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The Inner Truth In Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness

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The quote “The inner truth is hidden—luckily, luckily” from Heart of Darkness shows why everyone in As I Lay Dying was so afraid of talking to Darl. Darl has the uncanny ability to discover everyone’s dark secrets and how they think if he is around them. People do not want their “inner truths” becoming public knowledge, so they avoid him and call him “queer” (24), “the one folks talk about” (113), and that “he just thinks by himself too much” (71). Darl’s ability to know everyone’s thoughts could come from serving “in France at the war” (254) where he got “a little spy-glass” (254), which is a small handheld telescope, and it could symbolize his new ability to see into people and know their thoughts. Darl also is the only person in the novel …show more content…

When Darl and Jewel begin to pack for the errand, it does not take much convincing for Anse to let them leave besides saying they will get three dollars. When Anse buys a new team from Snopes, Darl keeps asking him questions “in [a] voice like he was just listening and never [giving] a durn himself” (190) until he admits he stole from Cash and Jewel because he knows Anse would never spend his own money. Anse does not like how Darl knows his intentions, but is so lazy that he will not send him away until he helps dig Addie’s grave saying “I reckon he ought to be there” (233). Darl is the only member of the Bundren family who truly loves Addie and openly admits it, but she never returns the love to anyone but Jewel. This lack of love causes Darl to hate Jewel to the point where he makes sure Jewel is not around when Addie dies by telling Dewey Dell, “When is she going to die?” I say. “Before we get back,” he …show more content…

Everyone, except for Cash, begins to think he is mad when in reality he tried to “hide her away from the sight of man” (215). Cash saw this in Darl thinking that “Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way” (233) Cash is the only person in the Bundren family who saw Darl going to the mad-house as a good thing without having to hide their “inner truth.” Cash said Darl going away from the family “is better so for him. This world is not his world; this life his life”

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