The Optimist's Daughter Comparative Essay

A very famous writer and novelist, Eudora Welty, has written many short stories and novels. Welty’s work is mainly focused with great precision on the regional manners of people inhabiting a small Mississippi town that resembles her own birthplace and the Delta country. Welty was born on April 13, 1909 and was raised by her close-knit and loving parents. In fact, Welty inherited the love of language from her mother. During her lifetime, Welty has earned many awards from her short stories and novel, such as the Pulitzer Prize that she won in 1973 after publishing “The Optimist’s Daughter”. On July 23, 2001, Eudora Welty died after suffering a cardiopulmonary.

This may be viewed as a reflection of the ‘intemperate and unchaste’ (149) wife who defies the Victorian norms of a morally superior woman; just as Blanche Ingram defies Victorian marriage norms by wishing for a husband who will be a ‘foil’ (Chapter 18) rather than a rival. Additionally, Rodas points to Jane’s continuous misunderstanding of Bertha’s antics as those of Grace Poole – therefore employing Grace as ‘an aperture which the imprisoned woman may enter into and interact with the world beyond her cell’ (150); a ‘mask or disguise’ (150) through which Bertha can act out on her mental illness and inner turmoil without being fully

Flannery O’Connor was a southern belle born in Savannah, Georgia in 1925. She was a Catholic girl living in the Bible belt of the country. She lived in “two different worlds” (Meyer, 421); the fictional world that she created for her stories and her personal life. In her stories, she used exciting characters so that she could live through them and live an “interesting” life. She uses her stories to portray totally unanticipated, but totally plausible things. “O’Connor’s stories present complex experiences that cannot be tidily summarized; it takes the entire story to suggest the meanings” (Meyer, 426). She uses her characters to show irony, private experiences, fears, and diverse parallels into her story “Good Country People”.

Sue Snell may seem like the typical “golden girl” of Carrie’s high school but she is in fact isolated in her life as a living stereotype. “As someone who had been

Eudora Welty was a Southern fiction author in the 1900s who revealed the dynamics of family, whether they be whole or broken, through her depiction of pure characters in the rural South. Welty grew up in a “close-knit and loving family,” sharing with them bonds of “devotion, camaraderie and humor” (Marrs). Two of her most notable works include Delta Wedding and The Ponder Heart, which both focus around family within the southern United States. Although Welty’s works are written with a light-hearted tone, not all of her works speak of a warm theme; while wholeness and unity of family are portrayed in her books, brokenness and fragility of family are displayed as well. Welty examines the complex dynamics of family relationships as she utilizes

Eudora Welty used the most strangest characters to personify human interactions. Characters in her book include murderers, psychotics, suicides, deaf-mutes, the mentally retarded, the senile, and a group of people known as “commoners.” Welty used completely opposite people to show, how they react and can overcome a problem. Metropolitan reviewers make superficial comparisons with Faulkner and Poe(Bryant 261). Comparing Eudora Welty to Faulkner and Poe is rather strange. She may have wrote about murders, but the stories were not creepy or weird. Welty simply used these characters to grab the attention of readers.

In the beginning of this Southern literature novel and through allegory, imagery along with an ironic tone we can tell Welty has set an emotional, recollective storyline. Despite the novel being somewhat straightforward it is composed with multiple flashbacks that eventually the protagonist finds them connecting like a puzzle to her present life. Portraying the protagonist role, Laurel is known as a hard working women, widow and a beloved daughter. Her narration is mainly seen through her family and friends in Mount Salus, during the devastating events leading up to her father funeral. In the mix of external conflicts between Laurel and antagonist Fay, Welty describes Fay through allegory and conversation writing style as a selfish, open-minded

Hidden within one’s action lies the truth about one’s self. In novels, characterization helps unravel a deeper meaning about a person’s motives. Interpreting a trait about a character assists in understanding the reasoning for the character’s actions. Moreover, comparing character portrayal in a novel depicts the similarities and differences between a pair. The main characters, Elena, in “American History” by Judith Cofer and, Waverley, in “Rules of the Game” by Amy Tan both have similar and different characterization. Elena is naive while Waverly is wise, but both characters are observant.

