He is more at ease with the helpless wild creature of the woods than with Hazel at home. I would agree, and I did try to explore its implications as I reworked my way through the story. In The Wide Net there are too many myths to make a whole. They have to go and get the wide net,. As Welty adds in her autobiography, there were Edna Earles all over the South. But I learned too that the family prided itself on having been against slavery, and on having never owned a slave. Later in the story a violent storm with a blast of wind covers the entire search party with wet leaves. 23Think of another name in The Wide Net, Edna Earle. 19Her reaction is more than understandable. She claims that she was hiding when he read her letter, and he spanks her, insisting that she say she'll never do it again. Grady is already a sort of father to Brucie. Of course these signs and symbols enrich the story at the same time they divert William Wallace from his search. It was written forty years after The Wide Net but I was gratified to find her speak of myth and memory in a way that confirmed what I thought I had found in the story. She ends One Writers Beginnings with a celebration of memory that for her has now become a personal creed, and has allowed her to begin her life as a writer. 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. They were later given to the University of Florida. 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. The town was neatly divided into black and white neighborhoods, but my grandfathers house had been deliberately chosen because it was right on the border between the two and my cousins and I played and talked with black children every day. A few of these stories were comic, but most of them dwelled on hardship and tragedy. 35I met Foots the first day I was hired to work in a local fertilizer plant for the summer. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of "The Wide Window" by Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler). Einstein activity capture is a powerful productivity-boosting tool that is integrated with Salesforce. PBS please bring this back. 45Of course writing her autobiography is a proof of that power, but Eudora Welty goes further. It is then, after they've eaten, that they see a giant snake that they call the King of the Snakes. When Mother Nature, with majestic abandon, unleashes a storm for the ages (or the makers of myths) to show who will always rule the roost, William Wallace is not deterred or disturbed. The Pearl River is the prime example in The Wide Net and therefore the source of selfhood that will save William Wallace. When later on I read Faulkners praise of natural courtesy I thought of Foots at once. I loved the music, the food, the voices, the family stories, and to this day I cannot imagine life without them. He is holding fast to a little green ribbon of plant, root and all (Welty. The second is the date of But they remain children, and act their age. Right before it begins in force, a holy-ghostly benediction or aeolian charma wind touched each man on the forehead (Welty. Still, the shock of my initial consternation never left me, thus my impulse to turn back to Eudora Welty and my memory of The Wide Net and its mysteries when I was invited to talk about the great myths of the South. The one I want to tell about my grandfather concerns another man involved in the Zora Neale Hurston saga. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Given her love of Hurston, a spell had been cast, and the promise of a new myth stopped her in her tracks. Myth and meaning in that book are indivisible. "The Wide Net - Summary" eNotes Publishing Perhaps nature itself, the mother of all myth, is the true heart of the story. Think of another name in The Wide Net, Edna Earle. 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Perhaps nature itself, the mother of all myth, is the true heart of the story. The absence of history serves the same purpose, I believe, as the excessive abundance of symbol and myth the reader must negotiate before setting his sights on the inner spirit William Wallace possesses to exist all by himself. A more distant past was hidden behind the Spanish place names and the faces of the Seminole Indians who worked as cowboys on the ranches. What interests me more as the years go on is the life story of the individual southerner. 33In this respect, my grandfather was a rare exception. The group that William finally collects is a motley one, all male, but they are of a kind. And after a few minutes she took him by the hand and led him into the house, smiling as if she were smiling down on him (Welty, Collected Stories 188). No wonder Eudora Welty was ready to lash out if anyone else showed the same dimwittedness as the reviewer in. There is the miraculous catch of fish, and the hymns William and Virgil hear while walking back home: They were having the Sacred Harp Sing on the grounds of an old white church glimmering there at the crossroads, far below. When William arrives alone at his house, he sees something he had never seen, a rainbow at night (Welty. My mother had met her and gave me the names of several people who had been her friends. 