Where Do They Go?
By Alex Goldych and Mike Klaczko
Throughout the novel As I Lay Dying, Vardaman struggles to understand his mother's death and the concept of death as a whole. Vardaman's existential question is "'Where do they stay at night, Darl?'" (Faulkner 210). Here he is superficially contemplating where buzzards stay at night, but in a grander sense he is questioning what occurs after death. Throughout the novel, Vardaman parallels death with the buzzards that follow his family across the county as they go to bury their mother. Because of this, he further connects the buzzards with his mothers death. Because he is so young and experienced, he is trying to figure out the meaning of death and what happens after people die. We can parallel this portion of the text to a text that came much later, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. In this novel Holden Caulfield questions where geese go in the winter and this question exemplifies yet another child trying to make sense of death. In As I Lay Dying, "Vardaman's chapters revolve primarily around defining the nature of death, and his confusion proves both moving and unsettling, " ("Themes and Construction...," 2010). As a child, Vardaman, similarly to the teenage Holden, channels his confusion concerning death into the things he sees around him and resorts the animals he sees in order to make sense of his confusion.
Works Cited
"Themes and Construction: As I Lay Dying." Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Student Resources in
Context. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
Works Cited
"Themes and Construction: As I Lay Dying." Gale Student Resources in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Student Resources in
Context. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.