Please examine the similarities and differences between Esperanza and three other female characters in the book. Aspects that a character shares with Esperanza (ways in which they are alike) should be written in the left-hand column; aspects that are unique to a character (ways in which the character is different from Esperanza) should be listed in the right-hand column.

In “One Writer’s Beginnings,” Eudora Welty discusses her experiences while growing up which later had an impact on her career as a writer of fiction. Welty’s diction displays value of these experiences and shows the importance of these experiences. Her word choice also coveys the intensity of these experiences and how they impact her career.

   Both Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, Epistle 2 and Mary Leapor's Essay on Woman expound the fatalist contention that neither man nor woman can "win," as each individual exists in a world of trade-offs. Yet, by each author's singular technique of sculpting his ideas with the literary tools of contrast, argument, and syntax, the cores of the two essays turn back to back, evolving into distinct, but contrary perspectives of Man's (in respect to mankind) and Woman's existence. Pope asserts that a profusion of trade-offs establish a certain equilibrium point where Man hangs "on this isthmus of a middle state" (Magill 2629). After defining the boundaries of Man's

During her life, Miss Jenkyns seemed to reign over the community, dictating the rights and wrongs of proper etiquette. She prevented or otherwise limited her sister Miss Matty’s happiness in many ways. For example, when Miss Matty met Thomas Holbrook, she believed she had no choice other than to reject his proposal of marriage. Her sister’s disapproval controlled and affected her so deeply, Miss Matty neglected to choose the life that might have brought her happiness. Even after her sister’s death, Miss Matty is reluctant to visit Mr. Holbrook, because “She did not think Deborah would have liked her to go” (41). In other ways, the idea of weighing others’ opinions as superior to one’s own image of themselves is a constant within the book. Women compete with each other to be the finest lady, and if this were a true feminist utopian society, women might coexist more

The major characters in The Optimist's Daughter are Judge McKelva, Becky Mckelva, Laurel Mckelva, Wanda Fay, Dr. Courtland, Miss Adele Courtland, Tish Bullock, Major Bullock, Miss Tennyson, and Miss Missouri. Becky Mckelva was Judge Mckelva's wife before she died and had Laurel Mckelva with him. Wanda Fay remarried Judge Mckelva after his wife's death. Dr. Courtland did surgery on Becky Mckelva and the final operation on Judge Mckelva. Miss Adele Courtland is the sister of Dr. Courtland and is a bride's maid to Laurel McKelva. Tish Bullock is also a bride's maid to Laurel and is the daughter of Miss Tennyson and Major Bullock. Miss Tennyson is another bride's maid to Laurel McKelva and is married to Major Bullock. Miss Missouri is the maid

Recently, it seems to have become common practice for female friends of mine to compare me to their significant others. The common factor discussed is generally a similar trait of our personalities that they deem noteworthy followed by a variation of the phrase “you are just like him”. However, the mistake is the implication that two separate entities that share similar qualities can be called equal. In fact, they are not. The shared qualities may seem similar, but they also could be perceived very differently from the individual in possession of that quality and result in different personalities. In this same regard, literary entities may share topics, but this shared topic is often brought about by different themes throughout the text and

Hardy’s women characters suffer at the hands of fate and an unkind society. Sophy is gentle and attractive and devoted. Her only flaw was that she was not a great judge of what was best for her. She agrees to marriage with Rev. Twycott. She respects him but there is no love in this marriage, naturally. Her influence on Randolph her son is negligible and the boy grows up thinking his mother to be inferior to him in learning and position. Sophy has no control over her life. Her husband has left her only a small sum of money; the rest is under the control of trustees. She loves her son with tenderly and does not want to hurt him in any way but the boy has only crumbs to shower on her. Too late she realizes that she would have been happy with Sam but Randolph does allow her the freedom to make her decision and follow it. Too long Sophy has allowed others to control her life. Her immobility becomes a symbol for her dependence in life on her son’s will.