She had just published a masterpiece of modern realism in which dream and the inner world are as vividly brought to life as the outside, but this is an affirmation of the living human mind, not an evasion. It will not be lost on the reader that the structure of The Wide Net roughly follows the same literary source, proceeding from hell, to purgatory, and finally to paradise. What I want to single out is not his place in the community, which was central, but his difference from most of the adult white men I knew and observed. The Malones are like horses, and the Doyles are never without their dogs. In Life on the Mississippi, one of Eudora Weltys favorite books, Twain makes the outrageous, though irresistible, claim that Scott and his historical romances helped cause the Civil War by promoting a mythical vision of history, and by shaping the southern character: It was Sir Walter Scott that made every gentleman in the South a Major or Colonel, or a General or a Judge, before the war; and it was he, also, that made these gentlemen value these bogus decorations Sir Walter Scott had so large a hand in making the southern character, as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible (266). History Of The Internet. she had been filled to the brim with that elation that they all remembered, like their own secret, the elation that comes of great hopes and changes (Welty, Collected Stories 180). I had not forgotten the references to history and to historical figures in some of the stories of. if there are three dates, the first date is the date of the original publication in traditional print. For much of the story at least, William Wallace and the other characters are closer to the simple stock figures of song and legend than they are to men and women in the real world. The river never seems the same, yet even when William Wallace forgets its name, its ageless identity is never in question: The winding river looked old sometimes, when it ran wrinkled and deep under high banks where the roots of trees hung down, and sometimes it seemed to be only a young creek, shining with the colors of wildflowers (Welty, Collected Stories 178). 183). She continues several pages later: It is our inward journey that leads us through timeforward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling. Later in the story a violent storm with a blast of wind covers the entire search party with wet leaves. Hickory tree there will be yellow. It runs in our family, Robbie says (Welty. To me, there is more irony than history in the name William Wallace. Ben Forkner, Converging Toward the Human: Myth and Theory in "The Wide Net" (and me),Journal of the Short Story in English [En ligne], 67|Autumn 2016, mis en ligne le 01 dcembre 2018, consult le 02 mars 2023. Robbie is right to be frightened. He saw that the bodies of the frozen birds had fallen out of the trees, and he fell down and wept for his father and mother, to whom he had not said good-bye (Welty, First Love, Collected Stories 168). Whenever Walter Scott is mentioned in the context of the South, Mark Twains theory of the Civil War and the southern imagination immediately leaps to mind. Sweet-gum red, hickory yellow, dogwood red, sycamore yellow. He surely died the poorest judge in all of Florida, but he did leave me his gold Hamilton watch which had been given him when he retired from working on the railroad as a young man in Georgia. Foots was in charge. But I learned too that the family prided itself on having been against slavery, and on having never owned a slave. Hickory tree there will be yellow. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. When they reach the river Old Doc remarks that the world has been turned to gold by the autumn sun: today, in October sun, its all goldsky and tree and water. The storm in The Wide Net seems bent more on celebration than punishment, however. When she allows William his ritual role of thinking himself the man of the house by letting him tamely slap and spank her, the reconciliation is complete. There seemed to be a force in the family that drove it to act or speak out, with or without the common consensus. Eudora Welty (April 13, 1909 - July 23, 2001) was an American writer of short stories, novels, and essays, best known for her realistic portrayal of the South. in Marrs 70-71). New York: Signet Classics, 1961. "The Wide Net - Quotes" eNotes Publishing Ed. Hazels name evokes the Celtic symbol of wisdom and the source of life hidden in underground water. originally published: New York : Harcourt Brace and Company 1943 We offered this copy of the first edition in our Catalog 119. reference info. He was on a mission. Are there many other collections of the time framed with a stronger cry against the harsh realities of human fate? I learned my grandfather had been instrumental in having him named the first black deputy in the county. This is fatalism raised, or lowered, to farce, but points to a fear of being victimized by mysterious forces (without and within) that William Wallace himself must struggle against, and defeat. . Einstein activity capture is a powerful productivity-boosting tool that is integrated with Salesforce. In The Wide Net, William Wallace must make his own way, and history, southern or otherwise, mythical or not, does not provide him (or the reader) with any guidelines. [] Magnolia and live-oak never die. Sir Walter Scott celebrated both William Wallace and Bonnie Prince Charles, the latter in the most popular series of historical novels ever written, the Waverly novels. I located myself in these pages and could go straight to the stories and pictures I loved (Welty. The storm in The Wide Net seems bent more on celebration than punishment, however. He is holding fast to a little green ribbon of plant, root and all (Welty, Collected Stories 181). They were even stronger reasons to question the myths of the South I later encountered. He has recovered his memory too, and with it, we know now, a new power of self-direction, decision, and acceptance. He towered over the others, who were all big and tough. Us is the fishes (Welty, Collected Stories 183). The Wide Net has been one of my favorite stories for at least forty years. And if my commentaries, such