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. When he escaped he went back to his native state of Georgia and lived to a ripe old age. William Wallace takes the lead back to Dover, and back to Hazel who has never left their house. The Wide Net (185) :Eudora Welty Breaking up of the party Discussed by Jenna Campbell William Wallace Jameson Hazel In old 1300s Great war hero of Scotland Williams Wife 3 mths Pregnate Virgil in the wars for Scottish Independence Conflicted main character, Best friend of William almost like his voice of reason Also In Dante's Inferno Downtown black and white mingled and spoke with each other every day. The more common it is, however, the less likely it can be seized upon for special consideration. Everything just before it changes looks to be made of gold. Immediately William Wallace looked down, as though he thought of Hazel with the shining eyes, sitting at home and looking straight before her, like a piece of pure gold, too precious to touch (Welty, 176). I said earlier that the town was segregated, but with little visible racial tension. He towered over the others, who were all big and tough. Backus, locally known as Beanie. New York: Signet Classics, 1961. Us is the fishes (Welty. When William Wallace praises Hazels intelligence, Virgil agrees: Shes a lot smarter than her cousins in Beulah Edna Earle never did get to be what youd call a heavy thinker. Hickory tree there will be yellow. It is a plunge into the inner depths that strains every fibre of his being, and tests his spirit to the limit. Print. 1 Mar. After all, where else can I look for a better source? Its going to turn from hot to cold, and we can kill the hog thats ripe and have fresh meat to eat. I believe my shock at having to account to myself as a southerner when I arrived in my early twenties in Chapel Hill, and faced the impressive body of scholarship on southern myth then in fashion, helps explain why. 173). Weltys mother refused to have a copy in her house. The Malones are indistinguishable from each other, and so are the Doyles. William Wallace has done the real catching, unless of course, it has been Hazel herself. I had no memory that Welty had tried to dramatize or imply a single overreaching southern identity, cultural, historical, or otherwise. 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. Does anybody really believe there is a body in the creek or are they just having great time being outdoors together in the precious last waning days of early fall. Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1990. "The Burning" digs so deep that it verges on becomingas exemplified hereone of the most ferocious of the very few examples of genuinely Expressionist literature by a famous American short story author. Foots was in charge. Her reaction is more than understandable. He did not smoke the cigar, he chewed it, and as a boy it was best to stay on his windward side. Internet, a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect. Packet switching was thought of as a better and faster method to transfer data than the hardware solution to the problem, i.e., the circuitry. Grady is already a sort of father to Brucie. This is the advantage of relying on memory rather than myth when digging back for the truth. Geographically, I had lived outside as a boy in the steamy heat of southern Florida. eNotes.com, Inc. 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. 4. Jamieson takes a bit more twisting to unravel a historical connection. Last Updated on June 19, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. Robbie is right to be frightened. Furthermore, wide networks can successfully learn with a . They created a protocol, HyperText Transfer Protocol ( HTTP ), which standardized communication between servers and clients. 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. It begins with the story of a deaf boy whose parents have been killed or captured by the Indians and who is left abandoned in the end, completely alone: He did not know how far he had gone on the Liberty Road when the posse came riding up behind and passed him. Knowing Eudora Weltys love of Ireland and the Irish, the echo is surely deliberate. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc, 1980. The Malones are indistinguishable from each other, and so are the Doyles. 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. 46I have talked about William Wallace and The Wide Net, but I have said little about the assigned subject, the myth of the South. May 1942 issue Download PDF From the Archive. The only shade was provided by a long tin shed next to the sludge bin. The Internet started off with research into what was then known as packet switching as early as the 1960s. I did recall that it had fascinated (and puzzled) me by mixing together a multitude of myths and legends, reaching far and wide in time and in place, including the local and the regional. Seeing I was struggling with my bucket and shovel, he came right over and helped show me the right way to do it. 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. When William dives into the river, and emerges transformed, the myth-minded reader may then think once more of the. Sweet-gum red, hickory yellow, dogwood red, sycamore yellow. The Wide Net and Other Stories (1943), The Golden Apples (1949), and The Bride of Innisfallen and Other Stories (1955) are collections of short stories, and The Eye of the Story (1978) is a volume of essays. 15The story ends with Hazel calling his name from the bedroom. 