Vardaman's Importance

Vardaman, as the youngest Bundren, understands the world differently than the rest of the characters. Unable to fully comprehend everything, Vardaman attempts to understand one thing through the lens of another. For example, Vardaman uses the fish in order to understand his own mother's death. This becomes clear when Vardaman becomes irrationally upset over the idea that Dewey is going to cook the dead fish. Vardaman is trying to understand his mother's death through the fish, but he mixes the two together, and now believes his mother is the fish, as evidenced by his chapter on which he states, "My mother is a fish." For Vardaman and therefore for the reader, the fish is a symbol. Vardaman also doesn't understand the idea of the coffin. He thinks that his family is imprisoning his mother and that Addie will suffocate even though the family is doing what they should do and Addie is dead. Vardaman is so upset by seeing his mother in a coffin that he drills holes in it so that his mother can breathe. The coffin is also a point of conflict between other members of the family due to its different connotations. So far, Vardaman has acted as a lens through which the reader can come to understand different parts of the story symbolically, which is why he is critical to the story.