A Visit of Charity (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Eudora Welty
- First Published: 1941
- Type of Plot: Didactic
- Time of Work: The 1930's
- Setting: An American nursing home
- Principal Characters: Marian, Addie, Old woman
- Genres: Fable, Short fiction
- Subjects: Girls, Alienation, Old age or elderly people, Clubs, social, Girl Scouts
The Story
The action of “A Visit of Charity” is deceptively simple. Marian, a young Campfire Girl, reluctantly visits an “Old Ladies’ Home” to gain points for her charity work. While there, she meets two old women, one who chatters on in an obsequious way and another, old Addie, who, confined to bed, resents the little girl's visit as well as her own babbling roommate. When Marian leaves the home, she retrieves an apple that she hid before entering and takes a big bite out of it. Thus the story ends in a seemingly inconclusive way, leaving the reader to wonder if it...
[The entire page is 1357 words long]