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. If all this seems too good to be true, its only because I choose to stop. 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. After all, there were some brilliant minds at work on the subject, minds who could spot a stereotype or a caricature a hundred miles away, and there was much to learn. 183). The narration continues to speculate how (who knew?) , notably First Love, and A Still Moment, to name the most powerful. But the town itself was lively and busy and relatively sheltered from the poverty and misery that remained a plague throughout the greater South even in the 1950s. 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. He has recovered his memory too, and with it, we know now, a new power of self-direction, decision, and acceptance. Remember that (Welty, Collected Stories 176). I think my grandfathers reputation helped me too in an experience that will stay with me as long as I live. [] Old Jack Frost will be pinching things up. They stamped the ground and pawed each other, more like horses than men. I had not forgotten the references to history and to historical figures in some of the stories of. This outlined the principal concepts and it defined . 22There is, however, a simpler explanation, of the South to be sure, but leaving the story still uncomplicated by history. He was a black deputy who had saved Hurstons letters and manuscripts from a fire after her death. In keeping with the Scottish link, it might be reversed to be read the son of James. William Wallace knows now that Hazel holds the secret mystery that will continue to make him more of his own man, and he is willing to follow her lead as long as it takes: He climbed to his feet too and stood beside her trying to look where she looked. They all belong together in the Mississippi chorus line, until William Wallace finally breaks away on his own. The Wide Net and Other Stories. Us is the fishes (Welty, Collected Stories 183). 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. Though she is changing every day, she has really not changed at all. When was Delta Wedding set?? Timeless stories from our 172-year archive handpicked to speak to the news of the day. Summary Themes Questions & Answers Analysis Characters Quotes Start Free Trial . If there are two dates, the date of publication and appearance I benefited from these books as much as anyone. Old Mr. Winter will be standing in the door. AccueilNumros67ArticlesConverging Toward the Human: Myth 1It might seem odd to find me turning to Eudora Weltys story The Wide Net the day I learned I had been invited to respond to the theme of Southern myth (the all-purpose, made-to-order, sempiternel Southern myth). Salesforce has a wide range of tools that can be integrated with it to boost productivity. In those days the post office had a small shop that sold tobacco and newspapers. They have to go and get the wide net, though, and that belongs to a man called Doc. 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). The human drama is my main concern, however, and the one day in the life of William Wallace, wild as it is, is much easier to summarize. The shifting from one realm to another is a constant possibility. 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. He is more at ease with the helpless wild creature of the woods than with Hazel at home. LCRI Net-Zero 2050: U.S. Economy-Wide Deep Decarbonization Scenario Analysis # Executive Summary As part of the Low-Carbon Resources Initiative open in new window (LCRI), EPRI and GTI Energy led an integrated energy system scenario modeling exercise to evaluate alternative technology strategies for achieving economy-wide net-zero emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2) in the United States by 2050. 27Even as I write, the memories come flooding, but two or three should be enough to make my case. There is certainly no question that Williams dive to the bottom of the river brings him up a new man. The web value rate of bigpicture.net is 49,209 USD. Marrs, Suzanne. The Golden Apples. 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. Later on I was given an army jeep salvaged from the war. 11The strongest proof of identity is the capacity to change, to slip from one role to another if necessary, to pass through the modes of being that nature and time demand, but always to remain at one with oneself. I began this paper with a confession. 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, . It has been a delightful day of adventure on the river for the Malones, the Doyles, and the others (including the reader), but the wide net (a sort of local myth itself) has caught nothing, except a haul of fish, a big eel, old shoes, the baby alligator, and a string of beads. Physically, he was everything the legend had promised. Neither does Eudora Welty in her autobiography, and she is one of the most southern writers who ever existed. Weltys mother refused to have a copy in her house. 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. The strands are all there: to the memory nothing is ever really lost (Welty. HIGHLIGHTS who: February et al. N 102 Library of America Series. 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. Updates? cite this page as follows: "the wide net - summary"enotes publishinged. 