Southern writters: not used the term American, 1920.

Popular fiction: appeals to a huge

readership. Developed a specific writing style.
William Faulkner and Tenesse Williams. 1950 renaissance of popular writters: follow
the steps of them. Flannery OConnor, and Eudora Welty.
Common Southern history: Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, Florida. Southern states
wanted to keep slavery, but the northern states didnt. Idea of racial difference (black are
inferiors) is already present there. But its mostly shown in economic terms.
-

Living from the land is very important: so the significance of the family is also
more important.

Christian feeling: Whats good and whats bad. And also: who stablishes it?

Sense of community

Racial tension

Land / heritage: having to keep the land in order to keep the heritage.

Southern dialect: was and were inadequate use, aint, use of madam.

Very steryotipical characters.

Misses Hopewell sayings: she always uses the same sentences. One time she uses all of
them at the same time.

GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLE

Setting:
-

Kitchen: family are together, women spend most of the time. Mss Freeman
comes in and out as she pleases. Joy is the one who does not feel at home while
being it his home. Helps construct the context and tone of the story. 2
conversations between the 3 women: fights or misunderstandings / Freeman and
Hopewell gossiping. Not real communication, each of them are in their universe.

Living room (hall) named parlour. He says he has a health condition, he is

allowed to go to the family kitchen. He is allowed to have dinner with them.

Outside: countryside.

Barn (las scene). Where the cheating takes place.

Character:
-

Mss Hopewell: She is not a widow, she is divorced. The land belonged to her.
(Who always thinks positive things of other people). Gossips a lot. She would
like Joy (interested in books) to be like Freemons daughers (since they are more
interested in having children and getting married).

Mss Freemon: gossips quite a lot. Talks about her daughers (15 married and
pregnant, and the other one is 18 and has many admirers). Represent the good
country people (get marry soon, take care of the land). She had 3 facial
expressions: neutral, forward, reversed (her eyes could move anywhere). She has
a comfortable job (takes her breaks). Apparently a normal woman, but obsessed
with diseases and disabilities. She has an obsession on Joyces leg. Something in
her character (eyes, obsession with the leg).

Joy: intellectual intelligent, she has a P.H.D. she has a heart condition and lost
her leg (when she was 10). Probably she would die in 45 birthday. Thats why
she doesnt move far from house. The writer had Lupus and found in the same
position with Joy (shaky relationship with her mum). Too idealistic. A young
country boy fools a more intelligent girl through his own witty (experience of
the world). She is physically not well.

Manley Pointer: 19 years old. Strange obsession with other peoples weaknesses.
Mentally or emocionally not well.

Hopewell and Joy dont believe that bad people exists = blue eyes described as
an angel.

Whereas Freeman and Pointer represent the evil (who are apparently good
country people, but have a bad side, which is represented as humorous) =
references to snakes and devil.

In order to be a southern lady you have to follow a pattern: you have to look pretty and
feminine, marry someone with a good social position. Importance of having a family.
Simple not intellectual girls were seen better than Joy.
Simbolism:
-

Joy fake leg: is seen as something valuable. Thats why the young man wants to
steal. It provides empathy to those surrounding her. Attracks the freak members
of the community (the negative ones)

The bible: there are 2 bibles

o

Pointer has a fake one. He is hiding his sins there.

o Real one: Christian community. Hopewell says the bible is my room

but she doesnt really know where it is.
-

Title good country people. Titles of both stories are different sides of the same
coin. Throut the stories we dont see a single character that could be considered
a good country people. Leota and Mrs Pike are petrified themselves. Every time
the author says good country people she says it as irony.

PETRIFIED MAN
Setting:
-

Beautiful saloon: or beauty shop (appearances)

Freak show

Characters:
-

Leota

Mss Pike (not present)

Mss Fletcher: she is envious of the description of Mss Pike, although she has
never met her

Men are very important: Mr Fletcher, Fred, Mr Pike. They dont have jobs, sense
that there arent any jobs for everyone: economic crisis. Whereas the feminine
characters are strong (in the house is done what they say).

Billy: the only one who talks the true.

Symbolism:
-

Pregnant woman: worried about image. If you are pregnant you may lose your
beauty and shape.

