Anse resembles a vulture when Addie first sees him. She describes him as a tall bird hunched in the cold weather (170). Anse is often depicted as having a humped, motionless, and cold silhouette (51-52). While he gazes at Addie lying in bed, he partakes an "owl-like quality of awry-feathered, disgruntled outrage within (49)." Anse is often unshaven, dirty, seeming dark and dreary. He is selfish and continually on the prowl, like a culture, for more money and extravagance.

The Latin meaning for the word "vulture" is the basic nature of these birds: breeze scavengers. Rarely flapping their large wings, vultures cruise by on air currents, searching for dead animals to eat. Anse grabs Addie's attention by driving past the school house watching Addie. He drives by, trying to catch a glimpse, almost stalking her, as a vulture would stalk its prey before attacking. Anse is not gentle and loving. He stands, stiff as a scarecrow, silent, and grotesque. His position evokes fear in others and makes them do what he desires. When Addie excepts Anse's proposal to marriage, he takes her from her home and place of birth, and brings her to his farm. Addie's life, from that point on, is harsh and ungratifying. It is when Addie is with Anse, that she realizes that her father's beliefs are true -- the purpose of life is to get ready to be dead.

Anse, like a vulture, is cool and calculating. As Addie is lying in bed, Anse sits on the front doorstep of the house waiting for her to die. He has no fear or sorrow about the death of Addie. Anse's restlessness comes from the anxiety of having to wait for Addie to die. He lingers there, like a buzzard, awaiting the moment when he will be set free (15). Anse already has plans for the future, that Addie is not a part of. He constantly reassures everybody that she has her mind set on going. Anse wants her to die. He has obtained everything conceivable that Addie is capable of offering. There is nothing else to be taken and so all Anse has to look to is the time when he can go pursue his next victim.

The physical attribute of vultures that is similar to Anse's, is the weak feet that they have. In his childhood, Anse had to work on the farm with his father. The conditions that he had to endure, scarred his feet for the rest of his life. Now, he cannot complete the farm work because he is too weak for it. Instead he stands silent, watching, as his work is being done for him by his children(72). He catches his quarry and then forces it to labor for him. Anse's own actions are slow and cumbersome. As he tries to smooth out Addie's sheet, his hand, awkward as a claw, only crumples it (51-52). He is a tall uncoordinated creature that searches for animals to abuse and does not do any work himself. He unemotionally watches his prey and waits for it to die.

Faulkner uses these characteristics of a vulture to describe the selfish and clumsy personality of the character of Anse Bundren. Anse resembles the physique of a vulture and by being a predatory bird that uses other animals and kills them. He stalks Addie before making his move, and once used, squeezes all the life out of her. Anse is a lazy creature, making only an effort to catch Addie, and making her a slave to his needs. He makes her give him children to work the field by pretending to love her and taking her away from her home.