An Edna Earle is the narrator of Weltys novella, . I think my grandfathers reputation helped me too in an experience that will stay with me as long as I live. That was only part of the legend. But I digress, drifting with the memory. Each visitor makes around 4.39 page views on average. 184). He possesses an old mans horde of lifelong certitudes. This is the truth that William Wallace discovers by himself, and somehow memory, lost and found, is crucial to the discovery. Still, if I should apologize, I do. I learned my grandfather had been instrumental in having him named the first black deputy in the county. But the history of the South itself came to me mainly through the stories I heard in my family. He was on a mission. No wonder Eudora Welty was ready to lash out if anyone else showed the same dimwittedness as the reviewer in. The more common it is, however, the less likely it can be seized upon for special consideration. Me and Benz tight as a pair of shoes. The whole shed shook with laughter, given the reference to his feet, and from that day on I was home free and part of the gang. N 102 Library of America Series. 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. Like the theater, like the wearing of masks, like the playing of games, myths are ways of trying out the world, testing other lives, often for the sheer joy of forgetting our own predicament. I like to think too, along these same lines, that the comic folklore of the first half of the story makes his solitary dive in the Pearl River, and his transformation, more unpredictable, and thus more human. When he escaped he went back to his native state of Georgia and lived to a ripe old age. We saw the same films at the same movie theater, even though the whites sat downstairs and the blacks up in the balcony. Job Description Summary: The Executive Assistant is responsible for the management of the Chamber's database and assisting the President & CEO with the day-to-day management of the Chamber office, including governance . He hated fighting, but he had never lost a fight, and all his rivals had given up trying. 29A few of these stories were comic, but most of them dwelled on hardship and tragedy. They have to go and get the wide net, though, and that belongs to a man called Doc. The Malones are indistinguishable from each other, and so are the Doyles. 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. 26I am ready to plead, however. 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. The thing about this part of the country in the great days is that people like Aaron Burr, J.J. Audubon, Lorenzo Dow, and goodness knows who, were as thick as blackbirds in the pie, and once the pie is opened, they are going to begin to sing (qtd. in Marrs 70-71). The Wide Net. William goes out one night with two friends, gets drunk and lies all night in a ditch playing the harmonica. They all carried their classic illustrations. Geographically, I had lived outside as a boy in the steamy heat of southern Florida. Subscribers can purchase the slipcased edition by signing in to their accounts. It was a huge success, a romantic tome so overwritten and full of adjectives that Eudora Welty in her autobiography says her mother told her it used to be recommended to take it out with a chair when watering the roses. 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. 23Think of another name in The Wide Net, Edna Earle. It was told by Alexander Stephens, the vice-president of the Confederacy. He returns to his wife better capable of living a meaningful, fulfilling life. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. Learn about student-produced podcasts by reading and discussing the article "Students and Teachers, From K to 12, Hit the Podcasts.". I saw it 26 years ago and I wish it was on tonight. But the shifting, or loss of identity, is a constant threat. History and Overview of CSNET (PDF: 156KB) by Peter J. Denning, with Anthony Hearn and C. William Kern. At this point the mythic and symbolic allusions begin to overwhelm, but I believe, as you know by now, that their very proliferation throws into high relief the singular nature of one mans all too human crisis. Instead of one of the more conventional pieties, here was a crying out to both God and man against injustice. 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. Robert Fitzgerald. As we discover, we remember; remembering, we discover; and most intensely do we experience this when our separate journeys converge (Welty. 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). The development of the World Wide Web was begun in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at CERN, an international scientific organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. There seemed to be a force in the family that drove it to act or speak out, with or without the common consensus. Its so sad that the culture that could have put these good hearted folks bare-feet in the creek was long ago swallowed up by progress. Foots waited until they were all inside. In one of her early letters to him she wrote about her desire to write a Mississippi book: She also asks Russell: Do you think I dare to have honest-to-God people walking around in the stories? Neither does Eudora Welty in her autobiography, and she is one of the most southern writers who ever existed. He could lift hundred-pound sacks of fertilizer with each hand. 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. I have talked about William Wallace and The Wide Net, but I have said little about the assigned subject, the myth of the South. What impressed me most was the incongruity of seeing such a stark inscription on a Baptist tombstone. And, to tell the truth, the details are daunting, especially as we are led down the old Natchez Trace towards the Pearl River, deeper and deeper into southern river country, a vast cradle of natural wonder that teems with vitality and mystery. 