Pike: fish / pike (mountain)

Fletcher (arrows)

Freak fair: ill people, they go to see them

Billy Boy: innocence, says whats really going there

Petrified man: appearances are misleading, he can move perfectly well. He has a
mental illness: he rapes women. The petrified man can hide behind the freak
show and avoid being caught. Criticism to the society: you dont allow the
normal people (such as the husbands) to have jobs and survive, whereas you
allow it to the ill ones. Stone: you are cold, dead inside, you dont have feelings
nor emotions. But this coldness is present in all the society, which allows the
differences in the freak. And more specifically, in the women we see in the story:
the protagonists who only keep their appearances.
The men that dont work are also petrified, since they do not have a voice, they
are disapointed

Mrs Fletcher and Leota (pregnant) talk about Leota and Mrs Pike. You are expecting a
baby and someone shows you two babies united. This shows us how Leotas head is
petrified.
Dialogue about the Freak show has the same tone as the dialogue of the last scene in
good country people.

Grotesque: bad taste. Represented with the silly obsession with the fake leg. Petrified
man we see the grotesque in the 3 women and the people who go to the freak show.

Petrified Man basically consists of two sets of conversations between Leota and Mrs.
Fletcher; the storys action takes place wholly in these conversations. In small-town
America, much of what constitutes real life consists of the images created by
conversationalists such as Leota and Mrs. Fletcher, and the dialogue between these two
characters is thus a perfect device for capturing the banality and pretentiousness of
much human encounter.
Welty was a master at depicting in fine detail the life of the small southern town, and
Petrified Man bears the verisimilitude that has earned for her this reputation. She
effectively employs the visual, tactile, and olfactory images that place the reader in the
beauty parlor with Leota and company. Though the reader never directly confronts the
Pikes, Leotas husband Fred, or Mr. Petrie, Leotas vivid descriptions serve well enough
as surrogates. Despite her own posturing, Leotas dialogue cannot help but reveal the
truth about herself and others, and this is a tribute to Weltys skillful use of the style and
substance of the small-town southern experience in the storys extended conversations

The title Petrified Man refers to one of the oddities in a traveling freak show that has
stopped off in a small southern town. However, the title character never appears in
person, nor is he even the main topic in the conversation between Leota, a beautician,
and her customer, Mrs. Fletcher. The story takes place in a beauty shop, where Leota is
giving Mrs. Fletcher a shampoo and set. During the hour that it takes to complete the
process, the two women engage in what appears to be polite conversation. The external
action in Petrified Man is minimal; the real drama takes place in the dialogue.
Mrs. Fletcher strikes the first blow by suggesting that the permanent Leota gave her on a
previous visit may have made her hair fall out. Leota replies that the cause is more
likely to be Mrs. Fletchers being pregnant. Upon finding out that people are gossiping
about her, Mrs. Fletcher becomes furious. From that time on, she is defensive about her
own life and nasty about everyone whom Leota likes. Though she has never seen any of
them, she finds fault with Leotas new friend Mrs. Pike, with Mr. Pike, with a fortuneteller whom Leota has found, and even with the petrified man. Mrs. Fletcher is
especially irritated by Billy Boy, Mrs. Pikes rambunctious three-year-old son, who is
running loose in the beauty shop.
However, after Leota completes her story, Mrs. Fletcher feels better. It seems that Mrs.
Pike recognized the rapist pictured in one of Leotas magazines as the petrified man and
got a $500 reward for turning him in. Mrs. Pikes good fortune is more than Leota can
stand, and this time when little Billy misbehaves, she paddles him with a hairbrush.
Petrified Man differs from many of Weltys other works in that it does not end with a
reconciliation. Although Mrs. Fletcher is no longer angry with Leota, now Leota loathes
the Pikes. Little Billys final wisecrack reinforces what Leota now knows: that her life
has been one long disappointment.

Critics often describe this story as a study of the vulgarity or grotesquerie of modern

life, and certainly Eudora Welty uses the beauty parlor and the freak show here as
microcosms of small-town America. Leota, a stereotypical gossiping beautician, goads
her clientele into revealing their vanities and their pettiness. In the case of Mrs. Fletcher,
it embarrasses her that a stranger could detect that she is pregnant. Leota emerges as a
self-aggrandizing, basically cynical person whose care for her customers extends only
so far as it benefits her.
Mr. Petrie, the convicted rapist who has been masquerading at the freak show, is not the
only petrified man in Weltys story. Each male character, except for Billy Boy, is in
his own way a hardened or stale version of manhood, dominated in an unhealthy way by
the woman in his life. In the storys final scene, Welty leaves it to the bratty Billy Boy to
have the final word, a stinging rhetorical question about human motive. He is the only
character in the story capable of speaking without pretension or posture, and he clarifies
the storys theme. Basic human dignity easily gives way to ugly character assassination
when the self is placed at the center of relationships. Welty seems to be making the
point that no one in the story, females included, can rise above his or her shortsighted
and selfish ambitions.
The real freak show is located not in a traveling sideshow but in the very beauty parlor
where Leota holds forth, creating disguises and false identities for the women who seek
her magic. Thus, Welty strips away the veneer of respectability that distinguishes Leota
and Mrs. Fletcher from Mr. Petrie.

