Addie’s chapter is ambiguously narrated with the uncertainty of when Addie is narrating: before or after her death. The passage develops an understanding of Addie’s life and true feelings that seems to be hidden up until this point of the passage. The passage acts as the only representation of Addie’s true nature proving its importance in the understanding of the character. Through the juxtaposition of Addie’s seemingly dominant attitude and the damaging consequences of her attitude, the passage illustrates an essential description of Addie’s conflicting nature.
Addie expresses her dominance in life through her tone of the passage. To illustrate her dominance and the control she has over her actions, Addie says, “So I took Anse” (171, Faulkner). …show more content…
In describing her relationship with her children and Anse along with the consequential violations, Addie states that “...we...like spiders...swinging and twisting and never touching… only through the blows of the switch could my blood and their blood flow as one stream. I knew that it had been, not that my aloneness had to be violated over and over each day, but that it had never been violated until Cash came. Not even by Anse in the night” (172, Faulkner). Addie uses a simile in which she compares herself and Anse as spiders who are “swinging and twisting” on a beam. The image of Addie as a spider implies a sense of hopelessness and alienation. As a spider, she seems to have no sense of direction and connection. It provokes a sense that Addie is struggling through her wish of alienation because whenever Addie has an interaction, she feels a “blow.” It seems as though Addie’s connection with her family is what hurts her and that her loss of dominance came with the birth of her children. The “switch” represents the switch in her role from having authority to losing her power and feeling “violated.” The fact that Addie’s main conflict is her family which she chose to make underscores the conflict of familial obstacles that everybody faces in As I Lay