The book As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner—and the review featured in this site’s book review section—includes a memorable and peculiar comment from Vardaman, one of Addie’s five children. After Addie dies, Vardaman declares, “My mother is a fish.”

This surreal line gains some context when we recall that Addie’s coffin had been floating down the river, reminding Vardaman of an earlier experience. He once caught a fish and cut it into pieces, observing that once dismembered, it was clearly no longer a fish. That transformation—the loss of identity through physical change—stuck with him.

Even with this backstory, Vardaman’s statement still strikes us as strange. Why did Faulkner have him say this?

Perhaps it's an extreme form of conciseness, reducing language to its most essential elements to enhance meaning by stripping away redundancy.

Or maybe it's meant to be symbolic, even profound. Is it religious? Could it suggest that Addie’s soul has moved on, just as the fish once did? Or is it simply the expression of a child’s limited understanding of death?

Most likely, it reflects Vardaman’s confusion—his attempt to make sense of loss with the only framework he has. The fish was once whole, alive, and recognizable; once cut apart, it became unrecognizable—not a fish. In Vardaman’s mind, the same logic applies: Addie was his mother, and now, having died, she is no longer his mother. She is a “not-mother.” And if the fish became something else, perhaps his mother has, too.

So she becomes a fish.

*Vardaman Quote

“It was not here. I was there, looking. I saw. I thought it was her, but it was not. It was not my mother….It was not here because it was laying right yonder in the dirt. And now it’s all chopped up. I chopped it up. It’s laying in the kitchen in the bleeding pan, waiting to be cooked etc.”