the very beginning knew "what the last words would be and where the last period would fall." This suggests that Faulkner intended to end the novel as it did, so I guess he meant for Anse to be seen in this light.

I guess this shows how your perception of somebody can change drastically from just one event or one piece of info…I went from defending Anse and supporting him as a hero last night to not really liking him as much now.

A Misfortunate Hero: Anse Bundren

When I first picked up As I Lay Dying, I was quite unsure of Mr. Mitchell's motives in selecting this novel as part of a class known as "The Hero's Journey". It didn't take me too long to see that there wasn't really anything heroic about the Bundren family or any of its members, at least at first thought. The Bundren family came across me to as one to be made fun of, not as one to be looked at as heroic, and even less so to be emulated.

Then however, once they started on the journey to bury Addie in town, some heroic traits started coming out in the Bundrens. First off, the fact that Anse is willing to dedicate the time and resources to such a journey are surprising in the first place. He doesn't really come across as someone who likes to work or do things, with his "condition" that will kill him if he sweats. The dedication that he would show by doing this in fair conditions would already be unexpected out of Anse. However, based on the inclement conditions and various problems that arise along the path of their journey, I was expecting Anse to give up at any moment. But the fact that he doesn't shows a sense of determination in Anse that I never expected.

Anse's dedication to Addie's burial wish is ironic in the fact that as we learn from Addie's narration, that she dislikes Anse, the Bundren family, and even her own family. She went off with Whitfield the minister to have an affair, more so to get away from Anse to anything. She even manages to hide the illegitimacy of her child Jewel from Anse. It seems that her burial wish is not to be buried with her family, but just to get away from what could be described as the "living hell" she's dealt with with the Bundrens.

The fact that Anse's dedication to Addie is not reciprocated makes the situation all the more ironic, and makes me see Anse as a hero, in a pitiful sense. While his determination is partially responsible for my opinion of Anse as being a hero, the fact that Anse does this for someone who hates him (though neither he nor anyone in As I Lay Dying knows this...) is heroic in a sense, because he's doing this task which takes away from more important things for someone that doesn't care about him. While those around Anse may not see it as heroic because they don't see Addie's view on the matter, I (and some other readers, probably) feel for Anse because he's doing it all for Addie, who wouldn't do anything for him.