Monday, October 12, 2015

Darl's Condition

Throughout this book I've been wondering what exactly is Darl's condition. For a while I though it may be a hero or superiority complex (his was of speaking and Cash's description of his actions with the barn), but now I think he may have Dissociative Identity Disorder.
I think for a while he did a very good job of hiding this disorder, but maybe this is the purpose of the italics. It may be Darl's multiple identities leaking through to the other characters. It could make sense. We already thought that the italics were to show his omniscience, but Faulkner also italicizes Darl's section. The italics could have been when he was keeping these multiple identities hidden. There are no italics post-train ride and Darl refers to himself as two different people. "Darl has gone to Jackson. They put him on the train...'What are you laughing at?' I said" (253).  Since this is one of the final three chapters and it's incredibly disoriented, maybe it's when his  Dissociative Identity Disorder comes full circle and is finally exposed.

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