Vardaman and the fish image reappear even in Anse's section, an image that will continue until Vardaman confuses his mother with the dead fish.
The tenth section, narrated by Darl, seems to totally disregard time, but the reader should remember that this section occurs while Jewel and Darl are away from the house. And yet during the section he taunts Dewey Dell as though she were present also. In other words, Darl is able to visualize and recreate scenes from the past and present them as though they were in the present.
Darl seems to like to taunt both Dewey Dell and Jewel. These taunts may reveal a very perceptive sensibility; for example, we hear him accuse Dewey Dell of wishing her mother dead so that she, Dewey Dell, can get to town to have an abortion. So Darl can instinctively know both that Dewel Dell is pregnant and that Dewey Dell is anxious to get to town. Later we will see that Dewey Dell is the person who violently insists that Anse keep his promise to take Addie to Jefferson.
Darl's delight in taunting, teasing, or antagonizing both Dewey Dell and Jewel may possibly be accounted for by the fact that Darl senses the deep-founded love between Jewel and his mother, so he seems to take either some perverse or jealous pleasure in taunting Jewel.
