Whether or not it was Faulkner’s intention, his experimental narrative style depicts a family that is as disconnected as the narrative. The Bundren family suffers as a result of a number of circumstances – poverty, lack of education or intelligence of the world around them, a harsh climate – beyond their immediate control, but their own inability to connect with each other, to communicate, to be sensitive to the struggles of one another individually and thus as a family unit seems to be the worst circumstance of all and one which cannot be blamed on anything outside of themselves. In fact, if they had, sometime along the way, been sensitive to one another’s troubles, dreams, weaknesses, fears, maybe they would not have become such victims of the environment in which they barely survive.        

        All of the Bundrens, except Darl, are far too wrapped up in their own suffering to concern themselves with the others. They seem to be tenants living under the same delapidated roof, uninterested in the happiness of those with whom they share space on this farm. They do not function as a family unit and suffer together as a result. Suffering seems to be the only thing they share. 

        The only familial bonding apparent in the narrative are attempts by Darl to understand his siblings. I got the impression that he may have tried to connect emotionally with his brothers and sister, but was rebuffed, considered strange by them. Considering how self-involved the rest of the family members, it’s no surprise to read their impressions of their brother. His sensitivity is to them a weakness, a flaw, even evidence of insanity. Darl knows about the others’ suffering, they see it in his eyes, and they are frightened by his knowing. Ultimately, Darl’s sensitivity and the actions he takes to possibly ease his family’s suffering, result in them shipping him off to a mental institution where he degenerates into what they think he is, allowing them to return home and pick up where they left off – before they were so inconvenienced by Addie’s death and her desire to be buried with her original family. No doubt Addie knew this family was a lost cause and did not want to spend eternity with them.