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Post by arothenberg9 on Oct 12, 2011 19:47:50 GMT -5
As we talked about in class, Vardaman is developmentally slow. He often associates animals or other objects, with humans. For example, in chapter 19, he flar out says "My mother is a fish" In chapter 13, after Addie has just died, He runs from the house and immediately thinks of the fish. He then frantically goes to the barn and tries to find a horse or cow, saying "you kilt her". As Peabody is fat, so are cows and horses. Do you think that Vardaman is attacking cows because he associates them to be Peabody due to their size? if so, what does this suggest about Vardaman's feelings toward Peabody? If not, why?
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Post by epolak9 on Oct 12, 2011 21:06:19 GMT -5
Although I wasn't in class to hear this discussion about Vardaman, I noticed this as well. At first, I didn't understand why Vardaman was associating people with animals and objects but then I realized that he most likely had some sort of developmental issue. When he attacked the cow out of his anger toward Peabody, I figured that he was imagining the cow to be Peabody. This brought me to the idea of if the different characters in this book are using different defense mechanisms to deal with Addie's death. Since the cow was a representation of Peabody to Vardaman, due to its' size, it was an easier target for Vardaman to take his anger out on and blame for his mother's death.
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