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    A Study Guide for Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart"
    A Study Guide for Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart"
    A Study Guide for Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart"
    Ebook50 pages36 minutes

    A Study Guide for Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJun 27, 2016
    ISBN9781535838931
    A Study Guide for Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Eudora Welty's "The Ponder Heart" - Gale

      13

      The Ponder Heart

      Eudora Welty

      1954

      Introduction

      Eudora Welty's novel The Ponder Heart was published in 1954. The book contains many of the elements that make Welty's short stories so endearing to readers and important in the American body of literature. Quirky characters, exaggerated events and reactions, southern speech, and attention to everyday life characterize this tale. It is told entirely from the point of view of Edna Earle Ponder, whose eccentric uncle Daniel is the focus of the book.

      Uncle Daniel comes from a wealthy family and becomes the last living member of his immediate family. In fact, the only family he has left after his father dies is his niece, Edna Earle. Because they are so close in age, the relationship is more like that of a big sister looking after a naive younger brother. Uncle Daniel is generous, friendly, talkative, and innocent. The novel tells of his road to marriage and how he winds up on trial for the murder of his second wife. In the end, goodness will prevail, thanks in part to loyalty between the last two Ponders. Welty keeps the story lighthearted without being fluffy, and the setting, story, and characters bring liveliness and richness to her depiction of a small town in Mississippi.

      Many southern writers have brought into focus the strained relationships between the races in the South. In The Ponder Heart, there is division but not hostility. Modern readers may take offense at the way the African American servants are regarded in the story, but it is important to remember that Welty's presentation is meant to be authentic and harmless. Edna Earle's harsh attitudes toward characters in the story have nothing to do with their race, as she criticizes and appreciates people of both races based on their actions.

      Author Biography

      Welty was born on April 13, 1909, in Jackson, Mississippi, to Mary Chestina and Christian Webb Welty. Her father was the president of an insurance company, and Welty and her two younger brothers were reared in a happy, bookish family. Her childhood, and living in a culture steeped in oral storytelling, deeply influenced her to become a writer. Welty attended Mississippi State College for Women (1925–1927) before transferring to the University of Wisconsin to complete her BA in English in 1929. To ensure a solid future, her father encouraged her to study advertising at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business (1930–1931).

      Welty's father died of leukemia in 1931, and she returned home to look after her mother. Initially, she worked for local newspapers and for the radio station her father set up in his insurance building. In 1933, she accepted a job with the Works Progress Administration (WPA). As a WPA publicity agent, Welty interviewed people and pursued stories throughout Mississippi. Her natural insight into ordinary lives grew through her numerous encounters with rural and small-town Mississippians during the Great Depression. In the course of her travels she took hundreds of photographs of people, a discipline that taught her to watch

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