In As I Lay Dying the youngest character, Vardaman, is also one of the most confused and unintelligent. He has no real common knowledge and he doesn't understand a lot of things that are happening. He doesn't understand his mothers death as he relates it to a fish, and he doesn't really understand family and some values.
Vardaman is the youngest so from the start we can see that he is not going to have the most knowledge in the book. He is further confused by the family that he has. His mother is sick and dies, a father who does mostly nothing, a talented brother that is a carpenter, another one who seems more like a father tot he family, a sister who is pregnant, and another brother who relates to no one in the family but his mother. This could be the main reason why he is such a confused child. One of the most intriguing things he does is relatng his mother to a fish. This could either represent how is confused about the death of his mother and how he is having a difficult time dealing with it. Coinccidently his mother is lost in the accident of the river, foreshadowed future of Vardaman calling his mother a fish. It also seems that in this scene we find out who his role model is or was. He seems to belive in Darl the most but when he looses his mother he looses faih in Darl also,
As we see Vardaman is the kid in the family and is really confused. This is his main characteristic in the story and its what makes Vardaman who he is. He doesn't know whats really going on and soon he'll grow to find out what things really are.
