" 'He [Darl] is out there under that apple tree with her, lying on her. He is there so the cat won't come back'…The moonlight dappled on him too. On her it was still, but on Darl it dappled up and down.
'You needn't to cry,' I said. ' Jewel got her out. You needn't to cry, Darl'" (225)
Darl weeping, coupled with the fire blazing, summed up the novel for me. This scene captures the chaos, loss, and destruction that the family carried with them throughout their journey. Darl is seen here as fragile, clutching his mother's casket near a blazing fire ignited by his own hands. This is his breaking point. Other than Cash, Darl is the most level headed of the family, and this sort of breakdown seems like the final straw for him. Darl crying is in total juxtaposition to his character beforehand in the novel, and from this point on he detoriates to literal insanity. The surprise evoked in the reader at his reaction paints a strong and heavy picture of the emotional turmoil Addie's death and burial had upon Darl and the entire family.
The grief and chaos of Addie's death became far more real to me in this moment. The characters, are so strange that it is easy to distance oneselves from just how sad this whole journey was for them. They were traveling for day's with their mother's corpse literaly rotting beside them. This scene sums up so well the dismantling of this strange family, as we see the son weep over the mother's casket as the fire rages.
Discussion Questions: Why did Darl start the fire?
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