ipl-logo

Insanity In As I Lay Dying Essay

1339 Words6 Pages

Knowledge at the Price of Insanity Throughout William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying, Darl Bundren is never able to have a complete way of identifying himself and experiences an increasing detachment from his family during their trip to bury their dead mother, Addie. . In an attempt to make everything better Darl sets the barn on fire. An act he believes to be very practical, but others see as insane. The connection is completely severed when he is sent away to an asylum in Jackson because of his attempt to end the nightmare journey he and his family were on. Darl’s identity is tied up in Jewel, Addie, and the wagon; without them he will lose the small identity that he has. “Yet the wagon is, because when the wagon is was, Addie Bundren will not be. Jewel is, so Addie Bundren must be. And then I must be” (81). These intense relationships remain throughout the …show more content…

At the end of his monologue, Darl is in Jackson and talks similarily to Vardaman: “Darl is our brother, our brother Darl. Our brother Darl in a cage in Jackson where, his grimed hands lying light in the quiet interstices, looking out he foams” (254). Darl is now only speaking in the third person. His speech evolves to match Vardaman’s. Vardaman is the last family member to feel any connection with Darl; therefore, since Darl’s identity greatly relies on his family, he can only communicate through Vardaman. His shift into a childlike state of mind is his final attempt to grasp at a connection. In this final moment, Darl is not only mentally disconnected, but he also has no physical resemblance of his old self. Imagery is used by Faulkner to compare Darl to a rapid dog. Darl’s connection with himself has been completely severed because even though he is still connected with Vardaman, he no longer has the relationship that his identity depended on, the one between him and

Show More
Related

As I Lay Dying Darl Boundren Character Analysis

876 Words | 4 Pages

When Darl burned down the barn, the Bundrens were only asking themselves one question, “Why?”. Darl had his reasons, but nobody could see those reasons, so in their perspective there was no reason for Darl to burn down the barn, this leads to people believing that he has something else going on in his mind. It would also seem easy to let Darl be taken away, since he knew everyone's secrets that nobody else wanted them to know, taking Darl away would keep those secrets hidden. When the novel wraps up the story, the last we see of Darl is of him laughing, laughing at the situation he is in, when thinking about it at first you can see why people might also think this is a sign of a mental insanity. Though yet again his perception has only led him to believe that his situation was odd because he couldn’t see himself in this situation.

Read More

Identity In Vardaman's Narrative

561 Words | 3 Pages

While Vardaman observes Jewel’s decision on taking the horse instead of riding the wagon with the family to Jefferson to bury their dead mother; he finds himself discussing Jewel, Darl, and himself’s identity. The distinct metaphors apply on Vardaman’s mother and Jewel’s mother and subtle stylistic placement of sentences present that Jewel actually isn’t a part of the Bundren family, according to Darl. At the moment where Vardaman thinks his mother is a fish again, Darl breaks into his thought: But my mother is a fish. Vernon seen it.

Read More

Addie's Voice In As I Lay Dying

1216 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner shapes the plot based on the looming presence of the absentee protagonist, Addie Bundren. The reader’s knowledge of Addie accumulates through the monologues of other characters, so the reader gains only bits and pieces of Addie’s character. However, after her death, the reader obtains a better understanding of Addie’s voice through her own monologue and as a result, is characterized as cold and selfish. Through the use of similes and interior monologue, Faulkner shows Addie’s tendency to detach herself from the people in her life, which relates to the novel’s overall theme of solitude as Addie adheres to her father’s philosophy that the reason for living is no more than “to get ready to stay dead a long time” (169).

Read More

The Hero's Journey In Ant-Man

1566 Words | 7 Pages

The departure stage revolves around this time before the book’s events, as the author provides no insight of this important character’s journey. With critical thinking, however, the hero’s journey can be fabricated from an analysis of the book’s events and the information given within it. As a result, Darrel’s hero’s journey can be his upbringing of his guardianship of Ponyboy and Soda, his younger brothers, who he must take care of after his parents die in a car

Read More

As I Lay Dying

1129 Words | 5 Pages

The narrative, As I Lay Dying, develops a reading of the Bundren family. Each of the family members including the mother that is dead, narrate about themselves in relevance to the entire family. By writing about relatable problems for the audience to relate to, Faulkner discusses the loss of the mother, Addie. Dealing with a significant family loss, Anse, already justifies that Faulkner is fulfilling his own vision of the writer’s duty. The author reflects on Addie, who is the mother in the entire story and

Read More

Ponyboy Is A Hero Essay

740 Words | 3 Pages

Dally is not strong mentally (when he couldn’t let Johnny go), he really does not do good deeds, and he does not care about any other people than only Johnny, and he’s rude to others and bad at using words. A quotation that supports my statement is, “What for? Get back in here before I beat your head in.” (p.90) This quotation supports my statement because Dally said this to Ponyboy when he hopped off the car and said to see what the deal is when he saw the old church on fire, it proves that Dally does not care about other stuff that does not involve him and that he’s rude to others and using

Read More

How Dary Is A Hero In The Outsiders

853 Words | 4 Pages

But then, Darry’s gone through a lot in his twenty years, grown up too fast.” This shows that he had to take care of his siblings when his parents had died. Darry is also a hero when he took care of Ponyboy when he was sick. According to the text on page 160 it says “ He crawled over me and flopped down and before Darry came back in with the soup we were both asleep.”

