Addie: Vardaman's Fish
To me, the most central motif in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is Vardaman’s fish, that he later goes to equate with his mother. Vardaman, being such a young child in the book, likely has never faced such immense grief that would come with the death of a parent or someone near to him. With a lack of experience processing grief, Vardaman’s response to his mother's death may be unorthodox at times, but his connection to the fish as the story goes on is essential to understanding his acceptance. The fish is brought up numerous times, at first with not such an obvious connection to Addie, but as the story goes on the association between Addie and Vardaman’s fish grows to a point in which the reader, too, mentally connects the two. Vardaman crosses paths with the fish prior to his mother's death, but as she was actively passing away. The connection in time and place for Vardaman tethered the two together in his mind. When Vardaman first brought the fish home, Vernon observes t...