Disappointment
nd Mrs. Fletcher, her customer, gossip throughout most of the story. While at the start,
Leota is sassy and brags about her new friend, Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Fletcher doesn't like her
because she's telling people about her pregnancy. Leota will hear nothing bad said
against her new friend and fellow beautician. She talks about how cute Mrs. Pike is and
what sharp eyes she has.
However, later, when Mrs. Pike realizes that the petrified man they saw at the freak
show was wanted for rape by seeing an ad in Leota's magazine, she plans to collect her
$500. reward. Leota is disappointed that it was her magazine and so she should've
gotten the reward. She feels that Mrs. Pike took advantage by using Leota's magazine to
find out about the wanted petrified man. The next time Mrs. Fletcher comes in, Leota
isn't as complimentary of Mrs. Pike; in fact, her entire attitude has changed because she
feels that it wasn't fair of Mrs. Pike to do that.
Below you will find five outstanding thesis statements for Petrified Man by Eudora
Welty that can be used as essay starters or paper topics. All five incorporate at least
one of the themes in Petrified Man and are broad enough so that it will be easy to
find textual support, yet narrow enough to provide a focused clear thesis statement.
These thesis statements offer a short summary of Petrified Man by Eudora Welty in
terms of different elements that could be important in an essay. You are, of course, free
to add your own analysis and understanding of the plot or themes to them for your
essay. Using the essay topics below in conjunction with the list of important quotes from

Petrified Man at the bottom of the page, you should have no trouble connecting with
the text and writing an excellent essay.
Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #1: The Novelty of the Unknown in Petrified Man
In Eudora Weltys Petrified Man, the theme of the unknown runs throughout the story.
More specifically, it is the novelty of the unknown. This fascination begins with Leotas
obsession with her friend Mrs. Pike, and her desire to share herself and her past with the
other woman. However, the theme continues when the two women go to see the freak
show next door. Indeed, it seems as if Mrs. Pike frequents shows like those quite often.
Leota even begins seeing a fortuneteller who will divine her future for her. What is it
about the unknown that is so appealing to Leota? Why does she do everything possible
to take the mystery out of things?
Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #2: The Concept and Meaning of Satisfaction in
Petrified Man
In Eudora Weltys Petrified Man, the main character, Leota, is never satisfied. It comes
to light that she is still infatuated with her high school sweetheart, and that she finds her
husband Fred to be one big bad decision. She loves her friend, Mrs. Pike, until Mrs.
Pike discovers the identity of a wanted criminal and comes into a large sum of money,
which makes Leota jealous. Even when Billy Boy begins to irritate Leota, she overreacts in order to work out her frustrations towards Mrs. Pike. What do you think
Eudora Welty is saying about satisfaction? Do we decide when we are finally happy?
Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #3: Friendship in The Petrified Man
In the beginning of the story, it seems as if Mrs. Fletcher and Leota share a fragile
friendship that has grown from the length of Mrs. Fletchers patronage to Leota.
However, it soon becomes clear that Leota has found a new friend in her tenant Mrs.
Pike. Mrs. Pike knows things about Leota that even Mrs. Fletcher does not know, such
as her still fond thoughts towards the man she used to date. Although Mrs. Pike and
Leotas friendship warms quickly, it is also subject to cooling just as fast when Mrs.
Pikes fortunes improve. What can be said about the characters in this story and the way
in which they relate to one another? Is anyone really loyal to their friends, spouses or
even themselves?
Thesis Statement / Essay Topic #4: The Representation of Men in Petrified Man
In Eudora Welty's short story, Petrified Man, it seems as if the women in the story are
far more active than their male counterparts. Neither Mr. Pike nor Leotas Fred have
steady jobs, leaving the women to be the main breadwinners. Mrs. Fletcher claims that
Mr. Fletcher is wonderful, but it seems as if all of her actions are motivated by him,
although she is loathe to admit to it. Even the Petrified Man is inactive, hiding from the
police in a freak show where he pretends to be made of stone. Is the Petrified Man a
symbol for the other men in the story? Are they all so stunted by their inaction and
inferiority to their female others that they too, are becoming petrified" men?

