Essay about Point of View in Eudora Welty’s A Visit of Charity

In this passage from her autobiography, “One Writer’s Beginnings”, Eudora Welty recalls early experiences of reading and books that had later impact on her craft as a writer of fiction. Welty’s language conveys the intensity and values of these experiences with the use of imagery, with the use of diction, and the use of details.

Coming from a lonely and abusive home Mary had to find happiness outside of her house. Her mom made a friend from their church and she happened to have a three month year old baby. Mary always occupied the Richardson’s by helping with baby Alyssa, while also distracting herself from reality. Meeting the Richardson’s ended up being Mary’s worst nightmare. One night the Richardson’s went out and asked Mary and her mother to watch Alyssa.

She is upset by the loss of the day even though her mother attempts to distract her with a garden of flowering violets, her father also attempts to comfort her. Finally, she returns to sleep after dinner. Her memory is a positive memory and the motif if the violets are used to link the past and present as it will help her get through her dark times. In the visual her memory is included, and he mother confronting her is one of the main images that she remembers from this. The image of her mother comforting her is a very important one, as it establishes the role and persona of a mother at the time and how women in that era were seen as to stay home look after children and the men went out and worked to support the

The setting and time period of this story supports the adventurous innocence of its youthful characters, as well as enriching the story’s momentous and climactic confrontation between the forward-looking Mona, and her more traditional mother, Helen.

Issues concerning her size, identity, and her social exchanges with both Wonderland and its creatures spur and characterize Alice’s development towards becoming a young woman.

But, for the first time, her daughter stares into her eyes, and her response is astounding as well as startling, considering her age. She says, “Mommy, there's a world in your eye. Mommy, where did you get that world in your eye?", and for the first time since the beginning of the piece, we experience Alice’s confidence once again (6). She realizes her self-worth, and that it is not determined by her appearance, she says, “Yes indeed, I realized, looking into the mirror. There was a world in my eye” and although she went through a good portion of her life believing that she wasn’t beautiful, or sufficient, it was all worth it because it taught her to love herself even more now (6). To end the piece, she illustrates a dream she had: it’s her old self-doubting self and another her, confident and radiating, coming together. She is once again able to speak of herself in a positive way, she states that the latter self is “beautiful, whole, and free. And she is also [her]”, which, in a way, exhibits that same attitude she had as a two-year-old (6). Twenty-seven-year-old Alice completely contradicts twelve-year-old Alice, who would “abuse [her] eye” and who did “not pray for sight” but “for beauty” (4); she now speaks of herself

Some things take more than just a few glances to have its substance truly disclosed. By transforming into a full-grown person, Lizabeth learns to see things not only by what is on the outside, but grasp what is inside as well. Near the beginning of the story, she recalls one of her childhood days where she and her friends once again adventure off to annoy Ms. Lottie. Once there, however, they find that, “For some reason, we children hated those marigolds. They interfered with the perfect ugliness of the place; they said too much that we could not understand; they did not make sense” (Collier 26). Lizabeth and her thrill-seeking friends are bewildered by the beauty of the marigolds amongst Ms. Lottie’s barren land, causing them to despise it. This conveys the kids as being unable to grasp the true meaning behind the planted marigolds. By using the oxymoron “perfect ugliness” to describe Ms. Lottie’s surroundings, the interference of the “too beautiful” marigolds highlights its value and its symbolism as hope. The significance of this is that by employing the children’s ignorance of the marigolds, it is able to reveal their innocence. It shows how they aren’t yet able to perceive things beyond their surface, to be able to understand things beyond their literal definition like the marigolds. However, this is able to set up the transformation that occurs for Lizabeth to be able to lose her innocence and unveil the author’s argument. At the end of the story, she unleashes her pent-up feelings of the marigolds by destroying it, causing her childhood to vanish and adulthood to begin. As time passes by

Confronting the truth often reveals painful realities. In “One Writer’s Beginnings,” Eudora Welty details her very sheltered life. Afraid of any dangers that may affect her, Welty’s parents attempted to shield her from the world around her. Welty’s mother made the world around her seem more dangerous. As a byproduct of her sheltered youth, Welty reveals the truth in a palatable manner. She spends considerable effort making the truth non-painful. Every person copes with pain and loss differently. In many ways, Welty hides from the truth or at least protects herself from it by detaching herself from reality. Through context, clever word choice, and rhetorical devices, Welty compares and contrasts how she confronts pain

