Mendelian randomization (MR) harnesses genetic variants as instrumental variables (IVs) to study the causal effect of exposure on outcome using summary statistics from genome-wide association studies. But I digress, drifting with the memory. It runs in our family, Robbie says (Welty. To me, there is more irony than history in the name William Wallace. In many respects he cherished the community as much as his family, but it had to be the whole community, white and black. And, to tell the truth, the details are daunting, especially as we are led down the old Natchez Trace towards the Pearl River, deeper and deeper into southern river country, a vast cradle of natural wonder that teems with vitality and mystery. He made a sign for me to follow him in what was now a blind tunnel steaming with sweat and humidity. Foots waited until they were all inside. I realized that the origins of these myths had to be traced and analyzed, not least of all to better understand their impact on American culture and history. The name of Edna Earle comes from the heroine of the most popular novel in the South after the Civil War, by Augusta Jane Evans. They have to go and get the wide net,. Einstein activity capture is a powerful productivity-boosting tool that is integrated with Salesforce. There is Virgil of course, living up to his name (but only in the mind of the reader, we need to remember) in that he is there to guide William on his quest, to keep him on the track, as he says. I was not surprised he had been a good friend of Hurston, but I never found any reference to him in the standard biographies. note:when citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. the citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. All of these stories were about life around the old family farms and houses back in Homerville, Georgia, not far from the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. But there were no old plantations or slave quarters, and no signs to mark the battles of the Civil War since there had been no battles. For much of the story at least, William Wallace and the other characters are closer to the simple stock figures of song and legend than they are to men and women in the real world. 4Rereading The Wide Net brought many of these memories back to mind, and it brought back to mind too my dismay in Chapel Hill at fitting them into a theory of myth, or even at weaving them into a common pattern of southern identity. The Pearl River is the prime example in The Wide Net and therefore the source of selfhood that will save William Wallace. Remember that (Welty, Collected Stories 176). When Mother Nature, with majestic abandon, unleashes a storm for the ages (or the makers of myths) to show who will always rule the roost, William Wallace is not deterred or disturbed. The Wide Net and Other Stories (1943), The Golden Apples (1949), and The Bride of Innisfallen and Other Stories (1955) are collections of short stories, and The Eye of the Story (1978) is a volume of essays. Still, casting around for something to say about the way the South (from within and without) seems to have been designed, destined, or doomed, to generate a mythic vision, or visions, often in contradiction with each other, my thoughts could not help going back to The Wide Net.. To begin with, the southern world I grew up in, a small coastal town in Florida in the years after WWII, was not all that representative of the South. 2On rereading the story I soon realized that my instincts had not failed me completely. Robert Fitzgerald. Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. I learned my grandfather had been instrumental in having him named the first black deputy in the county. In keeping with the Scottish link, it might be reversed to be read the son of James. When the search party spies a large water snake, a local legend everyone knows as the King of Snakes, William Wallace stares him down. The fact that William Wallace allows them to come even though they are too young to be of much help may imply that the value of his own fatherhood is beginning to dawn on him. My grandfather, as I will discuss later on, was one of the reasons I had trouble with the grand southern myths I discovered at the university. After all, where else can I look for a better source? When Mother Nature, with majestic abandon, unleashes a storm for the ages (or the makers of myths) to show who will always rule the roost, William Wallace is not deterred or disturbed. But they remain children, and act their age. Our summaries and analyses are written by experts, and your questions are answered by real teachers. It is more of a distraction than a signpost, unlike, I would be the first to admit, the names of Virgil and Hazel, more fixed in their roles.2 If we must look for hidden meanings, perhaps the symbolical would be a better avenue to explore than the historical. As far as living space was concerned, however, the town was strictly divided into white and black, and though the blacks were often seen in the white district, there were few whites who ventured into colored town. AccueilNumros67ArticlesConverging Toward the Human: Myth 1It might seem odd to find me turning to Eudora Weltys story The Wide Net the day I learned I had been invited to respond to the theme of Southern myth (the all-purpose, made-to-order, sempiternel Southern myth). As a matter of fact, he was a pillar of the community. Note: When citing an online source, it is important to include all necessary dates. He saw that the bodies of the frozen birds had fallen out of the trees, and he fell down and wept for his father and mother, to whom he had not said good-bye (Welty, First Love,, (and thus the collection itself) concludes with the portrait of a young woman who is rejected, and is forced to face absolute desolation and a serial rape. