“My mother is a fish.” (pg. 84)
Vardaman uses a metaphor to connect his mother to a fish. He is directly saying that his mother is a fish, which plays a double effect as it disconnects him from her, but at the same time connects him to her. This confused diction conveys Vardaman’s confused feelings. By saying his mother is a fish, although it seems to be more towards the disconnection, he’s connecting to her. He’s using something that he knows to try and understand a confusing situation. He keeps thinking about the fish that he caught and cut. Earlier, Vardaman said, “It was not her because it was laying right yonder in the dirt. And it’s all chopped up. I chopped it up… And tomorrow it will be cooked and et and she will be him and pa and Cash and Dewey Dell and there won’t be anything in the box and so she can breathe.” This quote along with his direct statement on pg. 84 reveals that Vardaman associates his mother as the fish tha
t he caught. Therefore, he is blaming himself for his mother’s death.
Vardaman uses a metaphor to connect his mother to a fish. He is directly saying that his mother is a fish, which plays a double effect as it disconnects him from her, but at the same time connects him to her. This confused diction conveys Vardaman’s confused feelings. By saying his mother is a fish, although it seems to be more towards the disconnection, he’s connecting to her. He’s using something that he knows to try and understand a confusing situation. He keeps thinking about the fish that he caught and cut. Earlier, Vardaman said, “It was not her because it was laying right yonder in the dirt. And it’s all chopped up. I chopped it up… And tomorrow it will be cooked and et and she will be him and pa and Cash and Dewey Dell and there won’t be anything in the box and so she can breathe.” This quote along with his direct statement on pg. 84 reveals that Vardaman associates his mother as the fish tha
t he caught. Therefore, he is blaming himself for his mother’s death.When I look at this picture, I see a child looking at the world and having the overwhelming feeling that everything around him that’s wrong is his fault. Vardaman’s character is a microcosm for how all children react to their surrounding environment. Because Vardaman is seeing everything at once, his overwhelming feeling is causing him to group things together. His grouping of his mother’s death and the catching of the fish is Vardaman breaking down and allowing his world around him to enclose and giving him fault where he doesn’t deserve it.
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