5I do not mean to suggest that I find anything of myself in William Wallace, nor in his search for Hazel. And after a few minutes she took him by the hand and led him into the house, smiling as if she were smiling down on him (Welty, What is missing in my account of rereading the story is my misremembering the total absence of southern history, a conspicuous absence. Usually there would be shade trees to stretch out under and cool off, but there were none here. 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,, (and thus the collection itself) concludes with the portrait of a young woman who is rejected, and is forced to face absolute desolation and a serial rape. I was not surprised he had been a good friend of Hurston, but I never found any reference to him in the standard biographies. It was perfect for riding out on the sand dunes at night, and for taking friends to the honky-tonks to hear one of our classmates wail out his versions of the old standards of Hank Williams and the brand new songs of Jerry Lee Lewis. It was a far better show than the movie. 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. William Wallace is beset on all sides by distractions, advice, omens, signs of all sorts. Sunlight was scarce and each turn of the river took one deeper into a ripe darkness smelling of frog spawn and wild magnolia. 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. The story works on several levels and gives the viewer no clue as to whether it should be taken seriously at all. Welty, Eudora. I said earlier that the town was segregated, but with little visible racial tension. Recollections contains a fifty-page biographical essay by Forkner. I benefited from these books as much as anyone. As I have already mentioned, my grandfather lies at the heart of these memories. Usually there would be shade trees to stretch out under and cool off, but there were none here. Once William and Virgil have gathered everyone together, they take the wide net and all set out walking down the Old Natchez Trace. He possesses an old mans horde of lifelong certitudes. Still, as Old Doc exclaims to William: Everybody knows Pearl River is named the Pearl River (Welty. They marvel over the snake, but seem to feel satisfied by their feast. When Alice Walker wrote her essay about finding Hurstons unmarked grave, and lamented the lack of a headstone, she was writing only part of the story. He has recovered his memory too, and with it, we know now, a new power of self-direction, decision, and acceptance. 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. The never forgetting is another gift of becoming oneself, the power of memory. Still, if I should apologize, I do. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. He took me in and introduced me to each worker by name. 1943. If we must look for hidden meanings, perhaps the symbolical would be a better avenue to explore than the historical. 3Though I have spent much of my professional life reading and thinking about southern identity and the historical versions of the Old and New South, I really did not encounter anything resembling a theory of the South as a land of myth and mythmaking before I began my graduate studies at Chapel Hill. 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. It had blossomed overnight during the boom years of the twenties. 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). Like my grandfather, Beanie was color blind as far as race was concerned. The workers, all black men, would let us sit on the blocks of ice waiting to be crushed. 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. in Marrs 103). New York: Signet Classics, 1961. I was fifteen years old, and was the only white in the group of workers. In the afternoons my friends and I would go down to the icehouse where sacks of ice were filled for the professional fishing boats. They all carried their classic illustrations. 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. Eudora Welty could use myth otherwise, as she does in such works as her masterpiece The Golden Apples. It is enough to make Virgil sigh with despair: when you go looking for what is lost, everything is a sign (Welty. Once again, however, we cannot escape the fact that names are chosen for us. And I found a note to myself slipped in the pages of my old single volume edition of the collection relating Eudora Weltys initial concept of writing a fictional history of the Old Natchez Trace. He had never been given much credit for his act, though in the recent biography of Hurston, by Valerie Boyd, written long after my visit home, he is singled out for praise (436). Saying so, I freely admit my pirouetting into The Wide Net does take some special pleading. There is Old Doc, the local wise man who owns the net. I wanted to talk to him, so my mother invited him over to the house. publication in traditional print. It is enough to make Virgil sigh with despair: when you go looking for what is lost, everything is a sign (Welty, Collected Stories 179). Though I have spent much of my professional life reading and thinking about southern identity and the historical versions of the Old and New South, I really did not encounter anything resembling a theory of the South as a land of myth and mythmaking before I began my graduate studies at Chapel Hill. . 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.

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