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Synopsis It looks like we don't have a Synopsis for this title yet. But more than anything, in rereading the story I realized that my own fading or forgotten memories about growing up in the South had somehow dictated my choice, and that the mythic failures, or inadequacies, of The Wide Net to match the intractable selfhood of the living individual clearly harmonized with my own experience. And I found a note to myself slipped in the pages of my old single volume edition of the collection relating Eudora Weltys initial concept of writing a fictional history of the Old Natchez Trace. Lush, precise, and unpredictable in every line, The Wide Net is one of the greatest odes to the natural world ever written. Physically, he was everything the legend had promised. Hazels name evokes the Celtic symbol of wisdom and the source of life hidden in underground water. When they reach the river Old Doc remarks that the world has been turned to gold by the autumn sun: today, in October sun, its all goldsky and tree and water. William must will himself into a new man, and as a Jamieson, he must cease being a perpetual son, and affirm his status as a father. Job Description Summary: The Executive Assistant is responsible for the management of the Chamber's database and assisting the President & CEO with the day-to-day management of the Chamber office, including governance . Though I have spent much of my professional life reading and thinking about southern identity and the historical versions of the Old and New South, I really did not encounter anything resembling a theory of the South as a land of myth and mythmaking before I began my graduate studies at Chapel Hill. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. I met Foots the first day I was hired to work in a local fertilizer plant for the summer. What interests me more as the years go on is the life story of the individual southerner. In. It was written forty years after The Wide Net but I was gratified to find her speak of myth and memory in a way that confirmed what I thought I had found in the story. It was the county seat, so there were a few imposing public buildings. in Marrs 67-68). 180). The Malones are like horses, and the Doyles are never without their dogs. He possesses an old mans horde of lifelong certitudes. In 1940 she had accepted the offer of Diarmuid Russell (son of the Irish poet George Russell) to be her agent. Now us got scales, Sam cried out. Edna Earle could sit and ponder all day on how the little tail of the C got through the L in a Coca-Cola sign (Welty. He took me in and introduced me to each worker by name. The one I want to tell about my grandfather concerns another man involved in the Zora Neale Hurston saga. My mother had met her and gave me the names of several people who had been her friends. The Wide Net Episode aired Feb 2, 1987 55 m IMDb RATING 8.6 /10 14 YOUR RATING Rate Comedy Drama Romance Add a plot in your language Director Anthony Herrera Writers Anthony Herrera Eudora Welty (story) Stars Elnora Chapman Boyce Holleman Tim Ransom See production, box office & company info Add to Watchlist 3 User reviews Photos Add photo Top cast Wives and girlfriends would be gathered under the windows, and the banter and singing between them and the men in jail are impossible to exaggerate. In those days the post office had a small shop that sold tobacco and newspapers. Us is the fishes (Welty, Collected Stories 183). The story works on several levels and gives the viewer no clue as to whether it should be taken seriously at all. 40I have tried to explain, to myself more than to anyone else, that the multiplication of myth and legend in The Wide Net is there, in all its rich jumbling, to nudge the reader elsewhere. It is more of a distraction than a signpost, unlike, I would be the first to admit, the names of Virgil and Hazel, more fixed in their roles. Of course the well-trained reader races through the possibilities and may stop on his way to consider the myth of the golden bough in the, . There is no great central Southern myth in The Wide Net. But I must have half-remembered that the potency of the mythic, including a few old southern folktales or legends, does play a key role in the story, especially by pounding the pedal throughout on the truth that no myth, potent or not, can ever measure up to one mans solitary predicament. They all belong together in the Mississippi chorus line, until William Wallace finally breaks away on his own. It runs in our family, Robbie says (Welty, Collected Stories 183).1 This is fatalism raised, or lowered, to farce, but points to a fear of being victimized by mysterious forces (without and within) that William Wallace himself must struggle against, and defeat. 