The Hero's Journey in As I Lay Dying
It is definitely not easy, but I do think it's possible to see some elements of the hero's journey in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying . However, the hero isn't just one individual, it's the entire Bundren family which is essentially acting as one unit. It is also possible to see some smaller hero's journeys for individual characters like Darl and Cash, but here I'm just going to focus on the Bundren family, since I think it's easiest to see a hero's journey that way. However, there are still many steps that aren't really here. There's not much of a supernatural aid, meeting with the goddess, temptation, atonement with the father, and it feels like a lot of the parts of the return phase are also missing. However, there is a significant change in the family over the course of the journey, mainly Anse deciding to get a new wife days after burying Addie, and Darl going to a mental hospital. They do seem to have gone through some kind of col