In a southern farmhouse, Addie Bundren lay dying. She and her family plus many other characters, multiple narrators, describe the events throughout the story. Each person can only see through their own eyes with limited understanding due to their past experiences, opinions, and emotions. While presenting various points of view, some people try to understand others, but everyone influences present and future events surrounding Addie’s death and the following journey.
Faulkner illustrates how the survival instinct is part of human nature. Some people also have the instinct to protect and develop their children. A few may extend their empathy to their social contacts and even to strangers. For self protection, people keep secrets and only reveal what serves their own purposes.
Addie’s doctor realizes, “I can remember when I was young, I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind - and that of the minds of the ones who suffer the bereavement.” After Addie dies, her final wish is fulfilled as her family makes the journey to return her body back to her hometown.
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