So, when he recognizes that his father's story is funny, but he cannot laugh at it, this is a consequence of his disappointment that Edward seems to refuse to abandon his own fictional tales. .

             Nevertheless, even within the first adaptation of his father's death, Edward still supplies one of the driving themes that will continue throughout the story: "Remembering a man's stories makes him immortal." (Wallace, 20). Initially, Will disagrees and Edward is not even sure that this statement is true either. From Will's point of view, his father's explanations of how he failed as a father are mere exaggerations to make it seem as if there was no element of choice in him not being home very much. Edward tells his son that the earth splitting and natural disasters prevented him from being the father he should have been; but then, he admits that one of the things he most centrally wanted was to be a "great man." (Wallace, 21). Obviously, this comes as no surprise to Will, but it does partially explain the root of the tall tales. So overall, the first take on Edward's death is steeped in Will's version of objective reality; he believes it should be this way if there is to be any tangible aspect of his father that can be represented. The humor of Edward's stories has vanished, the greatness of his life has been wiped away, and all that remains is a scaly old man slowly losing his faculties.

             In the second interpretation of his father's death, Edward's point about jokes becomes a bit more forceful. Will still doubts that any of his stories or jokes amount to anything; he wishes that he had known the foundations of his father's belief system. However, Edward-like most people-possesses doubts about the infinite. Accordingly, he states, "Still, if I shared my doubts with you, about God and love and life and death, that's all you'd have: a bunch of doubts. But now see, you've got all these great jokes.