The Optimist's Daughter (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Eudora Welty
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: 1960’s, Memory, Parents and children, Surgery or surgeons, Fathers, Mississippi, New Orleans, Death or dying, Judges, Funeral rites or ceremonies
- Locales: New Orleans, LA, Mississippi, Mount Salus, MS
The Optimist's Daughter deals with family relationships, as do the earlier novels Delta Wedding and Losing Battles and many of Welty's short stories. The Optimist's Daughter, however, focuses on a family of only three people: Laurel McKelva Hand, a widow, the protagonist; her ill father, Judge Clinton McKelva; and his second wife, Fay Chisom McKelva, who is even younger than Laurel. It is not the difference between generations that causes conflict in this novel, however; as in “Moon Lake” and “A Memory,” it is the difference in attitude and in...
[The entire page is 1022 words long]
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