As I Lay Dying Dewey Analysis

Introverts make up about 33% to 50% of the population in the United States (Goudreau). In the novel, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, Dewey Dell may be considered introverted, or a person who does not communicate their emotions well with others. However, each member of the Bundren family has something to hide, therefore Dewey Dell is not as introverted as the audience may think. Dewey Dell makes a preposterous decision when she decides to hide her pregnancy from her family. Dewey Dell, a character familiar with distrust in her backwards family, is also quick to betray her kin; this displays that secrets and withholding inner thoughts can cause one to act irrationally. With Dewey Dell experiencing treachery throughout the novel, it can
He does not assist anyone in any way. Jewel, and Tull are risking their lives going back in the water to retrieve Cash’s tools, and he is acting like nothing is happening. This shows how unfather-like he is, and how he thinks he is entitled to do nothing since he is the father, and should be leading, but is actually being a dreadful father. With all his imperfections as a father, his children see him as an unloyal person, and show no respect for him anymore. On top of Dewey Dell’s father betraying the family, Addie, her mother, is also at fault for committing acts of betrayal. Addie, for example, is a character who betrays her other kids in the novel, including Dewey Dell. Addie betrays the whole family by making her other children do Jewel’s work when he is “sick”. They later find out that Jewel is so tired all the time because he would leave at night and go work for Mr. Quick in order to buy his new horse, not for the reasons they thought. Addie, in trying to help relieve Jewel a little bit, makes Dewey Dell and Vardaman do his work for him. Darl recounts Addie at this time: “It was ma that got Dewey Dell to do his
Towards the end of the novel, Dewey Dell acts out of place because of her suppressed thoughts. This is a common theme that stays consistent throughout the novel, and without her internally kept thoughts at the beginning of the novel, she would not have acted so out of place towards the end of the novel. She reaches her breaking point by holding in the secret of her being pregnant, she cannot take it anymore. According to Darl, she will not even admit the pregnancy to herself, “The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true: is that it? But you know it is true now. I can almost tell you the day when you knew it was true. Why wont you say it, even to yourself? She will not say it” (Faulkner 40). Dewey Dell knows that if she admits to herself that this whole “pregnancy thing” is actually happening, then she will have to deal with it instantaneously, which worries her. She does not want to tell anyone about this, she will not even tell herself. By suppressing these emotions, worrying, and fear that someone else will find out; this causes her to build up this emotional pain, which causes her to reach her final straw and rat out darl to take away her despair. With this anguish she is undergoing, her actions show what she is feeling when she does tell on Darl. Dewey Dell is revealed