Madness In As I Lay Dying

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by his thought process. After the death of his mother Vardaman thinks his “mom is a fish.” Darl and Vardaman might seem “mad” at first but when this “madness” is looked at with a “discerning eye” it can actually be judged reasonable.
Throughout the novel Darl is the most reliable narrator up until the part where he supposedly goes “mad.” So when Darl goes “mad” who can the reader turn to for the most objective view? Which member of the Bundren family can they trust when they say Darl is crazy? The fact that the entire family members think that Darl went insane makes the readers believe the same. Darl knows that what he did was for the better but he is outnumbered by the rest of the characters thoughts and opinions that shape the readers own opinion. Cash explains it well when he says, “It's like it aint so much what a fellow does, but it's the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it.” When the characters first find out that Darl was in fact the one ...

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