Fitting As I Lay Dying into the Hero’s Journey Departure Stage William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying follows the Bundren family and their neighbors in their separate lives as the Bundren mother, Addie, dies. Each character has a different personality and a different way of processing their grief, and thus provides a unique perspective on their family and the storyline of the book. As I Lay Dying is written as a stream-of-conscious interior monologue, with each character providing their own thoughts and perspectives on the story in each chapter. It often goes through the same event multiple times, allowing the reader to see multiple perspectives on the same event. While this might be helpful in some readings of a book, through the lens of the Hero’s Journey, this book makes it hard for the reader to understand the true storyline and decide which step a certain part of the book may fit with. It also leaves a reader wondering who the main character might be, since each character believes t...