Eudora Welty’s short story, “Petrified Man”, is an electrifying story that captivates the reader from its opening lines. The opening of a story often times determines the success of a story because if the the reader’s attention is not grabbed from the beginning, the reader is not likely to continue reading and the story will not succeed. Welty has mastered the art of having captivating opening lines. From the start of the story, the reader is transported back to a time and place not too far gone. Even if the reader has never been to a beauty salon in the south, Welty has crafted the scene so expertly that one cannot help but feel as if they are in a familiar place. From the dialect of the characters to the vivid visuals of lavender everything
to the distinct smells described by the actions taking place, the reader is transported into the scene manufactured by Welty as if it were a memory. The scene described by Welty is so vivid that the plot does not seem farfetched. The two main characters in “Petrified Man”, Lenora and Mrs. Fletcher spend the entire story discussing a newcomer to town, Mrs. Pike. In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Fletcher wants to know who was spreading the (true) rumor about her being pregnant. It turns out that Mrs. Pike was spreading the rumor through information from the hairdresser, Lenora. The dialogue between the two characters is very realistic and shows how a hairdresser would talk to a client in the south expertly. This story provides excellent and accurate insight to this niche of southern culture. From the way the characters interact with each other to the way the salon looks is an accurate representation of southern culture which Welty did an expert job of capturing.
Within every story or poem, there is always an interpretation made by the reader, whether right or wrong. In doing so, one must thoughtfully analyze all aspects of the story in order to make the most accurate assessment based on the literary elements the author has used. Compared and contrasted within the two short stories, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, and John Updike’s “A&P,” the literary elements character and theme are made evident. These two elements are prominent in each of the differing stories yet similarities are found through each by studying the elements. The girls’ innocence and naivety as characters act as passages to show something superior, oppression in society shown towards women that is not equally shown towards men.
In his 1984 novel Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins presents a narrative that rivals the often fantastical tales told in myth. Using classical mythology as a foundation, and, in particular, providing a loose adaptation of The Odyssey by Homer, Robbins updates and modifies characters and concepts in an effort to reinforce the importance of the journey of life and the discovery of self. Like the ancient myth-makers, Robbins commands the reader’s attention with outrageous situations and events while at the same time providing characters that the reader can relate to and learn from.
People tend to views an image based on how society say it should be they tend to interpret the image on those assumption, but never their own assumptions. Susan Bordo and John Berger writes’ an argumentative essay in relation to how viewing images have an effect on the way we interpret images. Moreover, these arguments come into union to show what society plants into our minds acts itself out when viewing pictures. Both Susan Bordo and John Berger shows that based on assumptions this is what causes us to perceive an image in a certain way. Learning assumption plays into our everyday lives and both authors bring them into reality.
Every Sunday, Miss Brill looked forward to a wonderful day in the park. There, she would secretly dive into the lives of the surrounding human beings, taking in each of their words and actions and creating a fantasy world all of her own that she was sure she belonged in, but she was mistaken. Her fantasy world does crumble, and Miss Brill, the protagonist in the short story, “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, soon finds herself in reality. Miss Brill can be clearly seen as a flat, yet dynamic character, as can be portrayed through her thought transformation.
The short story “Petrified Man” by Eudora Welty is about two women—Leota, a beautician, and Mrs. Fletcher, her customer—who spend the entire story gossiping in a beauty parlor. The story is told in a limited third-person point of view, where the psychic distance of the view places the reader right next to Mrs. Fletcher and Leota, hearing and seeing only what someone present in the scene would. Their gossip tells the reader the stories of this piece, that of Mr. and Mrs. Pike and of the Petrified Man. However, this is not the main focus. Welty uses this short story to comment on the appearance obsessed, judgmental, and flighty nature of people, especially southern women. This is done through Mrs. Fletcher’s comments about what Mrs. Pike must
American Literature. 6th Edition. Vol. A. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. 2003. 783-791
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
In Eudora Welty’s novel, The Golden Apples, the author presents a combination of short stories to give the readers an insight into the intricacies of human relationships. In doing so, in “June Recital,” Welty utilizes the separation technique, once again, to give multiple perspectives depending on the different time periods and characters. Moreover, by implementing the textual structure and significance of the MacLain house from the “Shower of Gold,” the two stories, although separate, have a strong bond and share similar significance to one another. As a result, with dense and detailed descriptions and vernacular languages, Welty succeeds in providing the reader with a three-dimensional analysis of the events which occur in the “June Recital.” The separation of the story into four sections and the utilization of line-breaks within each section contribute to the whole story such that it provides different perspective and the combination which leads to ultimate understanding.
Now we have examined three stories written by two well distinguished authors known for their Southern Gothic Literature and found many similarities in each story. Each story has its form of the grotesque we have Miss Emily, the Misfit, the Grandmother, and Marley Pointer and let’s not leave out Helga. The characters of each story has some form of cringe inducing quality, meaning some kind of attitude about themselves that gets under ones skin. Then as we can see from the stories they all are Southern based each story is in a Southern setting. And the final thing we look for in Southern Gothic literature is tragedy which all three stories possessed.
Isaacs, Neil D.. Life for Phoenix.? The Critical Response to Eudora Welty(tm)s Fiction. ed. Laurie Champion. London: Greenwood, 1994. 37-42.
...ary devices covered in this paper cannot even begin to cover the entirety of a great short story. The point of view, the symbolism, and the setting are just a few things that make these stories so memorable. The ability of Shirley Jackson to make a reader question the way society allows as normal with its traditions, families, and customs causes the reader to think that this can happen anywhere. Charlotte Perkins Gilman makes the reader wonder throughout the story is she crazy or is she possessed. The ability to make the reader sit white knuckled holding the book is amazing and the writing styles of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Shirley Jackson will forever go down in literary history.
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading; Or, You're So Paranoid, You Probably Think This Introduction is About You." Novel Gazing: Queer Readings in Fiction. Ed. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Durham: Duke UP, 1997. 1-37.
Eudora Welty writes with feeling and her “Emphasis is on varying combinations of theme, character, and style.” (Kinc...
Myth, symbol, and allusion are not an uncommon characteristic in Eudora Welty's works. By using characters such as Odysseus and leaving hints of symbolism in works such as The Optimist's Daughter Welty places many questions in the minds of her readers. After a reader has pondered these questions a categorization of the story takes place in the readers mind. Although different readers have different interpretations of literature one collection of Welty's short stories can be classified into two categories. Katherine Anne Porter's introduction to Eudora Welty's A Curtain of Green explains the two categories:
In the essay “Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body,” author and philosopher Susan Bordo discusses the history and current state of male representation in advertisements. While using her feminist background, Bordo compares and contrasts the aspects of how men and women are portrayed in the public eye. She claims that there has been a paradigm shift the media with the theory that not just women are being objectified in the public eye, but also men too. Since the mid-1970s, with the introduction of Calvin Klein commercials, men have started to become more dehumanized and regarded as sex symbols. In a similar fashion to how Bordo describes gender, race plays a similar role in the media. People of all different ethnicities and cultures are being categorized into an oversimplified and usually unfair image by the media over basic characteristics.