Eudora Welty was born in Jackson, Mississippi on April 13, 1909. She graduated from
the University of Wisconsin in 1929. She finished her studies and returned home to
work as a radio writer, a newspaper editor, then as a photographer and interviewer for
the Depression-era Works Progress Administration. In 1931, she began to write fiction.
This lead to the publishing of "Death of a Traveling Salesman" in a small magazine.
Slowly, but surely more of her works began to become published. The story we studied

in class was published in 1941. "Petrified Man" was a short story that came from A
Curtain of Green.
The setting of the story is centered around a beauty parlor where we are introduced
to Leota and Mrs. Fletcher. Leota is the beautician and Mrs. Fletcher is her customer. In
this scene, we learn that Mrs. Fletcher is with child and she is not very happy about it.
She is very shocked that anyone has found out. Leota let it be known that it was Mrs.
Pike who informed her about Mrs. Fletcher's situation. Mrs. Fletcher doesn't know who
Mrs. Pike is nor has she been introduced to her. This scene paints the vivid picture of
how a beauty parlor is centered around gossip. Also, this is where Leota begins to
mention the "travellin' freak show" that she had attended with Mrs. Pike. This
discussion leads to the petrified man. The petrified man is someone that whatever he
eats makes him turn to stone. The ladies concluded that he can only turn his head from
side to side. After discussing the freak show, the ladies continue on with their gossip of
the men they are married to and other various topics.
The next time Mrs. Fletcher makes her visit to the parlor, it is more evident that she
is still distraught about her pregnancy and Leota, the beautician, has plenty on her mind
too. It is revealed since Mrs. Fletcher's last visit that a lot has went on between Leota
and Mrs. Pike. While at home, Mrs. Pike noticed the petrified man in a magazine as a
wanted man for the rape of four women. The reward was for a total of five hundred
dollars. Leota was livid about this issue because Mrs. Pike and saw it in the magazine
Leota owned. Mrs. Pike said that they had shared a house with Mr. Petrie, the petrified
man, in New Orleans. Leota questioned her about why didn't she recognize him while
they were at the freak show. Mrs. Pike replied, "I didn't recognize him with that white
powder all over his face. He just looked familiar." During her visit to the beauty parlor,
Mrs. Fletcher and Leota discussed this and came to the conclusion if they had shared a
place with him, that they had both felt something was peculiar about him. The story
concludes with Billy Boy, Mrs. Pike's son, receiving a spanking from the women in the
beauty parlor.
This short story by Eudora Welty reminds of the saying "Not everything is as it
seems." Even though Mrs. Fletcher is pregnant she believes that nobody could tell, until
it is told through town gossip. The women believed that the petrified man was just a
exhibit in the traveling freak show. In a strange turn of events, he isn't petrified at all.
He is actually just a criminal, a rapist in fact. Also, at the beginning of the story Leota
seems to be infatuated with Mrs. Pike. Then, later in the end Leota seems to be very
irritated over the reward money situation and the whole Pike family. This just shows
that you have to be very careful because things can always take a turn for the worse and
it is always best to keep your guard up.

The story is based on the dialogues between two principal characters; Leota as
beautician and Mrs. Fletcher as her customer. In the story; Leota, Mrs. Fletcher and the
other characters are not describe by narration. The reader follows and analyzes them
with their voices on dialogues. With these dialogues we find the chance to read and
analyze a great combination of dangerous gossiping, immatureness, jealousy,

