Vardaman Character Analysis

Vardaman is the youngest of the family, the baby Bundren. He is by far the most immature and is very innocent in many of his actions. He is the best representation of a simplicity in the book, as he is the youngest and the most innocent and has the least idea of what is going on around him. He is in essence the most oblivious, not due to inattentiveness, but sheer misunderstanding or lack of understanding of what is occurring. His lack of understanding in the world is shown best by his reaction to death. He views of death are very basic, and they aren't so much as something has died, but that they are not alive. He can recognize a change and knows that it is not a good thing, but he lacks the acknowledgment that they are dead, they are not what they used to be, such as a not fish or not mother. This pushes his views of his mothers death into a violent manner as the only other death he has experienced was the death of that fish, which he killed and and "cleaned" with an axe (in reality he actually hacked it into bits with the axe) This gives his views of death a violent and harsh tone that causes him to react violently to his mothers death, as death to him is supremely based on his violent killing of the fish. His line "my mother is a fish" is a simple statement that shows just how innocent he is and his misunderstanding of death. The best analysis for vardaman comes from this association as it shows that he is simple and mixed up soul who knows what he knows and doesn't know what he doesn't know.He doesnt know what death is and so has no idea what to make of it, and infers best he can on past experiences that he has had, which are few. Vardaman is a quaint person, who stands for what is in front of him, he doesnt think, he only reactes, which is the gift and curse of his age. His age we can infer from the fish that he killed, which poured out of his arms as he carried it. As many fish arent larger than a full grown man or even a teenager, we can tell that he is infact a young boy.