Does As I Lay Dying follow the Hero's Journey Template? Yes or no?

William Faulkner's book As I Lay Dying follows the lives of the Bundrens during and after the Death of Addie Bundren, who was the mother of the Bundren Kids. Throughout each chapter of the book, we are given a different character's perspective of what could be happening in the moment of the book or a story that happened in the past. This book tends to follow each step in Campbell’s Hero’s journey template, but some steps can sometimes be hard to figure out. I think that even though the book sort puts the events into a puzzle, I think that you can still pick out the steps of the Hero’s Journey.

Throughout the book, each chapter is a different character, but to make the book even more confusing, the scene that the character is in sometimes changes between the characters. Having different perspectives can definitely make it so that different steps of the Hero’s Journey can be super long. For example, the “Call to Adventure” step. At the beginning of the book, the Bundren Family is building a coffin to bury Addie Bundren in. In the book, Mr. Tull says, “But she wanted to go,  it was her own wish to lie among her own people” (Faulkner 17). This quote shows that Addie really wanted to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson to be with the people in her town. This part of the book really shows the start of the “Call to Adventure” step of them starting to talk about going to bury Addie in Jefferson. I think that having this step be throughout part of the book can make it hard to pinpoint what exactly could be the “Call to Adventure” for the Bundrens, but I think that for me, it was still clear that them trying to travel to Jefferson to bury Addie was the “Call to Adventure”.

Even though the “Call to Adventure” is a long step in As I Lay Dying, I think that it flows well into the “Crossing First Threshold” step. In the book, the Bundrens officially start their journey to Jefferson. At the start of the Tull chapter, it is describing a lot of the Bundrens trying ot figure out the best time to start their journey to Jefferson, especially with the storm. Specifically, Tull says to Anse, “But the road is good now” (Faulkner 21). This short quote shows Anse and Tull talking to each other and trying to figure out the best time to travel to Jefferson. Before that quote, Anse is talking about how he knows that Addie would want to start the journey soon. I think that this could possibly be the start of the “Crossing First Threshold” step because it’s describing them figuring out when to leave their homes and start their journey to Jefferson. I do think that this step could also happen a little bit later in the book when they actually get on the road, but I think that this is the beginning of the step.

Throughout the book, more steps can be picked out. With each chapter of this book having a different perspective, it can be hard to know which parts go with each step. I also think that the tough part is not knowing who to hero could be. Especially with having so many characters, who the hero is could change between each reader. With that being said, I do understand the argument that it could be hard to figure out the steps of the Hero’s Journey, but I do think that you can still pick out some of the steps. Especially the “Call to Adventure” and the “Crossing First Threshold” steps.