Something's Fishy About Addie
Vardaman's Fish Hyperfixiation Throughout William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying , many of the characters have some sort of preoccupation or association with an animal. For example, Jewel is obsessed with his horse and Tull often mentions the mules. Vardaman is another character that constantly brings up the imagery of a fish. Vardaman is the youngest child of the Bundren family. His chapters often full of run-on sentences and sporadic thoughts point out his young age and extreme grief and shock. Throughout the book, Vardaman compares his deceased mother to a fish. In Vardaman’s first chapter, he is seen exclaiming how he “can feel where the fish was in the dust (Faulkner 35).” Addie Bundren, his mother, had just died, and readers can see his shock and denial in response to this news. He continues saying how “she is getting far ahead [he] cannot catch her,” with “she” alluding to by Addie (35). Soon after, Vardaman explicitly...
