Buzzardss In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

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In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner uses buzzards to represent nature’s qualities of opportunism and being ever present. Faulkner’s imagery of the buzzards throughout the story symbolizes nature as opportunistic. Buzzards are scavengers; they are enticed by the smell of death and rot and feed on the carcasses of dead animals. As the days continue to pass during the Bundrens’ journey to Jefferson to bury Addie, the stench of her decaying corpse becomes increasingly more pungent. Buzzards, attracted to the scent of death, appear in circles above the Bundrens’ wagon or around the barns they place Addie in when they stay at different farms during their journey. When they leave Samson’s farm, Samson is convinced that he isn’t really smelling Addie’s