The Bundrens are to the Southern U.S. what the Oedipus family is to Greece and the Hamlets are to Denmark: dysfunction, though not incestuous.  By the time they reach Jefferson all are wounded and violated physically and emotionally.

• Addie is a complete nihilist who beat her students, had an affair with a minister (can you say Scarlet Letter?), had a child out of wedlock (Jewel), and relished in dying and making her family drag her buried corpse to Jefferson.  Getting revenge on your own family after you are dead is completely sadistic.
• Anse is as lazy as the day is long.  He is self-serving, caring more about false teeth and a new wife that the plight of his children.  He has no idea how to be a parent: his daughter is pregnant; his son is a bastard; his two sons may suffer from mental illness--and he has no idea.
• Cash risks his life to save a coffin (absurd!).  He nearly loses his leg after it is set in cement (ouch!).  He's obsessed with his things (his tools).
• Jewel is a bastard who hates his family (he won't ride on the wagon with them), but he loves his mother enough to burn his back rescuing her burning coffin.  All he does is cuss.
• Darl is either mentally challenged or a clairvoyant genius: he can read Dewey Dell's mind.  He is extremely jealous and paranoid of Jewel.  He tries to cremate his mother's body (a good thing), but he gets committed to the state hospital as a result.
• Dewey Dell doesn't know how she gets pregnant but wants to abort her baby.  She gets raped in the process.  She hates Darl because he thinks she'll tell the family she's pregnant.
• Vardaman thinks his mother's a fish.  He drills holes in her coffin because he thinks she'll need air.  He has no idea what happens to a person after she dies: he thinks his mother will still use her corporal body in the afterlife.