materialism and conspiracy between the women in the story and these women
characters are the real version of the freak show that mentioned in the story. The story
starts and mostly takes place on the beauty shop that Leota runs and we see that the
conversation between Leota and Mrs. Fletcher based on gossiping since they are talking
about Mrs. Pike who is the roommate of Leota and her husband. Leota says: Mrs.
Pike is this lady from New Orleans (...) a friend, not a customer. () Mrs. Pike is a very
decided blonde. She has her a good time. Shes got a sharp eye out, Mrs. Pike has.
After that we see the conversation between these two ladies is not just an innocent
gossip
about Mrs. Pike. The conversation while Leota is arranging Mrs. Fletchers hair turns
into an action full of cruelty and conspiracy in it. Leota insistently claims that Mrs.
Fletchers hair is falling out and says: Well, you know what I heard in her yestiddy, one
of Thelmas ladies was settin over yonder in Thelmas booth gittin a machineless, and
I dont mean to insist or insist or insinuate o anything, Mrs. Fletcher, but Thelmas lady
just happmed to throw out - I forgotten what she was talkin about at the time -that you
was p-r-e- g., and lots of times thatll make your hair do awful funny, fall out and God
knows what all
Leota hurts Mrs. Fletcher by purpose with her gossip even she implies that her intention
is not bad. Turns out that Mrs. Pike is the gossiper, she sees Mrs. Fletcher when she was
drinking beer in a car with Leota and gets her pregnancy. We see the immature and
insincere part of Leotas character here. Even she looks like a responsible woman who
runs a beauty saloon, shes quite dishonest and even she seems very kind and decent to
Mrs. Fletcher; actually she acts as a hypocrite to her. Their friendship is quite fake and
based on idle of gossiping. Leotas friendship with Mrs. Pike is al so very unstable.
From the very beginning we see the big impression of Mrs. Pike on Leotas character.
Just like Leota, she is also a beautician but from New Orleans and also a sophisticated
city girl who is very fashionable and exotic according to Leotas dialogues. Throughout
the story Leota praises and envies to Mrs. Pike; she takes care of her child Billy Boy,
she obeys her words like rules. While they were talking about their relationships with
their husbands, Leota ends the conversation by saying Mrs. Pike says nothin like that
ever lasts.
She also believes desperately the fortuneteller that Mrs. Pike goes. Thats why we can
clearly say that Leota is quite uneducated as well as doesnt have any gifts. Also the
basic reason of her admiring to Mrs. Pike is because of her materialist character. Shes
quite materialist since she fascinates the car brand that Mrs. Pike uses and Mrs. Pike is a
New Orleans woman and her status is better than Leota. These facts affect Leota so
much to admire her but after Mrs. Pike sees the announcement on Leotas magazine and
win the five hundred dollars by turning petrified man from the freak show into the cops,
Leotas thoughts about mrs. Pike changes completely.
She believes that she and Fred must take the money that Mrs. Pike and Mr. Pike got.
Once she was admiring Mrs. Pike but when the money gets into the situation, Leota
reveals her materialistic monster from her inside and starts to despise Mrs. Pike and
Mrs. Fletcher starts to feel very glad about it. Even she is quite passive in the story since
Leota centered mostly herself on their conversations and dominates Mrs. Fletcher, she
likes chatting and gossiping emptily with her. When Leota gets close with Mrs. Pike she
gets very jealous since her dialogues are full of negativity and grumble: All I know is,

whoever it isll be sorry someday. Why I just barely know it myself!. But when Leota
starts to despise Mrs. Pike, Mrs. Fletcher gets happy since she was jealousing Mrs. Pike
and starts to giggling with her new fixed smile.
So the relationship between these women is very dishonest, full of competition, jealousy
and conspiracy. When Leota talks about the twins in the bottle from the travelling freak
show she says: An they had these two heads an two faces an four arms an four legs
an four legs, all kind of joined here. See, this face looked this-a-way, and the other face
looked that-a-way, over their shoulder, see. Kinda pathetic.
Leota finds pathetic them but actually she is the one who is pathetic since she acts very
immature and selfish throughout the story. They have fun on the freak show (except
Mrs. Fletcher since she despise freaks), they critize the physical appearance of freaks
and satisfies by looking at them but in the end, Welty shows us that they are the actual
freaks in the real life because of their shallowness, bad intentions and conspiracies on
their relationship. Characters are not describe by narration but their voices on their
speeches and the reader gets the idle of gossiping, conspiracy and dishonesty of the
female characters from these speeches. Also the freak show in the story is a big
metaphor to show how these characters are actually acting like freaks since they have a
great deal of cruelty and shallowness on their lives and relationships.

Set in a beauty parlor, it is presented almost entirely in grotesque comic dialogue.