36There is one more story about my grandfather that I need to relate. [] Old Jack Frost will be pinching things up. Each of us is moving, changing, with respect to others. Whenever Walter Scott is mentioned in the context of the South, Mark Twains theory of the Civil War and the southern imagination immediately leaps to mind. The father of the white boys is rumored to have drowned in the Pearl River, and the father of the black boys had been struck by lightning and, as Robbie cries out during a storm, was dead three days, dead as that-there axe (Welty, Collected Stories 183). . When he wakes up he affirms his new sense of power and potency by tying a catfish to his belt and launching into a wild Dionysian dance. He had never been given much credit for his act, though in the recent biography of Hurston, by Valerie Boyd, written long after my visit home, he is singled out for praise (436). The never forgetting is another gift of becoming oneself, the power of memory. I believe my shock at having to account to myself as a southerner when I arrived in my early twenties in Chapel Hill, and faced the impressive body of scholarship on southern myth then in fashion, helps explain why. Subscribe. The Wide Net, short-story collection by Eudora Welty, published in 1943. He towered over the others, who were all big and tough. There I was shocked to learn I may have been born into a myth, despite myself. My own is the treasure most dearly regarded by me, in my life and in my work as a writer. But the history of the South itself came to me mainly through the stories I heard in my family. 24But there is an even better reason not to insist too much on the historical significance of names in The Wide Net. Names are chosen for us, not the other way around, and The Wide Net insists upon individual choice as the primary measure of character. At this point the mythic and symbolic allusions begin to overwhelm, but I believe, as you know by now, that their very proliferation throws into high relief the singular nature of one mans all too human crisis. In those days the post office had a small shop that sold tobacco and newspapers. Here time, also, is subject to confluence. Later on I was given an army jeep salvaged from the war. Perhaps nature itself, the mother of all myth, is the true heart of the story. 183). We bought ice cream at the same shop even though there were white and colored water fountains outside on opposite sides of the shop. He saw that the bodies of the frozen birds had fallen out of the trees, and he fell down and wept for his father and mother, to whom he had not said good-bye (Welty, First Love, Collected Stories 168). After all, where else can I look for a better source? The father of the white boys is rumored to have drowned in the Pearl River, and the father of the black boys had been struck by lightning and, as Robbie cries out during a storm, was dead three days, dead as that-there axe (Welty. Hazel wands were traditionally used as dowsing rods. But there were no old plantations or slave quarters, and no signs to mark the battles of the Civil War since there had been no battles. I said earlier that the town was segregated, but with little visible racial tension. William Wallace will soon demonstrate a stronger will in a more heroic gesture than catching a rabbit. When William dives into the river, and emerges transformed, the myth-minded reader may then think once more of the Aeneid, and of the river Lethe which the original Virgil tells us must be imbibed by dead souls in order for them to be reborn. Eudora Welty could use myth otherwise, as she does in such works as her masterpiece The Golden Apples. My grandfather, as I will discuss later on, was one of the reasons I had trouble with the grand southern myths I discovered at the university. I realized that the origins of these myths had to be traced and analyzed, not least of all to better understand their impact on American culture and history. After all, there were some brilliant minds at work on the subject, minds who could spot a stereotype or a caricature a hundred miles away, and there was much to learn. On rereading the story I soon realized that my instincts had not failed me completely. Brainstorm a list of topics for a podcast. 176). 2023 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The last date is today's The absence of history serves the same purpose, I believe, as the excessive abundance of symbol and myth the reader must negotiate before setting his sights on the inner spirit William Wallace possesses to exist all by himself. The scenery the pace and the dialog are like a soothing low speed raft trip. Carrying his great string of fish, he enters at the head of the party into Dover which now looked somehow like new after the rain (Welty, Collected Stories 184). Though she is changing every day, she has really not changed at all. And finally, on the last page, memory is evoked again, this time in words to be engraved in stone: Of course the greatest confluence of all is that which makes up the human memorythe individual human memory. Neither does Eudora Welty in her autobiography, and she is one of the most southern writers who ever existed. Robbie is right to be frightened. Now that I have tried to do justice to my rereading of the story, which was, and is, my main purpose throughout these reflections, there should be no objection if I back up a bit and mention a few of the memories I carried with me when I entered the new world of the Old South at the university. Edna Earle could sit and ponder all day on how the little tail of the C got through the L in a Coca-Cola sign (Welty, Collected Stories 171). eNotes Editorial. When the search party spies a large water snake, a local legend everyone knows as the King of Snakes, William Wallace stares him down. But Hazel is no rabbit as Virgil makes clear: Anybody can freeze a. , that wants to he says, and promptly chases the rabbit away: Was you out catching cotton-tails, or was you out catching your wife? (Welty. I had suspected something like this as a boy, but now it was confirmed. The workers filed in, one by one with their lunch bags, and sat down on a wooden bench. The Wide Net. We may remember his prayer: If only the golden bough/Might shine for us in such a wilderness! (Vergil 166). Of course the well-trained reader races through the possibilities and may stop on his way to consider the myth of the golden bough in the Aeneid. Once again, however, we cannot escape the fact that names are chosen for us. the second is . 