William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying tells the story of the Bundren family when the matriarch of the family dies. Faulkner alternates perspectives between each member of the family and their neighbors. While most characters focus on their thoughts around Addie's death, Darl Bundren is more aware of his surroundings. He focuses on appearances and sensory details rather than how he feels about his mother's death. Faulkner writes Darl this way to show his personality. Faulkner shows the audience Darl's personality rather than telling them about Darl. If Faulkner had used stream of consciousness as he did with the other characters, he would have contradicted the way he wanted to create Darl. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay When the audience is introduced to Darl, he and Jewel are walking home when he hears Cash making their mother's coffin. Darl vividly describes the cotton house and how Jewel runs through it to be one step ahead of him. He says: “The path is straight as a plumb line, worn by feet and baked into hard brick in July…” (Faulkner 3). We can already start to build Darl's character. He pays close attention to details, even in the most difficult times. As the audience continues to read and experience different characters, they can clearly see that Darl is the most observant. The language Darl uses in each of his chapters is significantly higher than that of his family and neighbors. He describes, “Jewel’s eyes look like pale wood in her high-blooded face” (Faulkner 17). His high language proves that Darl is the smartest member of the Bundren family. Darl's thoughts are more critical of the world around him than of his family. However, his eloquence of thought is not reflected in his direct speech patterns, so Darl's family may not know exactly how intelligent he is. Throughout the non-Darl chapters, characters consistently mention Addie Bundren and her death. Anse is determined to keep his promise to Addie to return her to Jefferson to be buried with her blood family. Dewey Dell reminds Anse of his promise to Addie and even earlier in the book he is upset by Jewel and Darl leaving the house while their mother is dying. Jewel is upset that everyone seems to be watching Addie die when he would rather just be alone with his mother. Vardaman is visibly distressed when Addie dies and accidentally drills a hole in Addie's head. Even Cash, one of the main characters, thinks of Addie when the family tries to cross the river. Darl barely mentions Addie in his chapters. In fact, he shows almost no emotion over his mother's death. He refers to Addie as Mama only in one of his chapters, "It was Mama who brought Dewey Dell into her milking, and paid her one way or another" (Faulkner 130), and after this paragraph he goes back to calling her Addie. This could show how strained his relationship with his mother is. After days of traveling with Addie Bundren's rotting corpse in a simple wooden coffin, Darl suffers a nervous breakdown. He attempts to burn down the barn where they stopped for the night. However, Jewel saves the coffin, otherwise Darl would have succeeded. Traveling with a rotting corpse would disturb anyone, but trying to destroy your own mother's body is a sign of extreme disturbance. Why would Darl try to burn his mother's corpse? Did the experience make him break down? Is Darl just a psychopath? There.