Identity In Vardaman's Narrative

While Vardaman observes Jewel’s decision on taking the horse instead of riding the wagon with the family to Jefferson to bury their dead mother; he finds himself discussing Jewel, Darl, and himself’s identity. The distinct metaphors apply on Vardaman’s mother and Jewel’s mother and subtle stylistic placement of sentences present that Jewel actually isn’t a part of the Bundren family, according to Darl. At the moment where Vardaman thinks his mother is a fish again, Darl breaks into his thought:

But my mother is a fish. Vernon seen it. He was there.

“Jewel’s mother is a horse,” Dar; said.

“Then mine can be a fish, cant it, Darl” I said.

Jewel is my brother.

“Then mine will have to be a horse, too,” I said.

“Why?” Darl said. “If pa is your pa, why does your ma have to be a horse just because Jewel’s is?”

“Why does it?” I said. “Why

As the most naive person in this family, this question stunned Vardaman in a strange way. He quickly jumps to a conclusion “Darl is my brother” (Faulkner 101). By placing a inconsiderate answer to a such question accelerates the process of human mind, however the answer does not directly solve the problem. Thus, it provokes doubt towards Jewel- whether Jewel is Vardaman’s brother? Take a closer look at the literary device employed in this passage, “horse” and “fish” were successfully utilized to demonstrate the separation between Jewel and Vardaman. “Horse” describes Jewel’s exclusive way of sending her mother to be buried, and “fish” appears to be the ideal image of Vardaman’s mother because a fish was present when Addie Bundren died, thus in a child’s mind, they became to be linked together. To convey the idea - Jewel is not one of the Bundren brothers - Jewel’s mother is metaphorized as a “horse”; a direct connect between him and exclusion