Vardaman pp. 214-217

p. 215: “‘Why does she want to lay down her life, Darl?’


‘Listen,’ Darl says. We hear her. We hear her turn over on her side. ‘Listen,’ Darl says.


‘She’s turned over,” I say. “She’s looking at me through the wood.’


‘Yes,’ Darl says.


‘How can she see through the wood, Darl?’


‘Come,’ Darl says. ‘We must let her be quiet. Come.’


‘How can she see out there, because the holes are in the top,’ I say. ‘How can she see, Darl?’”



Vardaman is confiding in Darl. Throughout the story, Vardaman always mentions how Cash and Jewel are his brothers, but hardly ever makes note of Darl. This is the first relevant conversation between Darl and Vardaman. At this point in the story, Darl’s sanity is withered. This has an effect on the situation because Darl gives into Vardman’s childish views (when he says “Listen”), rather than confront them with his typical pretentious diction. Vardaman’s first question, “Why does she want to lay down her life, Darl” has many meanings. As the reader learns more about Addie, they find out who she really is; they discover she was a sinner, and wasn’t religious, and how dysfunctional the family was. On page 36, Anse makes a biblical allusion to the creation of man, in relation to their life on the farm, as oppose to living on the road. Anse says “He aimed for them to stay put like a tree or a stand of corn. Because if He’d a aimed for man to be always a-moving and going somewheres else, wouldn’t He a put him longways on his belly like a snake?” The biblical allusion made by Anse is ironic; now that Addie is dead, she is lying down—like a snake—and they are traveling to Jefferson, mostly for Addie (also because Anse is selfish). In addition to the biblical allusion, Addie says, (p.170) “I would hate my father for having ever planted me.” The word choice of “planted” is referring to Anse’s reference “stay put up like a tree”. Also, when Vardaman says “How can she see out there, because the holes are in the top,” it is a metaphor for the allusion made by Anse, if she wasn’t on her belly like the snake, she would be able to see through the holes in the top of the coffin, made by Vardaman so she could see.

Then, Vardaman says “She’s looking at me through the wood.” The wood motif throughout the story is a metaphor for the relationship between Addie and Jewel, evident in the continuous observations made by Darl of Jewel as “wooden”. Vardaman is referring to the wood of the coffin, however, it is a metaphor for Addie’s mothering. Addie could never “see through the wood” to Vardaman, because she was preoccupied with her embodied sin—Jewel. Darl replies with a syntactically concise “Yes”, communicating to the reader that he has the same view as Vardaman; that Addie is, and always was “looking at me through the wood”. Syntactically this is placed prior to when Darl burns down the barn, which Vardaman witnesses. Darl burned the barn to rid the family of Addie—because she couldn’t “see through the wood” all his life.







Plant: Ivy-


The picture in particular, not only the characteristics of ivy, is a metaphor for Addie. In the picture, the ivy is covering everything but the windows. The house could have a myriad of problems, in appearance (e.g. cracks, tarnished paint); however, to an observer the house is a beautiful sight. I don’t believe the Bundren household was beautiful, or came off beautiful in the story, however, Addie Bundren, like ivy, encompassed the family with her aesthetically pleasing green leaves. She deceived her own family, by not truly loving them, but making it look as though she may have.