Afterwards, Lizabeth hears her parents discussing their poverty, and her father who never cries was crying. She thinks “Everything was suddenly out of tune, like a broken accordion. Where did I fit into this crazy picture?” (4). Lizabeth is a little bit confused by this because of the adult topics her parents are talking about, but she still acknowledges this. Little children wouldn’t put this together like Lizabeth did. She then thinks her life isn’t so perfect anymore. After what she calls her “...last act of childhood” (5), she thinks, “The witch was no longer a witch, but a broken old woman who had dared to create beauty, in the midst of ugliness and sterility” (5). This quote is right after Lizabeth sneaks out of the house and destroys Ms. Lottie’s flowers with her hands. Ms. Lottie comes outside and is not angry with Lizabeth. She transitions from thinking Miss Lottie is a witch to a strong old woman because she realizes her act was childish and selfish. Lizabeth thinks that “...was the moment when childhood faded and womanhood began” (5). She is compassionate towards Ms. Lottie because she finally understands her act of bringing beauty back into the desolate world. This is shown by her later in life saying “And I too have planted marigolds”

Most of the time there is a moment in life where one realizes they have lost all innocence and gained some compassion.  “Marigolds” shows how one young girl transferred from a child to young adult through her life experiences.  Throughout this story another young, but at the same time old in her prime, lady’s experiences are revealed:  the author’s.  In this short story, “Marigolds,” Eugenia Collier’s subconscious is unmasked through symbolism, diction, and Lizabeth’s actions.

From the moment Abigail is born, it is clear that any beauty she possesses must be on the inside. Abigail’s face and body are deformed, so much so that the nurses cover her so she won’t frighten the other patients. Bullied in school and shunned by the people of her village, Abigail nevertheless sees the good in life. Alone and isolated in her room, she anonymously

In addition, the feminist view of sexuality is evident throughout Rossetti’s poem. Laura and Lizzie’s magical experience portrays the pursuit for sensual awareness while struggling between physical identity and spiritual salvation. Furthermore, “She clipped a precious golden lock, she dropped a tear more rare than pearl, then sucked their fruit globes fair or red, sweeter than honey from the rock” (ll. 126-29) and “sucked until her lips were sore” (l. 136). With blatant sexual undertones, this pivotal moment signifies the character’s transition from maiden to woman or innocence to experience. Additionally, this exchange could be a metaphor for Laura’s relinquishment of her sacred virginity. As Laura falls sicker and slowly begins to deteriorate, Rossetti illustrates the consequences of succumbing to the temptation of men’s deceit and the importance of remaining pure. With use of vivid imagery, Rossetti further emphasizes the animalistic and uncanny

Lewis Carroll’s Alice and Frank Baum’s Dorothy are two of the most well-known and well-loved heroines of all time. At first glance, both Alice and Dorothy appear to be rather accurate renditions of actual little girls who embark on their own adventures in strange and fantastical lands. However, closer scrutiny reveals that only one of these characters is a true portrayal of what a little girl is really like, while the other is but a fulfillment of what most girls would only dream of being like.

Unlike this somewhat loose narrator, the first person narrator, Miss. Hester, in “The Old Nurse’s Story” does not have this kind of flaw, for she tells, with enough details, only what she actually heard and saw as a participant in the story, leaving no room for the readers to doubt the authenticity of the plot. When describing the surroundings of the Furnivall manor house, Hester states “Only in front of the house all was clear. The great oval drive was without a weed; and neither tree nor creeper was allowed to grow over the long, many-windowed front; at both sides of which a wing projected, which were each the ends of other side fronts; for the house, although it was so desolate, was even grander than I expected” (2). Reading her narrations, a full view of the grand manor house is automatically drawn inside my head. This kind

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll endures as one of the most iconic children 's books of all time. It remains one of the most ambiguous texts to decipher as Alice 's adventures in Wonderland have created endless critical debate as to whether we can deduce any true literary meaning, or moral implication from her journey down the rabbit hole. Alice 's station as a seven year old Victorian child creates an interesting construct within the novel as she attempts to navigate this magical parallel plain, yet retain her Victorian sensibilities and learn from experience as she encounters new creatures and life lessons. Therefore, this essay will focus on the debate as to whether Alice is the imaginatively playful child envisaged by the Romantics, or a Victorian child whose imagination has been stunted by her education and upbringing.