Little Charity in Eudora Weltys A Visit of Charity Essay -- Visit of

Little sympathy in Eudora Weltys A meet of Charity In the short story of A natter of Charity by Eudora Welty, a fourteen-year-old girl visits two women in a house for the elderly to bring them a plant and to earn points for Campfire Girls. Welty implies through this story, however, that incomplete the society that supports the home nor the girl, Marian, knows the meaning of the word charity. The dictionary defines charity as the love of man for his fellow men an act of good allow or affection. But instead of love, good will, and affection, self-interest, callousness, and dehumanization prevail in this story. Weltys depiction of the setting and her portrayal of Marian dramatize the theme that peoples selfishness and insensitivity can blind them to the humanity and needs of other(a)s. Many features of the setting, a winters mean solar day at a home for elderly women, suggests coldness, neglect, and dehumanization. Instead of evergreens or other vegetation that might lend sof tness or beauty to the place, the city has landscaped it with prickly dark shrubs.1 Behind the shrubs the whitewashed walls of the quondam(a) Ladies firm reflect the winter sunlight alike(p) a satiate of ice.2 Welty also implies that the cold appearance of the nurse is due to the shot in the building as well as to the stark, impersonal, white coherent she is wearing. In the inner parts of the building, the loose, bulging linoleum on the level3 indicates that the place is cheaply built and poorly cared for. The halls that smell like the interior of a clock4 suggest a used, uncompassionate machine. Perhaps the clearest evidence of dehumanization is the small, crowded rooms, each inhabited by two older women. The room that Marian visits is dark,... ...otted plant qualify as an act of charity. In fact, as an analysis of the setting reveals, the Home is painful in many ways. Marian indicates in her thoughts, words, and deeds that she is opportunistic and unbiassed to the need s and feelings of the aging women. Welty further suggests in this story that pseudo-charity can overthrow the very humanity it pretends to acknowledge and uphold. People like Marian playing either out of duty or for personal advantages have created the Home and the conditions that have made the inhabitants cranky, clutching, and unlovable. Marian left the women more lonely and agitated than she found them. This kind of charity is uncharitable indeed. Work citedWelty, Eudora. A Visit of Charity Making Literature Matter An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. capital of Massachusetts Bedford/St. Martins, 2000.