“The Corner Store” by Eudora Welty, Welty is very descriptive when discussing the store that was in her hometown. Throughout the essay, she creates a dominant impression by her use of sensory details such as touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Welty attempts to create a description of the store that demonstrates a friendly old fashion atmosphere which in paragraph eight she expresses with the use of the sensory detail sight. The author uses the sensory detail sight when she describes the store in great detail. For example, the barrel that held the cold drinks, the color of the water, the soda flavors, and her favorite soda that only exists locally. Then she continues by describing Mr. Sessions always prepared in front of the barrel to
Eden Robinson’s short story “Terminal Avenue” presents readers with the dystopian near-future of Canada where Indigenous people are subjugated and placed under heavy surveillance. The story’s narrator, Wil, is a young Aboriginal man who struggles with his own inner-turmoil after the suicide of his father and his brother’s subsequent decision to join the ranks of the Peace Officers responsible for “adjusting” the First Nations people. Though “Terminal Avenue” takes place in Vancouver there are clear parallels drawn between the Peace Officers of Robinson’s imagination and the Canadian military sent to enforce the peace during the stand-off at Oka, Quebec in 1990. In writing “Terminal Avenue” Robinson addresses the armed conflict and proposes
Eudora Welty's 'A Worn Path' is a story that emphasizes the natural symbolism of the surroundings. As the story begins, we are introduced to our main character, Phoenix Jackson; she is described as a small, old Negro woman. I believe that the name Eudora Welty gives our main character is very symbolic. The legend of the Phoenix is about a fabled sacred bird of ancient Egyptians. The bird is said to come out of Arabia every 500 years to Heliopolis, where it burned itself on the altar and rose again from its ashes, young and beautiful. Phoenix, the women in the story, represents the myth of the bird because she is described as being elderly and near the end of her life. Phoenix can hardly walk and uses a cane made of an old umbrella to aid her. Her skin is described as old and wrinkly, but yet with a golden color running beneath it 'Her skin had a pattern all its own of numberless branching wrinkles and as though a whole little tree stood in the middle of her forehead, but a golden color ran underneath?(55). Her skin tone represents the golden feathers of the Phoenix and her grandson represents the next Phoenix that will be given life when she dies. The trip to the city to get the medicine represents the mythological trip that the Phoenix takes to the sun to die. Most likely this journey along a worn path through the woods, will be one of her last.
Eudora Welty in her short story “The Little Store,” is attempting to portray the simplicity and innocence of her youth prior to her realization that there was a world beyond her own. Welty foreshadows her realization and loss of innocence even before her transition to an adult.
Eudora is very talented with the use of sensory imagery. She describes her mother and household in terms of foods that have strong tastes, such as blackberries and lemons, which have distinctive aromas. When Eudora arrives at the store later in the work, she is overwhelmed by her grandiose surroundings. She knows she can have whatever she would like, from sodas, to fireworks, to sweets galore. She is enticed to the point where the readers become involved by thinking of what it is they would choose themselves. She uses senses to pull the reader into her story and it makes the story more realistic. However, in the end, this is a fact of life for Eudora: she cannot always have everything she wants. She must choose wisely or face the consequences.
Although quite common today, the scene John Updike describes in “A & P’ causes distractions in the normally uneventfully grocery store nestled in town. As Sammy goes about his usual business of assisting customers with their groceries purchases, three young ladies enter that cause quite a distraction. The A & P’s typically customers consist of matronly women and these beautiful young ladies cause Sammy’s attention to drift from his duties at the checkout as he sees the barefoot visitors enter the quaint store. The girls, sporting swim wear and barely covered sun kissed bodies, confidently move about and seem to be unaware of the obvious attention from spectators. Stokesie, a fellow cashier, finds his attention drawn to the girls as he exclaims, “I feel so faint”, (Updike 20) demonstrating the intoxicating effect of the unusual visitors.
