In Darl's last section of narration, he says "One of them had to ride backward because the state's money has a face to each backside and a backside to each face, and they are riding on the state's money which is incest. A nickel has a woman on one side and a buffalo on the other; two faces and no back. I don't know what that is. Darl had a little spy-glass he got in France at the war. In it it had a woman and a pig with two backs and no face. I know what that is. 'Is that why you are laughing, Darl?'" (Faulker, As I Lay Dying, 254).
The two faced coin is possibly a metaphor that represents a split in Darl's personality. We see the split through way he talks to himself on the train and how he narrates in the third person. The reader can choose to see Darl's character as either mad or genius, it's all about the audiences perception. Faulkner's metaphor can be seen in each of the Bundrens. For example, Addie can be seen as either prideful or independent; Anse, lazy or misfortune; Cash can be either obsessive of caring; Jewel, either angry or independent; Dewey can be perceived as stupid or deserving of pity and Vardaman as sad or insightful. With this in mind if Darl is crazy and has two different personalities and if the audience can see the two different sides of each of the Bundrens, what does that say about the reader. Think back on when Darl hears Addie talking to him under the apple tree. We as an audience consider this to be unnatural behavior however, the audience also hears Addie talk after she has died, when we read her section of narration. So, does that make us as crazy as Darl? This theory is supported by the article "Perception of the Destruction of Being" by Homer B. Petty specifically on page 42 of the academic text.
By Carissa Owens, Kaitlyn O'Neill, Elena Kopp
http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~rlstrick/rsvtxt/faulkner/pettey.pdf
The two faced coin is possibly a metaphor that represents a split in Darl's personality. We see the split through way he talks to himself on the train and how he narrates in the third person. The reader can choose to see Darl's character as either mad or genius, it's all about the audiences perception. Faulkner's metaphor can be seen in each of the Bundrens. For example, Addie can be seen as either prideful or independent; Anse, lazy or misfortune; Cash can be either obsessive of caring; Jewel, either angry or independent; Dewey can be perceived as stupid or deserving of pity and Vardaman as sad or insightful. With this in mind if Darl is crazy and has two different personalities and if the audience can see the two different sides of each of the Bundrens, what does that say about the reader. Think back on when Darl hears Addie talking to him under the apple tree. We as an audience consider this to be unnatural behavior however, the audience also hears Addie talk after she has died, when we read her section of narration. So, does that make us as crazy as Darl? This theory is supported by the article "Perception of the Destruction of Being" by Homer B. Petty specifically on page 42 of the academic text.
By Carissa Owens, Kaitlyn O'Neill, Elena Kopp
http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~rlstrick/rsvtxt/faulkner/pettey.pdf