The Optimist's Daughter: A Look at Death and Dying arguing with his mother too, for a moment. He bared his claws at Laurel, and at the last minute broke away from the preacher's arms and threw himself forward across the coffin onto the pillow, thrusting his lips aimlessly against the face beneath his bookcases. , screaming, of Miss Tennyson Bullock, out of sight behind the blanket of greenery Judge McKelva's smoking chair lay behind them, overturned" (86). This is a short excerpt from The Optimist's Daughter (1972) by Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, Eudora Welty. The story centers on Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who left her home in the South to live in Chicago. While in Chicago she meets Philip Hand and they marry. Philip, however, goes to war and never returns. Laurel is now venturing to New Orleans to be with her dying father. After his death, Laurel and her hateful stepmother, Fay, return to Laurel's hometown of Mount Salus, Mississippi. Once in Mount Salus, Laurel is welcomed with many friends and acquaintances. The whole town has already prepared for Laurel and her father's remains. On the day of the funeral the whole town stops to pay their respects; the school, bank, post office and courthouse are all closed. The funeral is perfect, but Laurel struggles to let go of her father. Laurel's "bridesmaids" also struggle; the "bridesmaids" are Laurel's closest friends and range from young to older women. After the funeral is over Fay returns with her family to Texas for a few days while Laurel finishes saying goodbye to her old home. Fay is very bitter because... the middle of paper... he gets angry on her behalf. Fay, on the other hand, would be lost without her Texan accent. The Optimist's Daughter opens the reader's mind to allow him or her to see the many reactions of friends and relatives to death and dying. As Fay strikes during the funeral, it's easy to recognize that culture also plays a role in people's reactions. When Fay kisses her husband goodbye while he was in the coffin, it's because that's what her mother would have done. It can be very difficult to deal with the death of a loved one, but sometimes it is even more difficult to deal with the reaction of others. The novel explains that "Memory is experienced not in the initial possession but in hands liberated, forgiven and liberated, and in the heart that can empty but fill again, in the patterns of restored dreams" (179). Works Cited: Welty, Eudora. The optimist's daughter. The vintage book, 1990 edition. New York.

Topic > The Optimist's Daughter: A Look at Death and Dying arguing with his mother too, for a moment. He bared his claws at Laurel, and at the last minute broke away from the preacher's arms and threw himself forward across the coffin onto the pillow, thrusting his lips aimlessly against the face beneath his bookcases. , screaming, of Miss Tennyson Bullock, out of sight behind the blanket of greenery Judge McKelva's smoking chair lay behind them, overturned" (86). This is a short excerpt from The Optimist's Daughter (1972) by Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction, Eudora Welty. The story centers on Laurel McKelva Hand, a young woman who left her home in the South to live in Chicago. While in Chicago she meets Philip Hand and they marry. Philip, however, goes to war and never returns. Laurel is now venturing to New Orleans to be with her dying father. After his death, Laurel and her hateful stepmother, Fay, return to Laurel's hometown of Mount Salus, Mississippi. Once in Mount Salus, Laurel is welcomed with many friends and acquaintances. The whole town has already prepared for Laurel and her father's remains. On the day of the funeral the whole town stops to pay their respects; the school, bank, post office and courthouse are all closed. The funeral is perfect, but Laurel struggles to let go of her father. Laurel's "bridesmaids" also struggle; the "bridesmaids" are Laurel's closest friends and range from young to older women. After the funeral is over Fay returns with her family to Texas for a few days while Laurel finishes saying goodbye to her old home. Fay is very bitter because... the middle of paper... he gets angry on her behalf. Fay, on the other hand, would be lost without her Texan accent. The Optimist's Daughter opens the reader's mind to allow him or her to see the many reactions of friends and relatives to death and dying. As Fay strikes during the funeral, it's easy to recognize that culture also plays a role in people's reactions. When Fay kisses her husband goodbye while he was in the coffin, it's because that's what her mother would have done. It can be very difficult to deal with the death of a loved one, but sometimes it is even more difficult to deal with the reaction of others. The novel explains that "Memory is experienced not in the initial possession but in hands liberated, forgiven and liberated, and in the heart that can empty but fill again, in the patterns of restored dreams" (179). Works Cited: Welty, Eudora. The optimist's daughter. The vintage book, 1990 edition. New York.