This short story, first published in 1961, stirs up controversy and still continues to be debated today. Although Updike intends for his writing to be simple and enjoyable, he also includes literary and cultural knowledge of the time period for readers to analyze more deeply (Saldivar N. pag.). As with A&P, Updike injects religious faith, which few Non-Catholic writers attempted during this time, in a seemingly effortless way. The supermarket A&P, the main setting of the story, was positioned “right in the middle of town” (Updike 983); a prime position accessible to all, although, generally this position was reserved for the town’s place of worship. In a way, Updike implanted this detail to be ironic. The supermarket in his story represented a “temple of modern consumerism” and was replacing a temple of worship (Wells N. pag.). To create a story that was relevant to the 1960’s, yet still encompasses issues society currently faces, demonstrates Updike’s genius ability to engage in the enthralling world around him.
It is important to realize that Sammy’s 19-year old depiction of his surroundings might be skewed, but the story still maintains Updike’s basic use of this setting. Updike choses the dull setting of an A&P grocery store as a symbol, a microcosmic example of the societies tendency to conform. Also, the readers can easily relate to a grocery store. This A&P resides in a town where “the women generally put on shirt or shorts or something before they get out of their car into the street,” Sammy explains. Seeing a girl walking around wearing only a bikini in such a public place looks outrageous. “If you stand at our front doors you can see two banks and the Congregational church and the newspaper store…” The town is a conventional one. Updike turns this familiar, mundane piece of American life, and makes it extraordinary.
The author of A & P, John Updike, uses the grocery store as a vehicle to represent conformity present in the 1950’s, and to show how the main character Sammy, and the three girls breaks this barrier of conformity. The story takes place within a small-town grocery store called A & P during a period where conformity is at an all-time high- which is shown throughout the various observations and decisions Sammy makes at work. Seeing how three girls were uninfluenced by society sparks Sammy’s intuition.
The are only so many ways an author may sum up the course of a human life within just a few pages. Eudora Welty has the awesome talent of being able to do just this. In her stories “Where Is the Voice Coming From”, “A Visit of Charity” and “A Worn Path”, Welty uses the reoccuring themes of characterization, confrontation, journey, and insight into ones mind to convey key aspects of her stories. Through characterization Welty shows individuals who experience confrontations, and as a result complete a type of journey.
The language, meaning, and otherworldliness of Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples, like the golden apples in Yeats' Song of the Wandering Aengus, invite yet often defy grasping. Gratefully, Lowry Pei has offered an informed and lucid perception of this collection, enabling readers to gain that much more ground towards achieving a valuable understanding of the stories, individually and as a whole.
Phoenix’s journey is a little long just by walking alone in the middle of the
depression that the narrator suffers from. What these analyses of The Yellow Wallpaper lack is a
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” explores the restricted societal roles of both Jane and John. Gilman, a strong supporter of women’s rights, focuses on her account with depression through this story (Hill 150). Traditionally, the man must take care of the woman both financially and emotionally while the woman’s role remains at home. Society tends to trap man and woman and prevent them from developing emotionally and intellectually. Although Gilman focuses on the hardships of the woman, she also examines the role of the man in society. Repression generated by social gender roles hinders men and women from acquiring self-individuation.
Whether one would like to admit it or not, change is a difficult and not to mention uncomfortable experience which we all must endure at one point in our lives. A concept that everyone must understand is that change does not occur immediately, for it happens overtime. It is necessary for time to pass in order for a change to occur, be it days, weeks, months, or even years. The main character, who is also the narrator of “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”, realizing that “things felt less foreign in the dark” (Russell 225), knows that she will be subject to change very soon. The author makes it evident to readers that the narrator is in a brand new environment as the story begins. This strange short story about girls raised by wolves being trained by nuns to be more human in character is a symbol for immigration, as the girls are forced to make major changes in their lives in order to fit in with their new environment and adapt to a new culture.
13, 1909, in Jackson, Mississippi. In 1925, she went to school at the Mississippi State College for Women. After two years there, she transferred to the University of Wisconsin and was graduated with a B.A. in English in 1929.