Continuation+of+Symptom

I just wanted to continue the forum that was called "A Symptom of the Faimly's Problem." In it, Ldo opened the topic and wondered why only Darl showed outward signs of the family's instability. I think that it is quite obvious that the Bundren family does not function properly. They have many problems and the journey that they take after Addie's death only adds to that. But I also wondered, why is Darl the only one that goes insane? Well, to put it nicely, I don't really think of any of the Bundren family as completely normal, but Darl most certainly is the most eccentric. Why? Aha mentioned that it may have to do with being the black sheep of the family. I would have to agree. Addie herself mentioned that she only had Darl because she owed him to Anse. He seems like a pity child. Do you think Darl was aware of this? Maybe he wasn't aware of his mother's exact feelings, but do you think he knows how she felt about him? The way Cora describes Addie, it seemed as if she always favored Jewel the most. Now keeping in mind that Cora is not always the most accurate narrator, do you think that Addies bias haunted Darl through her death? In Cora's chapter, she certainly made it seem like Darl always had to compete for his mother's attention. We also discussed Darl's involvement in the war a little bit in class. I thought it was important that the trip with his family broke him, when, as far as we know, the war didn't. 1205269157

Knowing that Darl was a war veteran, I definitely thought that that had something to do with why he started to lose it on the family's journey. The way that Dewey Dell responded to his actions left me with the impression that this was not the first time that Darl had acted irrational. I do think that Addie's bias haunted Darl through her death. He just wanted to be treated the same was a Jewel when he was really treated the complete opposite way. I also think that he knew how she felt about him, by just how differently she treated him. Which makes me think that part of the reason he set the fire in the barn was to get back at him mother for not treating him the way she treated Jewel. 1205270774

I agree with kfc that one of Darl's motives for burning the barn down was possibly to get revenge on his mom, but it could have also been to illustrate his disgust for his family. As kho mentioned, Darl is the black sheep of the family, and a major reason for this is that he is intelligent enough to realize some of the dysfunctionalities of the family. Darl was the one who first talked about and knew of Dewey Dell's affir and consequential problems in her dispute over whether to give birth to the child. In addition, during the river crossing, Darl notably did nothing after pulling his hands out of the river without the coffin, as he later admits on page 162: "I don't know. . . I wasn't there that long." Furthermore, on page 98, Darl pokes fun at what Addie's body is probably doing inside of the coffin: "within it, her pole-thin body clings furiously, even though dead, to a sort of modesty, as she would have tried to conceal a soiled garment that she could not prevent her body soiling." Later on, Darl, looking at the coffin just starts laughing. Clearly Darl is critical of the entire family as he is the only one intelligent enough to pick up on their dysfunctionality.1205277167

I want to start with: I am surprised that Darl did not go crazy earlier. I think his family is harder to deal with than the war. His mother has just died. His mother that favored only one of her children--one that was not Darl. I think his family contributed a lot to how he became mad. They do not support each other, they only make each other worse. I keep wondering how these people cannot be affected by her death, but for Darl i can at least give him some credit. It would be hard for any child who felt neglected or left out to not be somewhat hurt by that. I think he was jealous of Jewel and i think Darl always craved the attention Jewel received. It is psychologically damaging when you think that your own mother does not even love you or care about you. To me, this is one of the biggest factors in his madness.1205290826

At that point in his life, Darl was probrably on the breaking point at this point in his life. His mother had just died and losing one's mother is enough of a tragedy on its own. Secondly, the war had done a number on him and living with the memories of warfare are definitely enough to change one's life. Finally, Darl was not getting the attention he deserved. He was never put on the same level as Jewel and that must have made him wonder why he wasn't good enough or as deserving of the same affection. All of those issues must have been building up inside of him and causing stress. I think that the death of his mother triggered him into going mad. It was truly the straw that broke the camel's back. The death of his mother must have made him start thinking about the relationship he had with her. The emotions must have been overwhelming for him. It's one of those things where one bad thing leads to the next. This may have been what happened to Darl. It was a sort of dominoe effect that lead to his madness. But he does have his reasons for doing so.1205375038

I would argue that the reason the Darl shows a sign of madness is because he didn't have a way to effectively deal with his mother's death. Vardaman could think of his mother as something else and thus not feel the full impact, Anse had his false teeth to look forward to, Dewey Dell was looking for an abortion and thus could ignore her mother, Jewel could focus on fullfilling his mother's last wish and getting her to the burial site, and Cash could focus specifically on his mother's coffin. All of them except Darl had some reason or some way to cope with this crazy journy and that allowed them to go through with this and not go crazy. Darl saw this as it truly was and the fact that they were treating his mother this way by parading her across the county while she rotted probably drove him mad with anger. So what we saw in the book was Darl reaching his breaking point to end this mad journey that he saw for what it really was, a journy not out of respect for the dead but out of the greed of the living. user:DGr-c