Read More

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Insanity Essay

755 Words | 4 Pages

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb.

Read More

The Outsiders Dally Character Analysis

1049 Words | 5 Pages

Dally A rock-hard hood who never backs down from any challenge. Dally is a character in the book “Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton. The Outsiders is a book where a ragtag group of greasers band together and overcome victories, tragedies, and above all, build an even stronger bond of brotherhood. This story begins in the town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Ponyboy(our main character) is walking home from the movies and gets ambushed by a large group of Socs(Sociables-the “popular/rich” clique).

Read More

Self Concepts In The Outsiders

1442 Words | 6 Pages

First, when Ponyboy was talking to Sherry and Marcia, they asked about Darry and why they haven’t seen him in school since their parents died, Ponyboy responds, “He’s a dropout” because he works full time to provide for their family (Coppola).The fact that Darry is still a kid, but was forced to dropout of school so that he could take the place of his parents and take care of his siblings, shows that although there were many negative effects of the death of Dally’s parents, it also made him step up and become more responsible. Viewers can see that the death of Darry’s parents made him more independent and self-sufficient, but it also reveals that Darry never got to fully grow up and was forced to put his life on pause so that he could help his family, which could affect his success in the future. Moreover, later in the film, when the Socs and the Greasers are preparing to fight, Darry is face to face with one of the Socs and they say hi to each other as the narrator explains that “they used to buddy around, play football” (Coppola). This narration exposes to readers that before Darry’s parents died, he was becoming successful because he did many sports and even played sports with the Socs, meaning he may have been really good at them. However, when his parents passed away, he was forced to put all of his success to a stop so

Read More

Influence Of Gangs In The Outsiders

989 Words | 4 Pages

Darrel, or Darry has always wanted to become something amazing in life, but sadly when his parents died in a fatal car crash, he was left to raise his two younger brothers, Sodapop, and Ponyboy. More specifically, Darrel chooses his gang over his potential future to care for his friends but sadly, “. . . Darry has never really gotten over not going to college” (Hinton 109). Basically, anybody would choose to finish a career over a more strenuous life of arduous occupations. Of course, Darry would have chosen college over two jobs, but because of his compassion towards the gang, he would choose them over anything.

Read More

Heroism In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

764 Words | 4 Pages

Darl’s actions, although a crime, were done for a heroic reason; to end the extensive quest. He endangers himself to allow Addie to rest peacefully after the plethora of merciless obstacles they have

Read More

Conflict In The Help

759 Words | 4 Pages

The profound novel, The Help, can be interpreted as having many themes and subliminal messages about life, but to truly understand the meaning of them, the conflicting points must be recognized. Due to the fact that the setting of the novel is during segregation, the friction between blacks and whites is what creates the novel. Although it is easily recognizable that one of the main conflicts is segregation, there is a major conflict between two prominent characters, Hilly and Skeeter, wealthy white women. Some of the issues within this novel lye in location and the social aspects of living in a small southern town in that time. There are several underlying conflicts in The Help, but the main one that sets up all the themes are the conflicts

Read More

Tale Themes

908 Words | 4 Pages

While Darnay is deciding what he should do, after he received the letter from his family’s servant, Gabelle, he lets his past decide for him. Darnay’s decision was explained and the narrator said, “Like the mariner in the old story, the winds and streams had driven him within the influence of the Loadstone Rock, and it was drawing him to itself, and he must go. Everything that arose before his mind drifted him on, faster and faster, more and more steadily, to the terrible attraction. His latent uneasiness had been… that he who could not fail to know that he was better than they, was not there, trying to do something to stay bloodshed, and assert the claims of mercy and humanity” (Dickens 275). Darnay’s past, mainly his family, had begun to come back to him as the Marquis’ servant was imprisoned.

Read More

Resurrection And Redemption In A Tale Of Two Cities

757 Words | 4 Pages

He was in prison for eighteen years, representing a more literal meaning of resurrection. Delighted that Lucy found love, Manette forgets about his imprisonment. It is not until after he learns about Darney’s identity that he starts to worry about her and her mental health. He feels that once Darnay dies, his life will fall apart, much like his life in prison. Furthermore, Carton’s sacrifice for Darnay also reminds him that he would have been the cause of Darnay’s death.

Read More

More about Insanity In As I Lay Dying Essay

Related Topics

Open Document