Eudora Welty, "The Optimist's Daughter"

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Eudora Welty, "The Optimist's Daughter" (1972)

 

Book Review (from Milam's Musings)

 

본문에서:

 

   A screen of florist's ferns was being built up brfore her eyes brhind the coffin. The a man stepped out from behind the green and presented a full, square face with its small features pulled to the center -- what Laurel's mother had called "a Baptist face."

   "Miss Laurel, I'm Mr. Pitts again. I recall your dear moher so clearly," he said. "And I believe you're going to be just as pleased now, with ypir father." He put out his hand and raised the lid.

   Judge McKelva lay inside in his winter suit. All around him was draped the bright satin of a jewler's box, and its color was the same warm, foolish pink that had smothered the indows and spilled over the bed upstairs. His large face reflected the pink, so that his large, heavy cheek had the cast of a seashell, or a perl. The dark patches underneath his eyes had been erased like traces of human error.... The lid had been raised only by half-section, to show him propped on the pillow; below the waisthe lay cut off from any eyes. He was still not to be mistaken for any other man.

   "You must close it," said Laurel quietly to Mr. Pitts.

   "You're not pleased?" But he had never displeased anyone, his face said.

   "Oh, look," said Miss Tennyson, arriving at Laurel's side. "Oh, look."

   "I don't want it open, please," said Laurel to Mr. Pitts. She touched Miss Tennyson's hand. "But father would never allow -- when Mother died, he protected her from --"

   "Your mother was different," said Miss Tennyson firmly.

   "He was respecting her wishes," Laurel said. "Not to make her lie here in front of people's eyes --"

   "And I've never forgiven him for that. Nobody ever really got to tell Becky goodbye," Miss Tennyson was saying at the same time. "But honey, your father's a Mount Salus man. He's a McKelva. A public figure. You can't deprive the public, can you? Oh, he's lovely."

   "I would like him away from their eyes," said Laurel.

   "It is Mrs. McKelva's desire that the coffin be open," said Mr. Pitts.

   :See there? You can't deprive Fay," said Miss Tennyson. "That settles that." She held out her arms, inviting the room.

   Laurel took up her place in front of the coffin, near the head, and stood to meet them as they came. (pp. 62-3)

 

위 인용은, 71세로 세상을 뜬, Laurel의 아버지, McKelva의 장례 이야기다. Miss Tennyson은 Laurel 어머니 Becky의 친구이고 Fay는 Laurel의 계모다. Beck가 세상을 뜨고 McKelva가, Laurel보다도 젊은, Fay와 재혼한 것은 다 몇 년 전 일이다. 장례에 대해서 Beck나 그 딸 Laurel처럼 생각하는 것을 소설에서 읽는 것만으로도 반갑다.