Faulkner uses dialogue to depict Darl’s ability to display insight. In the beginning of the novel, Anse chooses Darl and Jewel to earn three dollars from a local job as their mother slowly depletes in life. As the two brothers travel, Darl continuously declares in a heartless manner “that Addie Bundren is going to die” and begins to describe in animated detail the environment his mother dies in (40). Faulkner uses Darl’s casual and monotone statement and description to later reveal Darl’s bizarre ability of insight, for Faulkner implies in later chapters that while Darl gives his statement Addie is breathing her final breath. By giving Darl his gift of clairvoyance, Faulkner uses Darl’s insight to characterize his most common and possibly most important character through the character’s dialogue toward others. Faulkner again expresses this characteristic when Darl questions Jewel about who his real father is. Due to the fact that no one, including Anse, realizes …show more content…
Darl’s questioning of “who was [Jewel’s] father, ” once again, reveals Faulkner’s intention to perceive Darl as an all-knowing character who has the ability to deeply understand and create connections from the situations around him by using dialogue (212).
Faulkner uses action to portray how abnormal Darl’s perception is.Throughout his family’s chaotic endeavor to bury Addie’s body, Darl is conveyed as a delirious and strange character. When compared to his family and other characters in the novel, Darl is portrayed as the black sheep of the family because of his odd actions and behavior. One of Darl’s abnormal actions occur when he decides to set the Gillespie's’ barn, and his mother’s coffin, on fire. Faulkner’s use of this intense