Losing Battles (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Eudora Welty
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Plot: Comic and ironic pastoral
- Time of Work: The 1930’s
- Setting: The rural Mississippi hill country
- Principal Characters: Granny Vaughn, Jack Renfro, Beulah Renfro, Miss Julia Mortimer, Gloria Short Renfro, Judge Moody
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: Teaching or teachers, Values, Family or family life, Prisoners, Rural or country life, 1930’s, Mississippi, Judges, Family reunions
- Locales: Mississippi
The Novel
Losing Battles is not an easy novel to read, not because it is philosophically demanding or because it has a complex plot, but rather because of its style (it is written almost entirely in dialogue) and because of the large number of characters (twenty-eight listed in the cast at the front of the book) who populate it and who join in the talk that makes it up. It is precisely the talk and tale-telling of the rural family, however, that constitute the novel’s essence, as it attempts to capture the spirit of a tight-knit oral culture. The plot is so simple as...
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See Also:
- - Losing Battles summary and study guide in the eNotes.
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