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LIT 110
Language Choice in Eudora
Welty's "Why I Live at the P.O."
[Introduction] John Gardner wrote in On Becoming A Novelist, "If a writer cares more for his language than for other elements of fiction, if he continually calls our attention away from the story to himself, we call him 'mannered' and eventually we tire of him" (Gardner 10-11). Considering this attitude toward emphasis on language and dialect, how did Eudora Welty manage her quirks of language without distracting her reader in "Why I Live at the P.O."? The answers lies in another point Gardner made in On Becoming a Novelist. Gardner said the best authors fit, or balanced, the "language to its speaker and occasion" (Gardner 10). [Thesis Statement] Welty fit and balanced her language to the narrator, know only as Sister, to the other characters, Mama, Papa-Daddy, Uncle Rondo and Stella-Rondo, and to the situation. Welty managed this balance by not overburdening the reader with too many "coined" vernacular phrases and also through her consistency of language.
This introduction uses a
question. But notice the thesis is not "stated" as a
question. Remember, your thesis is a STATEMENT, not a
question. Statement is an important word. Generally
speaking, analysis papers should not rely on questions to
state the argument. Think of it this way, your argument is
not a question. Your argument is your answer to a question.
Introduction
[Topic 1] The sparing use of phrases like, "Mama said she like to made her drop dead for a second" made it easier for the reader to follow the narrative (Welty 141). Had Welty chained together "cute" phrase after cute phrase the reader would have easily become distracted early in the narrative. What might have been a unique, cleverly coined sentence alone, would have turned into one riddle-sentence after another for the reader to decipher. The reader in that case, instead of concentrating on the larger importance of the language or the meaning of language in terms of its contribution to the story as a whole, would have had to concentrate on the lesser importance of language or the meaning of the language itself. Welty avoided this type of language distraction by allowing the telling vernacular phrases to enhance, not dominate, the story, character and place.
[Topic 2] To integrate telling vernacular phrases, Welty kept a consistent narrative voice and character. There was no betrayal of voice on behalf of the narrator because Sister kept a steady pace and refrained from saying anything out of character. **An example from the short story is needed here to back up this statement.** Even though the narrator in many cases ridiculously mixed topics and jumped from present to past all in one paragraph, the movement established and followed Sister's own speech order. The reader allowed Sister to get away with this ridiculousness because Sister was angry and agitated at the time she told her story. Her anger was established in the first sentence; Sister was getting along fine until Stella-Rondo returned. Therefore, in addition to the writer's narrative consistency, Sister's anger helped to create the reader's allowance for fragmented speech and jumbled subject matter.
[Topic 3] Welty's ability to pull off such concentrated effort and attention to language illustrated her close ear. Without a close ear the language would have read choppy due to inconsistencies. The achievement of fluidity was a result of Welty's talent to use different intensities of vernacular language without ever leaving the true flavor behind all together. For example, the first sentence began, "I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo. . ." (Welty 141). Almost anyone could say that part of the sentence; it is straightforward and not unusual in construction or word choice. The rest of the sentence follows, ". . . just separated from her husband and came back home again" (Welty 141). The entire sentence now reads differently due to the word choices of "just" and "came back." Consider if the sentence would have read, "I was getting along fine with Mama, Papa-Daddy and Uncle Rondo until my sister Stella-Rondo, recently separated from her husband, returned home." The flavor of the sentence has been completely eliminated in the above example. Welty's first sentence serves as the introduction to the language style and the remaining sentences built on its example. The reader is convinced of the naturalness of the language through this building and also through the variety of intensity that follows. Welty did not include a vernacular phrase until twelve sentences later, "Mama said she like to made her drop dead for a second" (Welty 141). Thus, she earns the right to use the language. Nobody after all, says interesting or unusual things all the time. The spacing of the colloquial phrases also gave them an added punch, contributing to the hilarity of the story.
[Conclusion] Welty was so meticulously careful with her ear for language that she did not fall back into "everyday" language or into a different dialect and lose the particular style of the originally presented language. She followed Strunk and White's advice in The Elements of Style, by using the "minimum, not the maximum, of deviation from the norm, thus sparing the reader as well as convincing him" (Strunk and White 79). One unique aspect of "Why I Live at the P.O." is that Welty did not use phonetic spelling to express any uniqueness or peculiarities of the language. Instead, Welty played with word choice and sentence structure to convey the language particular to the characters and the place of the story. The successful use of language in "Why I Live at the P.O." was as difficult as "trying to stretch two chickens over five people and a completely unexpected child into the bargain, without one moment's notice," but through consistency and balance Welty succeeded wonderfully and expertly (Welty 142).
This paper uses less
quotes from the primary text (the short story, in this case)
than the previous example student paper. This paper,
however, uses "expert" quotes or outside sources to 1) set
up the "problem" in the introduction and 2) support the
"solution" offered in the conclusion. Also, remember to
include a works cited page if your teacher requires it.
