Vardaman's attack on Cora and his running away are additional suggestions that he does not understand the idea of his mother's death and knows no conventional way in which to express the grief that he does not understand. His confusion will continue until after Addie is buried.
Tull's narration also conveys some important factual information. We find out that the bridge is washed out, necessitating a longer trip down the river that will require extra time. We find out that Addie has been in the coffin three days before Darl and Jewel get back with the wagon. And in a hot Mississippi July rainy spell, this is a long time to have a dead body above ground. We receive more facts about the perfection with which the coffin was built.
Other than the factual information, we also receive certain impressions. Armstid, a new character introduced in this section, suggests that the Bundrens would do much better if they would bury Addie Bundren in the nearest town. This suggestion prepares us for the fact that the body will indeed be in the advanced stages of decay before they can possibly reach Jefferson and the burial ground that Addie has requested.
Perhaps the most grotesque bit of information conveyed in this section is Tull's narration of how Vardaman bored a hole into the coffin and in doing so actually bored some holes into his mother's face. Again, as in Section 16, the reader must formulate an individual response to such an episode, which contains both the potentially comic and the potentially tragic. Under any circumstances it is one of the most ironic scenes in the novel since this bizarre episode is narrated by the dull and unimaginative Tull.
