The section narrated by Vardaman, Section 13, is the first direct view we have inside Vardaman's mind. The youngest son can find no way to express his grief for his mother's death and therefore at first begins to blame the doctor since this man is a stranger to him. Then he begins to wonder about the fish that he caught that afternoon at the pond. He remembers watching the fish die and then he begins to wonder about his mother's death. Gradually in later sections, these two deaths will become confused and interchangeable, but here is the first hint of this forthcoming change. Vardaman's confused thinking is expressed in terms of him striking at Dr. Peabody's horse in an attempt to express his grief over the death of his mother. This confusion of how to express his grief is later reflected in his confusing his mother with the dead fish.
Dewey Dell's narration presents her again as a person almost incapable of reason. She is trying to worry, but she is also incapable of worrying. She is almost incapable of any emotion except that of animal desire. Consequently, images often connected with her are those of the bovine animals of the farmyard. The cows are described in the same imagery with which Dewey Dell is described. In her passage, she even says she would like to worry, but she cannot think long enough in order to worry about anything.
