Darl is one of the few characters in As I Lay Dying that we the students seemed to actually like. For a long time, many of us considered him the "hero" of the story, and disdained the rest of his family (well, okay, mostly just Anse). He was in many spots the closest thing we had to a true, omniscient narrator, in that he gave us a lot of backstory on scenes and events he couldn't possibly be privy to. His mysteriousness as well as his clarity to us, the readers, made him an easy character to like.
But now, we get to the end of the novel. As it turns out, pretty much everyone lost a lot to get here. Addie's dead, one of Cash's legs is ruined, Jewel lost his horse and some skin on his back, Dewey Dell is still pregnant and now has no way to stop being pregnant, and Vardaman didn't get his train. Oh, and Darl is in either a prison or an insane asylum.
It seems like the only person to come out on top is Anse. He got one wife in the ground, a new one in his house, and a new set of chompers for his mouth. He kind of screwed over the entire rest of his family to get there, but he did get there.
And perhaps the person who was most screwed over by all this is, indeed, Darl. Whether he is in prison for arson or an asylum for being insane (or both) I think he's in for a pretty miserable life. His family seemed to think that this might be the best for him, but if I'm correct about criminal justice/mental healthcare during this time period, things are not looking good for Darl.
But Darl being demonstrably insane brings an interesting facet into our, the readers, view. If Darl is crazy, can we trust anything that he has narrated? A lot (maybe even all) of what he's narrated has been via his seeming omniscience, and the possibility must be considered that all of that was merely hallucinations. Much what he relayed to us did seem to be corroborated by other characters' accounts, but for the rest we just assumed it was accurate. Then again, perhaps Darl is deemed crazy because of his all-seeing-ness. Maybe everything he "saw" and narrated was accurate, and maybe he saw a little too much.
When you look back at much of Darl's dialogue, it is a little creepy, maybe even sinister. When he discusses whether he is, or he are, or if he was is then he cannot be was with Vardaman, he certainly seems crazy. But then when he talks, again to Vardaman, about "hearing" Addie through the coffin, and the whole deal with her "facing" a certain way, that is a little more unnerving. That, coupled with his laughter, do make him seem extremely crazy once you set aside reader biases.
Darl is one creepy dude, but whether he'll be better off in the pokey rather than with his family I cannot say. The story ends, and therefore so does Darl's existence - kind of. He's still there, in our minds, as we wonder what will happen to this psychic, this channeller of the dead, this weird, creepy dude that we once thought could be the hero of this story.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
Saturday, October 1, 2016
You Can't Handle (the Lack of) the Truth
Well, we're almost halfway through As I Lay Dying, and I'd say about half the class - myself included - have no idea what's going on. With maybe a dozen or more narrators, each with differing styles and conflicting opinions, with none perhaps actually being reliable and impartial, it can get a little confusing. So confusing, that one has to wonder why Faulkner wrote his book in this manner.
Supposedly, Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks, working only between midnight and 4 AM, and he never edited it. And let me say, you can tell. Even if it was the effect he was going for, the continuous spelling errors and odd ways of speaking can make the text hard to simply parse, let alone interpret. Add to that the fact that the plot itself is unclear and has no obvious path, and you've got a perfect storm of confused high-schoolers. I'm not going to get into how this trait is something I see as relatively common among "classic" literature. However, sometimes it does frustrate me that so much of the "burden of understanding" is placed on the reader, and not the author. It can seem as if an author can have their book be a towering edifice of metaphor and deep meaning simply by making it vague and confusing enough that all sorts of explanations can be attached to it. Not that I think that's what's happening with As I Lay Dying.
Anyways, I think that this core vagueness and ability to be interpreted in different ways makes it incredibly difficult to ascribe to any of Faulkner's characters the status of "hero." We talked a lot in class about who we think is the hero of As I Lay Dying, and good points were brought up for multiple characters. And maybe all those characters are/are going to be heroes, and maybe none of them. It really depends on how you want to see the book. You could see it as an unfortunate, bereft husband toiling to fulfill his dead wife's last request, or a young woman's struggle with herself and the baby growing inside her, or even a budding psychic beginning to come into his powers. Or all of these things and more.
Perspective is important always. It is very important when you are dealing with potentially unreliable narrators. And when you're dealing with dozens of all potentially biased or incorrect narrators, it could become the defining aspect of the story.
Supposedly, Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks, working only between midnight and 4 AM, and he never edited it. And let me say, you can tell. Even if it was the effect he was going for, the continuous spelling errors and odd ways of speaking can make the text hard to simply parse, let alone interpret. Add to that the fact that the plot itself is unclear and has no obvious path, and you've got a perfect storm of confused high-schoolers. I'm not going to get into how this trait is something I see as relatively common among "classic" literature. However, sometimes it does frustrate me that so much of the "burden of understanding" is placed on the reader, and not the author. It can seem as if an author can have their book be a towering edifice of metaphor and deep meaning simply by making it vague and confusing enough that all sorts of explanations can be attached to it. Not that I think that's what's happening with As I Lay Dying.
Anyways, I think that this core vagueness and ability to be interpreted in different ways makes it incredibly difficult to ascribe to any of Faulkner's characters the status of "hero." We talked a lot in class about who we think is the hero of As I Lay Dying, and good points were brought up for multiple characters. And maybe all those characters are/are going to be heroes, and maybe none of them. It really depends on how you want to see the book. You could see it as an unfortunate, bereft husband toiling to fulfill his dead wife's last request, or a young woman's struggle with herself and the baby growing inside her, or even a budding psychic beginning to come into his powers. Or all of these things and more.
Perspective is important always. It is very important when you are dealing with potentially unreliable narrators. And when you're dealing with dozens of all potentially biased or incorrect narrators, it could become the defining aspect of the story.
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