Is it really a Hero's Journey?
I don't think As I Lay Dying is much of a hero's journey. There are elements and a few identifiable steps, but there's too much deviation from Campbell's formula that just makes the story feel like something else entirely. The way Faulkner has decided to frame the plot under a shade of human witness accounts and rambling shows that the priority wasn't to show a hero's journey but rather a character study of a dysfunctional family. The story spends a significant portion of its budget in the first half establishing the Bundrens and how they "fit" in the Bundren family. Darl is quickly implied to be our main narrator, with the most logical and visually descriptive way of speaking to us. Jewel has one chapter of his own where it's made very clear how hostile and angry he feels to everyone, but also how he kind of has a soft spot for his mother. Cash is the silent hard-working type. Dewey Dell is the only woman in the family after Addie dies, and she is...