as they are, do make me vulnerable to all sorts of criticism, especially when judged by the principles of pure scholarship (principles I would be the first to preach), at least I cannot be faulted on what I say about my own autobiography. The Great Wide Sea (2008), a novel by M. H. Herlong, follows sixteen-year-old Ben Byron, who mourns the loss of his mother with his younger brothers, Gerry and Dylan, while spending a year at sea.As Ben processes his grief, he clashes with his father, until he mysteriously vanishes from the boat one morning. He has coedited (with Patrick Samway) four anthologies of Southern literature: Stories of the Modern South (Penguin), Stories of the Old South (Penguin), A Modern Southern Reader (Peachtree) and A New Reader of the Old South (Peachtree). It syncs contacts, emails, and events from email tools to Salesforce. They all carried their classic illustrations. He goes inside and there is Hazel! I have tried to explain, to myself more than to anyone else, that the multiplication of myth and legend in The Wide Net is there, in all its rich jumbling, to nudge the reader elsewhere. Perhaps nature itself, the mother of all myth, is the true heart of the story. New York: Signet Classics, 1961. 179). When I finished rereading The Wide Net I reread Eudora Weltys autobiography, . Bigpicture.net registered under .NET top-level domain. Orlando: A Harvest Book, 2006. The Golden Apples. When he surfaces he is still in shock: And when William Wallace came up it was in an agony from submersion, which seemed an agony of the blood and of the very heart, so woeful he looked (Welty, Collected Stories 180). Seeing I was struggling with my bucket and shovel, he came right over and helped show me the right way to do it. He is more at ease with the helpless wild creature of the woods than with Hazel at home. CRM is one of the top technology investments that organizations can make. No wonder Eudora Welty was ready to lash out if anyone else showed the same dimwittedness as the reviewer in Time Magazine. But during its moment, all that is remembered joins, and livesthe old and the young, the past and the present, the living and the dead (Welty. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Wide-Net-and-Other-Stories. Seeing I was struggling with my bucket and shovel, he came right over and helped show me the right way to do it. Jamieson takes a bit more twisting to unravel a historical connection. He made a sign for me to follow him in what was now a blind tunnel steaming with sweat and humidity. 16What is missing in my account of rereading the story is my misremembering the total absence of southern history, a conspicuous absence. William Wallace has done the real catching, unless of course, it has been Hazel herself. In fact, it is not a baptism at all. The father of the white boys is rumored to have drowned in the Pearl River, and the father of the black boys had been struck by lightning and, as Robbie cries out during a storm, was dead three days, dead as that-there axe (Welty, Collected Stories 183). He towered over the others, who were all big and tough. This was not because it was dangerous, or unseemly; it was simply against the code. William Wallace will soon demonstrate a stronger will in a more heroic gesture than catching a rabbit. Physically, he was everything the legend had promised. References to babies, for example, can be found everywhere, from the little man on the toy-like train, to the baby alligator, all the way to the corn shuck doll waiting by itself on the bench back in Dover. Print. William goes to get his friend, Virgil, with whom he'd spent the night carousing, and the pair of them round up some neighborhood men to drag the river. Are there many other collections of the time framed with a stronger cry against the harsh realities of human fate? Eudora Welty is a master of subjective impressionism, but there is not an escapist reflex in all her work. Of course the well-trained reader races through the possibilities and may stop on his way to consider the myth of the golden bough in the, . He was a black deputy who had saved Hurstons letters and manuscripts from a fire after her death. eNotes Editorial. The town was a typical Florida collection of frame houses, shady streets, and sandy alleys held together by a compact center of brick banks, churches, cafes, shops, and one movie theater, on the western side of the river within walking distance of the ocean to the east. These were some of the memories humming in my head when I began reading the books about Southern myth in Chapel Hill. They stamped the ground and pawed each other, more like horses than men. The workers filed in, one by one with their lunch bags, and sat down on a wooden bench. Both his grandfather and his father were struck by lightning. 176). When he returned to his house, he found Hazel was not there, and she'd left a note saying that she had gone to drown herself in the river and that he'd be sorry for his behavior. Usually there would be shade trees to stretch out under and cool off, but there were none here. He had nothing to gain, and everything to lose, by defying convention, but I do not think his prestige in the white community was ever at risk. Each visitor makes around 4.39 page views on average. Failed rebellions are choice makers of myths, as another failed rebellion was to prove a century later. The grown-up Doyles and Malones are fixed in their undefined identities forever. It was told by Alexander Stephens, the vice-president of the Confederacy. County judges are elected, and he never lost an election because there was never any opposition. What I remember most about growing up was the joy of being outside for most of the day in a sort of tropical paradise. My grandfather, as I will discuss later on, was one of the reasons I had trouble with the grand southern myths I discovered at the university. Edna Earle could sit and ponder all day on how the little tail of the C got through the L in a Coca-Cola sign (Welty, Collected Stories 171). The Collected Stories. Eudora Welty is a master of subjective impressionism, but there is not an escapist reflex in all her work. bio notes: born: 4/13/1909 died: 7/23/2001 born as: Eudora Welty nationality: USA American short-story writer and novelist whose work is focused with great precision on the regional manners . The narration speculates on what he experiences in the solitude of the river bottom: So far down and all alone, had he found Hazel? Even as I write, the memories come flooding, but two or three should be enough to make my case. Sam wore them around his head, with a knot over his forehead and loops around his ears, and Robbie Bell walked behind and stared at them (Welty. 