Quote 2
“Jewel’s
mother is a horse,” Darl said.
“Then mine
can be a fish, can’t it, Darl?” I said.
.
. .
“Then what is your ma, Darl?” I said.
“I
haven’t got ere one,” Darl said. “Because if I had one, it is was.
And if it was, it cant be is. Can it?”
Vardaman’s equation, in Section 24,
of his mother’s death with the fish’s death at first seems a childish,
illogical connection. This association, however, along with Darl’s
linking of the question of existence to a matter of “was” versus
“is,” allows these two uneducated characters to tackle the highly
complex matters of death and existence. The bizarre nature of this
exchange epitomizes the Bundrens’ inability to deal with Addie’s
death in a rational way. For Darl, language has a peculiar control
over Addie’s existence: he believes that she cannot be an “is,”
or a thing that continues to exist, because she is a “was,”
or a thing that no longer exists. For Vardaman, objects that are
similar to each other become interchangeable: he assigns the role
of his mother to the fish, for example, because the fish is dead like
Addie. These somewhat systematic responses to Addie’s death demonstrate
that Darl and Vardaman, like the rest of their family, are unable
to have a healthy emotional response to death.
