As I Lay Dying As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a novel about how conflicting goals within a family destroy it. Every member of the family is to some extent responsible for what goes wrong, but none more so than Anse. Anse's laziness and selfishness are the factors behind every disaster in the book. As critic Andre Bleikasten agrees, "there is almost no character in Faulkner so fraught with flaws and vices" (84). At twenty-two Anse becomes ill from working in the sun after which he refuses to work claiming that he will die if he ever sweats again. Anse gets lazy and turns Addie into a baby factory so that the children do all the work. Addie is saddened by this and is no longer the same. Anse is reluctant to do everything. Even the cost of a doctor for his dying wife seems like money better spent on dentures. "I never sent for you" says Anse "I'll bear you as a witness, I never sent for you" (37) he repeats trying to avoid the doctor's fee. Before she dies, Addie asks to be buried in Jefferson. When she does, Anse seems obsessed with burying her there. Even after Addie has been dead for more than a week and all connections to Jefferson have been swept away, he is still determined to reach Jefferson. Is Anse sincere in wanting to keep his promise to Addie or is he driven by another motive? Anse plays "the role of the grieving widower to perfection" (Bleikasten 84) while secretly thinking only of finding another wife and dentures in Jefferson. When it becomes necessary to drive the wagon across the river, he proves to be undeniably lazy as he makes Cash, Jewel, and Darl cross the wagon while he walks the bridge as a spectator. Anse is also stubborn; he could have borrowed a team of mules from Mr. Armstid, but he insists that Addie wouldn't have wanted it that way. In truth, though, Anse uses this to justify exchanging Jewel's horse for mules to save himself the expense. Numerous times in the book he justifies his actions by interpreting Addie's will. Anse not only trades Jewel's horse without asking, but also steals Cash's money. He later lies to his family that he spent his savings and cash on trading. “I thought he and Anse never did business,” Armstid said. "Sho," they said "All he liked was the horse" said Eustace, a farm hand of Mr. Snopessa.