Welty's uncanny ear for the distinctive rhythms and idioms of Southern speech is
obvious in the opening passages. The comic use of the grotesque comes through the
vulgarity of the beauty parlor as conveyed by colors lavender walls, henna-dyed hair,
women with scarlet lips and blood-red fingernails. The pivotal event concerns a freak
show complete with a two-headed baby in a jar, Negro pygmies, and a supposedly
petrified man who is in fact a disguised rapist.
`Petrified Man' is a complex story and stands as the fullest example among these
stories of Welty's comic gift with dialogue. Although not often discussed seriously by
critics, it is familiar because Welty has read it aloud to many audiences. Caedmon
Records produced a recording of her reading that brings to life all the magic of the
sound of Southern speech which readers may miss on the page. In this story Welty
manipulates the idioms of banal conversation to satirize the triviality but also to reveal
the darker undercurrents of ordinary women's lives.
The story's setting in a beauty parlor allows for close examination of a female
society devoted to rituals designed to arrest the destructive passage of time. Welty
describes it as a `den of curling fluid and henna packs' in which customers are `gratified'
in booths separated by lavender swinging doors. The `permanents' these ladies receive
are anything but lasting or salutary. Mrs Fletcher, for example, the customer who is one
of the two main characters, blames her falling hair on the way her beautician Leota
`cooked' her in the hair dryer after a previous permanent. Nevertheless, the beauty
parlor is a comic temple of female power where women come for comfort and
reassurance. One customer even insisted on stopping in for a shampoo and set on the
way to the hospital to have a baby. ` "Just wanted to look pretty while she was havin' her
baby, is all," said Leota airily. "Course, we was glad to give the lady what she was after
- that's our motto - but I bet a hour later she wasn't payin' no mind to them little end
curls" ' (CS, p. 24).

Leota's hardened perspective defines the underlying problem which the story
dramatizes in two episodes of Mrs Fletcher's weekly visits to the beauty parlor. Women
may try to control their bodies and preserve their looks, but men inevitably involve
them in the physical distortions and pain of pregnancy. `Petrified Man' is at its heart a
story about rape.
Each of the main characters assumes that she controls her husband and is
mistress of her fate, but each woman's confidence is mistaken. Mrs Fletcher is uneasily
pregnant for the first time and says she is tempted not to have the baby. When Leota
suggests that her husband might beat her on the head if she didn't, Mrs Fletcher
haughtily asserts that `Mr Fletcher can't do a thing with me.' Leota winks knowingly at
herself in the mirror, thinking obviously of how Mrs Fletcher got pregnant in the first
place. Leota is overconfident about her own husband Fred, who is unemployed and
spends his time fishing and drinking beer. She thinks he will obey her orders to go and
find work in another town, but instead he finds an excuse to postpone such exertion.
The shocking central event of the story, which happens offstage and is reported
by Leota to Mrs Fletcher when she returns for a second appointment, symbolically
underscores these women's vulnerability to the basic male threat of sexual attack which
lurks just outside the hounds of their comfortable lives. During Mrs Fletcher's first
appointment in the story, Leota has raved about her new friend Mrs Pike. This woman is
unusually observant and has guessed Mrs Fletcher's pregnant condition before it has
been made public. In the second part of the story, Mrs Fletcher learns that Leota has
turned against her new friend. Mrs Pike has used her perspicacity to see through the
disguise of the `Petrified Man' she and Leota observed at a travelling freak show. The
man is a fugitive rapist from California, with a price of five hundred dollars on his head,
and Mrs Pike has recognised his photograph in a crime magazine owned by Leota. Mrs
Pike wins the reward and Leota is jealous.
The revelation of Leota's pettiness and the superficiality of her regard for Mrs
Pike are minor points compared to the danger represented by the fraud in the freak
show. A man who seemed safe to the point of petrifaction, and whom Mr and Mrs Pike
had known as a benign neighbour in New Orleans, has assaulted at least four women in
the past and could easily continue his predations if he were to remain at large. The story
suggests that women in apparently civilized and peaceful communities cannot know
which men they encounter casually may be capable of sexual violence against them.
Mrs Pike is able to cause the rapist's capture, but the renegade element of male hostility
represented by the Pikes' little boy remains free to taunt the ladies in the final words of
the story and to suggest that he may grow up to be another dangerous man.

We only listen to Mr Fletcher and Liota. Male characters are on a third background, and
know about them through the women. Not even middle class: south America is a poor
place, theres not many echonomical activity.

GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLE

Hopewell has to take care of the farm. Mss Freemon depends on others jobs.
In none of the stories theres a sense that they live comfortably.