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Addie Bundren The death of Addie Bundren is not only the catalyst to the entire novel, but through her brief monologue and subtle memories from Cora, Addie emerges as one of the most important characters in the novel. It is her consciousness and her memory of the Bundren past that makes the narrative passages of her family what they are. Addie has only one monologue to herself, but it is key to the novel. It is ironically placed after her son, Jewel, had rescued her coffin from the floodwaters. The monologue occurs "as I lay dying," but it is revealed to us that as she lay dead, her will is still powerfully dictated by the acts of her children. As the passage begins, Addie remembers her life as a schoolgirl before her marriage to Anse. To get away from the hateful school she took Anse; and she shortly discovered, with the birth of their first child, that "living was terrible and that this was no answer to it. That was when I learned that that words are no good; that