As I Lay Dying Blog II - 4.10.16

     The character in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying that I would like to give a general response to today is the character of Vardaman Bundren. Just to give a brief background on Vardaman’s character, he is an eight year old child (approximately) and the son of Addie and Anse Bundren. Throughout the story and the different parts that he narrates, we learn that he is a person of symbolism. He brings out the idea of the fish to represent his mother in different ways. For instance, the fish is once alive, like his mother, and then the fish is dead, just like his mother. His character, in my opinion, is very hard to understand when trying to grasp what exactly he is saying (most of the time). I found it hard to understand the fish concept until I researched it and it was explained in a class discussion, however, that is not the only thing that I found confusing about his character. I felt that his character’s narration was also slightly unreliable because of his age and the trauma that he is going through — simply because he exaggerates things and has an anxious tone for most of all his narrations. One thing that I do like about his character though is how he does make the analogy of the fish and his mother, which after much explanation it starts to make sense and I am sure that the analogy/symbol will be used throughout the entire novel. However, of course, there are things that I do not like and just confuse me about him. I was confused about why Faulkner actually included him other than to make the fish analogy. By Faulkner including Vardaman we see the child’s life through his own eyes, and just how much anxiety he has at the time of his mother’s death. I am sure that as the story proceeds we will see more of his character and how he goes about different situations. In the future pages of this novel, I am anticipating that something happens on the family’s journey to the town of Jefferson where they will bury Addie Bundren. But, I am sure that when something does happen on this journey we as readers will see through Vardaman’s eyes and interpret his narrations with even more symbols and analogies to his mother and maybe even more family members, like possible Darl, Jewel, or even Anse.