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). Engraved in large letters beneath the names was the single word: Murdered. These were the graves of her maternal grandparents who had been viciously axed to death by two men looking for easy prey and a few dollars. Remember that (Welty, Collected Stories 176). We bought ice cream at the same shop even though there were white and colored water fountains outside on opposite sides of the shop. What was her first novel and when was it published? 7William Wallace Jamieson, the first words of the story, and a name I will return to, is a young man who has been married to his wife, Hazel, for a year. He made a sign for me to follow him in what was now a blind tunnel steaming with sweat and humidity. Sometimes referred to as a "network of networks," the Internet emerged in the United States in the 1970s but did not become visible to the general public until the early 1990s. Hazel wands were traditionally used as dowsing rods. date the date you are citing the material. In keeping with the Scottish link, it might be reversed to be read the son of James. It is a plunge into the inner depths that strains every fibre of his being, and tests his spirit to the limit. Backus, locally known as Beanie. The Wide Net (1987) Plot Showing all 0 items Jump to: Summaries It looks like we don't have any Plot Summaries for this title yet. Right before it begins in force, a holy-ghostly benediction or aeolian charma wind touched each man on the forehead (Welty. Weltys mother refused to have a copy in her house. PBS please bring this back. 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. [] Magnolia and live-oak never die. 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. 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). 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. Finding an Edna Earle in The Wide Net is like finding a magnolia tree in Mississippi, and should not force us to go back to. I realized that the origins of these myths had to be traced and analyzed, not least of all to better understand their impact on American culture and history. 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. One was the Florida artist A.E. The second is the date of The only shade was provided by a long tin shed next to the sludge bin. Even though there is no southern history in the story, surely his name is steeped in historical associations. He is more at ease with the helpless wild creature of the woods than with Hazel at home. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Wide-Net-and-Other-Stories. He took me in and introduced me to each worker by name. He loves to pontificate, and spends most of the day talking and giving advice. The thing about this part of the country in the great days is that people like Aaron Burr, J.J. Audubon, Lorenzo Dow, and goodness knows who, were as thick as blackbirds in the pie, and once the pie is opened, they are going to begin to sing (qtd. 15The story ends with Hazel calling his name from the bedroom. The Wide Net has been one of my favorite stories for at least forty years. Both his grandfather and his father were struck by lightning. 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. 180). I began this paper with a confession. online is the same, and will be the first date in the citation. Hazel is pregnant, and William is baffled by her changing attitude (she would not speak and her eyes glowed). Once again, however, we cannot escape the fact that names are chosen for us. But I learned too that the family prided itself on having been against slavery, and on having never owned a slave. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. It was a huge success, a romantic tome so overwritten and full of adjectives that Eudora Welty in her autobiography says her mother told her it used to be recommended to take it out with a chair when watering the roses. Ben Forkner was a Professor of English at the University of Angers where he taught Southern and Irish literature, directed the English Department, and founded the Journal of the Short Story in English. As far as living space was concerned, however, the town was strictly divided into white and black, and though the blacks were often seen in the white district, there were few whites who ventured into colored town. We may remember his prayer: If only the golden bough/Might shine for us in such a wilderness! (Vergil 166). When we went to the movies on Saturday night, we would never hesitate to stop outside the county jail across the street from the Sunrise Theater. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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. When I was invited to speak about the myth of the South, the thought of Weltys The Wide Net, came to my mind in a flash. 2On rereading the story I soon realized that my instincts had not failed me completely. When he comes back the next morning, Hazel is gone, and he finds a letter from her telling him she has gone to drown herself in the river. He has written many essays on writers from Ireland and the American South, and has edited a dozen anthologies, including Modern Irish Short Stories (Penguin), A New Book of Dubliners (Methuen), Georgia Stories (Peachtree) and Louisiana Stories (Pelican). 36There is one more story about my grandfather that I need to relate. Print. I should make it clear it was not the quality of the scholarship in what I read that puzzled me, but my consternation in not finding anything of my own life in the popular myths contained in the books. 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. As Mr Duval finished, and stood up to leave, he reached out to me and shook my hand: Your granddaddy was the only white man I ever loved.. The Wide Net, short-story collection by Eudora Welty, published in 1943. Grady is already a sort of father to Brucie. 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