Sanity vs. Insanity


     A huge topic in this book was sanity vs. insanity, and that peaked when Darl was taken away to an insane asylum.  While the family thought Darl was insane, I believe they themselves were actually the off-kilter ones, and Darl was one of the sanest.  It was not the same insane that we see today, but rather an insanity caused by isolation and poverty.  Darl was the only family member that had gone outside of their little life on the farm and seen something other than poverty because of his service in the war.  The other family members acted strangely in their relationships and overall actions, especially when they wanted to drag their dead mother into town to bury her, even though the river flooded over the bridge.  The family eventually sent Darl to the mental institution after he set the barn on fire with his mother's coffin and animals in it.  In Darl’s chapter, when he is being sent away, he seems to actually go crazy by talking about himself in the third person.  He laughs uncontrollably, and at the end he even foams at the mouth.  Darl was justified in a way for burning down the barn because he was done with carrying around his dead mother who also started to smell, and he saw the insanity in his families actions.  The only time he acted truly crazy was when his family said he was insane and took actions to treat him like an insane person.  This made me wonder, “Was insanity in this book simply caused by what others thought?”  The Bundrens were poor, and as I said before, they seemed like the insane ones more so than Darl.  I think they acted this way because the upper-class society made them feel that way.  Similarly, Darl actually went mentally insane after his family sent him to the insane asylum.      

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 14, 2017 at 9:40 AM

    Olivia,

    I think we all agree that the sanity and insanity of the Bundren family is an important aspect of AILD. I find your point about their insanity being rooted in their poverty and isolation very interesting because I never thought of it that way. It would make sense that Darl would be the most affected by this as he is the most well-traveled, as you stated. I interpreted Darl’s uncontrollable laughter at the end as his realization that his family was actually insane considering they found no problems with carrying around a rotting body. Obviously Darl did have underlying mental problems, most likely PTSD from the war, but he realized how crazy everyone was in his family. They were willing to do anything to get Addie’s body to Jackson, and as we know, people who are willing to do anything are the most dangerous/insane.

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