A Curtain of Green at the Wikipedia
A Visit of Charity, character analysis
A Visit of Charity, video
BIOGRAPHY
Jackson is a city now with more 70 % of Afroamerican people, while in the 60s it was the other way round; so the city has experienced big changes in demography and, accordingly, in politics.
Eudora Welty lived all her life in Jackson, save when she studied at Columbia University, New York.
She had a calm life in Jackson, despite all the racial problems, so her stories contrast vividly with the stories by Faulkner or by Richard Wright.
As a child, she was an insatiable reader and she wrote her stories without any particular encouragement. She started writing for a Southern magazine and then, thanks to the persistence of a literary agent, for the Atlantic Monthly and for The New Yorker.
She won the Pulitzer Prize when she was 64 years old for her novel The Optimist Daughter.
She wrote mainly short stories, but also novels and her autobiography. Besides, she was a photographer and published a book of photograhs about the Great Depression.
QUESTIONS
Campfire Girl: have you belonged to an organization when you were young? What do you know / think of the Boy Scouts, for example?
What do you think about the contrast between the nurse’s cold appearance and her “sea-wave” air?
Why does the Campfire Girl have to pay a visit to some (any) old lady?
Gestures: What are their meaning? For instance, the girl pushing her hair behind her ear; the nurse looking at her watch...
The “waves” appear again: “she was walking on waves”. Is there any relationship between the wave on the nurse’s head and the waves on the linoleum?
"The hall smelt like the interior of a clock": what does this image suggest to you?
There’s an identification between old ladies and sheep, but also they are compared to harpies. Why?
What is the effect of the nurse saying “there are two”?
What is the feeling created by the room’s description?
The two ladies don’t agree about the flowers: why? Did the girl know about the flowers?
What expression suggests a clog in the throat?
How does the narrator show the girl’s anxiety?
What can be the meaning of the cameo pin?
What was the matter with Addie? Why was she so angry today?
It was the first time such a thing had happened to Marian: what was this thing?
What is the meaning of “That’s Addie for you”?
What kind of magazine was Field & Stream?
Do you think the nurse’s invitation to Marian to have lunch there is for real? Why?
Why did she hide an apple before going in the Home? And why did she make a big bite out of it at the end of the story?
VOCABULARY
Home (in
context), whitewashed, mittens, awry, propelled (propeller), counterpane,
square smile, my (in context), multiflora
cineraria, ailing, comfort shoes, rigmarole, tan (gum), crow (in context),
nickel
"You can't learn a nigger to argue"
"Po' little chap."
"But some says he got out and got
away, and come to America."
"Dat's good! But he'll be pooty
lonesome—dey ain' no kings here, is dey, Huck?"
"No."
"Den he cain't git no situation.
What he gwyne to do?"
"Well, I don't know. Some of them
gets on the police, and some of them learns people how to talk French."
"Why, Huck, doan' de French people
talk de same way we does?"
"No, Jim; you couldn't
understand a word they said—not a single word."
"Well, now, I be ding-busted! How
do dat come?"
"I don't know; but
it's so. I got some of their jabber out of a book. S'pose a man was to come to
you and say Polly-voo-franzy—what would you think?"
"I wouldn' think nuffn; I'd take
en bust him over de head—dat is, if he warn't white. I wouldn't 'low no nigger
to call me dat."
"Shucks, it ain't calling you
anything. It's only saying, do you know how to talk French?"
"Well, den, why couldn't he say it?"
"Why, he is a-saying
it. That's a Frenchman's way of saying it."
"Well, it's a blame ridicklous
way, en I doan' want to hear no mo' 'bout it. Dey ain' no sense in it."
"Looky here, Jim; does a cat talk
like we do?"
"No, a cat don't."
"Well, does a cow?"
"No, a cow don't, nuther."
"Does a cat talk like a cow, or a
cow talk like a cat?"
"No, dey don't."
"It's natural and right for 'em to
talk different from each other, ain't it?"
"Course."
"And ain't it natural and right
for a cat and a cow to talk different from us?"
"Why, mos' sholy it is."
"Well, then, why ain't it natural
and right for a Frenchman to talk different from us? You
answer me that."
"Is a cat a man, Huck?"
"No."
"Well, den, dey ain't no sense in
a cat talkin' like a man. Is a cow a man?—er is a cow a cat?"
"No, she ain't either of
them."
"Well, den, she ain't got no
business to talk like either one er the yuther of 'em. Is a Frenchman a
man?"
"Yes."
I see it warn't no use wasting words—you can't learn a nigger to argue. So I quit.