Identity Crisis
            
            
             In the story As I Lay Dying, Faulkner introduces us to the Bundren family, a family of poor white farmers living in southern Yoknapatawpha County. Faulkner takes us on a journey to Jefferson were they are to fulfill there dead mother Addie's wishes to be buried where her "people" were from, when she died. In the story Faulkner explores the mother relationship and how it can affect a child's life long identity. Darl and Jewel are both sons of Addie whom we later find to have opposing identities brought about from their relationship with their mother.
             Darl was Addie's second son. " In the story he was the most prolific voice in the novel and seemed to posses a gift of clairvoyance, which allowed him to narrate. Rejected by his mother, Darl exhibited signs throught the novel of an ego at odds with itself and lacked a definite way of identifying himself" (Cape and Smith). This rejection had a profound effect on the development of Darl's identity." In his narratives Darl gave detailed descriptions of events, for instance, the scene of Addie's death, even though he and Jewel were away getting a load of lumber at the time of her death. Similarly he knew Dewey Dell was pregnant because he had seen her with Lafe, and knew that Jewel was the illegitimate son, but rarely did he reveal any emotional attachment to his subjects"(Cape and Smith). This feeling of isolation is a result of the rejection he received growing up.
             " People saw Darl as strange. They called him "queer, lazy, pottering about the place no better then his father Anse"(Cape and Smith). During their journey, Darl showed the least amount of motivation to bury his mother. Darl's lack of motivation results from the lack of love and attention he had received from Addie. During their journey, trouble came when trying to cross the Yoknapatawpha River. When crossing, the coffin falls off the wa...