In William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, there are many different narrators throughout the entire book. Some narrating more than others, some being more reliable than others, and some there to just add value to the plot and what exactly is going on throughout the novel. As a reader, I sometimes like the way that Faulkner lays out his novel with different narrators. However, there is one narrator in particular that has been more prominent over the other narrators. That person would be Darl, who is one of the Bundren children and according to Cora is one of the most caring and loving to his mother, Addie, who dies in the first part of the reading. However, while discussing as a class he (most likely) was not the most caring of his mother, because, in fact, he called his mother by her first name and Jewel had been there for Addie more often and defended her with some sort of sanity. Although, that does not matter too much at the moment. What really does matter though is the fact that Darl’s narrations are sometimes a mix between third-person limited and third-person omniscient. It seems that Darl can communicate with other characters and see what they are seeing without actually being with them, around them, or even with literally communicating with them. I quite honestly believe he is one of the more reliable characters in this novel, even though I do not believe anyone can actually be reliable since they all have their own biases and views. Compared to other characters though, I feel like the incorporation of multiple narrators makes the novel more reliable as a whole as we are seeing it from everyone’s eyes instead of it being from a single person.
Compared to other narrators like Nick in The Great Gatsby or Huck Finn in Huck Finn, I believe that Darl’s narrations compare differently. Even though in The Great Gatsby we grasp a glimpse about Jay Gatsby and his life, and also the lives of other wealthy people… I believe that these narrations differ because of how everything is laid out and portrayed. Nick had a longer amount of time to put everything into detail and describe events and stories, while Darl’s narrations were snippets of his everyday life and descriptions of what is going on around him. In the end though, I do believe Darl may possibly be more reliable than the other characters like Vardaman, Cora, or Peabody. That is because they all are different from one another. Vardaman is only an eight year old and he views things from a different perspective, he can tend to exaggerate what is going on around him. Cora could be less reliable because of her religious views, and Peabody less reliable because of how he is a townsman and a doctor. The townspeople and people from the country are different as seen when the Bundren family criticizes them, including Peabody who is a doctor who came out to see Addie Bundren on a short notice. So all in all, depending on how the reader views the different narrations and how Faulkner lays out his novel, the reliability may change from person to person. But one thing is for certain, I would trust Darl’s words over someone like Anse, Vardaman, or Cora.
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