44Here is the same confused hodgepodge of myth and fable we can find in The Wide Net. They are the wonderful fictions out of which an adult life finally emerges, but never forgets. New York: A Lisa Drew Book, 2004. Walker Percy has written somewhere that a boy who has a Hamilton from his grandfather is a true son of the South, and I still have mine. Summary. It was a far better show than the movie. He has recovered his memory too, and with it, we know now, a new power of self-direction, decision, and acceptance. At the beginning of the story William Wallace catches a small rabbit and acts as if he wanted to take it off to himself and hold it up and talk to it (Welty, Collected Stories 172). In the afternoons my friends and I would go down to the icehouse where sacks of ice were filled for the professional fishing boats. Robbie worries about lightning. Her most acclaimed work is the novel The Optimist's Daughter, which won her a Pulitzer Prize in 1973, as well as the short stories "Life at the P.O." and "A Worn Path.". The never forgetting is another gift of becoming oneself, the power of memory. The story ends with Hazel calling his name from the bedroom. More important to my purpose here, however, they did help me throw some light on the pluralities of myth and legend that had confused me when I had first read The Wide Net. I realize this is a self-indulgent proposition, but to be honest, I no longer have much faith in finding the definitive myth of the collective South. In 1940 she had accepted the offer of Diarmuid Russell (son of the Irish poet George Russell) to be her agent. There is Virgil of course, living up to his name (but only in the mind of the reader, we need to remember) in that he is there to guide William on his quest, to keep him on the track, as he says. But I digress, drifting with the memory. At least the small boys have names that set them apart. Myths are necessary to our lives and imagination, especially as children. note:when citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. 40I have tried to explain, to myself more than to anyone else, that the multiplication of myth and legend in The Wide Net is there, in all its rich jumbling, to nudge the reader elsewhere. Shortly after I finished graduate school and began to read more widely about the South I learned that Zora Neale Hurston had lived her last years in my home town, and was buried there. But there were no old plantations or slave quarters, and no signs to mark the battles of the Civil War since there had been no battles. He could lift hundred-pound sacks of fertilizer with each hand. Since in the South, as I had finally learned in Chapel Hill, history tends to breed myth as a kind of natural law, I needed at least to consider the question. Still, going back to William Wallace, I can hear someone somewhere asking about his name. Beginning as a folktale of the barely possible innocence of a perennial boy with a cow-lick, at a loss and turning in circles, the story right in the middle changes skin, and the boy and the narrative miraculously transform themselves into a one-of-a-kind human triumph. [] Any day now the change will come. Here time, also, is subject to confluence. He loves to pontificate, and spends most of the day talking and giving advice. He took me in and introduced me to each worker by name. , notably First Love, and A Still Moment, to name the most powerful. Backus, locally known as Beanie. Jump-start your essay with our outlining tool to make sure you have all the main points of your essay covered. William must will himself into a new man, and as a Jamieson, he must cease being a perpetual son, and affirm his status as a father. The memory is a living thingit too is in transit. Backus, locally known as Beanie. I learned that several young ancestors had been killed fighting for the Confederacy or had died soon after the war from disease. Updates? Right after he got back, though, some of his old friends met him at a local tavern and asked him if it were true that he had run away from the fight. The never forgetting is another gift of becoming oneself, the power of memory. But I could not remember that it had revealed the slightest interest in the South as a subject of focus or reflection. When Virgil finds a string of beads in the river, he gives them to Sam and Robbie. Later on I was told that the killers were black men, and that members of our family had made sure they were given a fair trial. Foots waited until they were all inside. Hazel wands were traditionally used as dowsing rods. publication online or last modification online. The more common it is, however, the less likely it can be seized upon for special consideration. But even children are sensitive to the boundary between the real and the fictional, and would hate to hear their father repeat the soliloquies of Hamlet from breakfast to bedtime even if he made a living as an actor. 41Just as William Wallace is beset on all sides by a welter of signs, until he forgets the name of the Pearl River and takes his dive to the bottom, the reader is mystified by the dazzling parade of mythical allusions until he too reaches the same place. 22There is, however, a simpler explanation, of the South to be sure, but leaving the story still uncomplicated by history. Print. Omissions? But there were no old plantations or slave quarters, and no signs to mark the battles of the Civil War since there had been no battles. They were even stronger reasons to question the myths of the South I later encountered. She continues several pages later: It is our inward journey that leads us through timeforward or back, seldom in a straight line, most often spiraling. 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