As the journey with Addie's rapidly decaying and odorous body progresses, the animosity between Darl and Jewel, and between Darl and Dewey Dell, heightens swiftly and rapidly approaches a climax. Jewel becomes more and more antagonistic after he is forced to sell his horse — the living symbol of Addie, on which he had lavished his love and violence. As the tension mounts, Darl's perceptive ability becomes keener and more sensitive. It is Darl, and Darl only, who senses the futility of the whole ridiculous procession. In the beginning of the journey, seeing it in its absurd perspective, he is forced to laugh. Then as the body gradually gives off its odors, it is Darl who first senses this new absurdity, and it is Darl who first perceives the buzzards hovering overhead in all their horrible significance.
As the odors become stronger, as the buzzards increase in number, and as the journey becomes a ridiculous farce, Darl — sensitive, perceptive, and intelligent — realizes that something must be done to put an end to this grave injustice to his mother. Just before Darl sets fire to the barn, he senses the presence and desires of his mother: "She's talking to God. . . . She wants Him to hide her away from the sight of man . . . so she can lay down her life. . . . We must let her be quiet." Thus Darl decides to end the futility and injustice by giving Addie a cleansing escape from the sight of man through cremation.
The barn burned, but Addie, still odorous as ever, was, in spite of Darl, saved by Jewel in fulfillment of her earlier prophecy. This one act, mature and intelligent, performed by Darl, was the basis on which the Bundren family decided to send him to Jackson's insane asylum. There was never an actual question of whether Darl was insane or not: that had nothing to do with the decision. But as Cash put it: "It was either send him to Jackson, or have Gillespie [the owner of the barn] sue us." Cash realized that what Darl attempted to do was the right thing, but still, the Bundrens must call him crazy or pay for the barn, and it is much easier to declare Darl insane. Of course, Darl has always been considered queer by the other people in the novel, but this is because he is superior, and in being superior he is different, and therefore, in their minds, queer.
