Darl's Inverse Apotheosis And Why The Bundrens Are a Bunch Of Goofy Goobers
I think that Faulkner portrays the cast of “As I Lay Dying” as a bunch of goobers, because the entire story is almost like an inversion of the Hero’s Journey, instead of ascending from normal life into a state of enlightenment or self-fulfillment, or a finding of one’s identity like the stories of Siddhartha or Helga Crane, we see the Bundrens descend into a lower plane of existence, devolving into absurdity, or in Darl’s case, literal insanity. One thread of this overarching theme throughout the novel is Darl’s descent into madness. In the early chapters of the book, Darl’s POV tends to be very matter-of-fact, giving vivid imagery and descriptions of events; some of which he did not even attend. This semi-omniscience we see from Darl gives the impression that the is the “Narrator” of the story, whose thoughts would provide clarity among Faulkner’s often hard-to-read sections from other character’s POVs. In Darl’s 2nd chapter on pages 10-11, we see examples of his narrator-like descrip...