184). 30But these Georgia tales were of the kind that Eudora Welty describes as old and complete in Asphodel, one of the short stories in The Wide Net. But I learned too that the family prided itself on having been against slavery, and on having never owned a slave. Soon, a storm comes, and the lightning strikes trees around the group as they watchit is rather exhilarating. Knowing Eudora Weltys love of Ireland and the Irish, the echo is surely deliberate. 3. Review and critique podcasts produced by other students as a basis for creating their own segments. 5I do not mean to suggest that I find anything of myself in William Wallace, nor in his search for Hazel. That was only part of the legend. He lets the little infant plant fall free, and from now on the search is over. When she allows William his ritual role of thinking himself the man of the house by letting him tamely slap and spank her, the reconciliation is complete. she had been filled to the brim with that elation that they all remembered, like their own secret, the elation that comes of great hopes and changes (Welty. At least the small boys have names that set them apart. Still, if I should apologize, I do. It is a plunge into the inner depths that strains every fibre of his being, and tests his spirit to the limit. She is one of Hazels cousins. He hated fighting, but he had never lost a fight, and all his rivals had given up trying. Still, if I should apologize, I do. The Great Wide Sea (2008), a novel by M. H. Herlong, follows sixteen-year-old Ben Byron, who mourns the loss of his mother with his younger brothers, Gerry and Dylan, while spending a year at sea.As Ben processes his grief, he clashes with his father, until he mysteriously vanishes from the boat one morning. They are just playing out a role for the simple joy of pretending, and will soon return to themselves. Then there are the other adult members of the search party, the six Doyle brothers and their dogs, and the eight Malone brothers, eight giants with great long black eyelashes (Welty. The development of the World Wide Web was begun in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at CERN, an international scientific organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Each of us is moving, changing, with respect to others. William Wallace knows now that Hazel holds the secret mystery that will continue to make him more of his own man, and he is willing to follow her lead as long as it takes: He climbed to his feet too and stood beside her trying to look where she looked. 22There is, however, a simpler explanation, of the South to be sure, but leaving the story still uncomplicated by history. I wanted to talk to him, so my mother invited him over to the house. Later in the story a violent storm with a blast of wind covers the entire search party with wet leaves. There is one more story about my grandfather that I need to relate. I could easily call to mind other memories that would deepen and darken the story. Print. The second half of the story is rich in events, but the outcome is never in doubt. See production, box office & company info. It was told by Alexander Stephens, the vice-president of the Confederacy. 41Just as William Wallace is beset on all sides by a welter of signs, until he forgets the name of the Pearl River and takes his dive to the bottom, the reader is mystified by the dazzling parade of mythical allusions until he too reaches the same place. When he escaped he went back to his native state of Georgia and lived to a ripe old age. Now a host of biblical allusions begin to prevail over the Greek and Roman. Print. Wives and girlfriends would be gathered under the windows, and the banter and singing between them and the men in jail are impossible to exaggerate. All of these stories were about life around the old family farms and houses back in Homerville, Georgia, not far from the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp. Had he suspected down there, like some secret, the real, the true trouble that Hazel had fallen into, about which words in a letter could not speak Or in a myth, I cannot help adding. It was, however, filled with southerners. This was her 3rd book of fiction, another collection of stories; published in 1943 after the Robber Bridegroom. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. It was written forty years after The Wide Net but I was gratified to find her speak of myth and memory in a way that confirmed what I thought I had found in the story. He goes with them to drag the river. But the history of the South itself came to me mainly through the stories I heard in my family. Among everything else, he was generous almost to a fault. A reality that is, perhaps, a level or two beneath the conventional mode of realism. Instead of one of the more conventional pieties, here was a crying out to both God and man against injustice. 180). 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