AGENDA:
If Wishes Were Horses: Amy Bonnefons
Eudora Welty:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1963/07/06/where-is-the-voice-coming-from
https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2014/marchapril/feature/the-quiet-greatness-eudora-welty
https://www.enotes.com/topics/where-voice-coming-from
https://www.enotes.com/topics/where-voice-coming-from
Where is the Voice Coming From?
A major strength of the story is the speaker’s voice, rich in local dialect, which also reveals him as uneducated and self-righteous. A proud man, he feels himself betrayed by everything in which he has believed. Clearly, he is a man overwhelmed by a growing movement he does not comprehend and cannot prevent. By allowing this narrator to tell his own story, Welty does not treat him as a stereotypical villain but presents him with understanding and even a certain level of compassion.
The credibility of the story is increased by passing references to historical persons, including Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi; Caroline Kennedy, the young daughter of then-president John F. Kennedy; and James Meredith, the African American student whose enrollment integrated the University of Mississippi. In addition, sensory details are plentiful. When the narrator describes his early morning journey to Summers’s neighborhood, he offers a litany of typical street and business names, locating the familiar railroad tracks and the lighted bank sign that gives the time and temperature. He notes the brutal heat, even at night; the intense emotional pressure that he experiences; and his sudden relief when Roland Summers falls.
Perhaps the most obvious symbol is the gun. Although the gun bestows temporary power on a powerless man, the narrator tells his wife that he threw his rifle in the weeds because the barrel was scorching hot and because there was really nothing worth holding on to anymore. At the story’s end, he has replaced the gun with his old guitar, an enduring part of his own past, while he plays and sings “a-Down” to comfort himself—a mindless refrain and a foreshadowing, for now he, not Roland Summers, is going down.
Reading questions:
DISCUSS. Think, Pair, Share Post a summary comment for your group
1. The opening two lines of the story accomplish two literary purposes: first, they characterize the narrator, and secondly, they set the tone of the story. Explain how these brief lines achieve both.
2. Why is the narrator nameless? Give him a name and explain your choice with references to the text. What is the significance of Roland Summers’s name?
3. As we discussed before we read, this story contains inflammatory language. How many instances did you underline? Why is this language used in the story?
4. Throughout the story, the criticisms leveled at Roland Summers by the narrator reveal a deeper emotion. Look at passages like: “And his street’s paved.” “There on his paved driveway, yes sir.” “It was mighty green where I skint over the yard getting back. That nigger wife of his, she wanted nice grass! I bet my wife would hate to pay her water bill.” What do all of these statements tell us about what Roland Summers has and the narrator does not? What emotion does this create within the narrator?
5. When you read, you highlighted the story for references to “hot” or “heat.” What effect does Welty’s use of this motif create in the story? What is the literary term for this technique?
6. The story’s narrator mentions a mockingbird. When does he do so? Where is the bird? When does it stop singing? What does the narrator mean by saying, “I was like him. I was on top of the world myself. For once.” How else is the narrator like the mockingbird? How do his references to the mockingbird contribute to the characterization of the narrator?
7. What is the name of this town? What is the historical allusion? What does this suggest about the political and social climate in the town? In the narrator’s mind, how is this name appropriate to his situation? The story also alludes to important events in the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Do Summers’s television appearance and the demonstration the narrator describes downtown refer to actual events? If so, what were they?
8. What is the relationship between the narrator and his wife? How does her criticism add to his characterization?
9. By the end of the story, how does the narrator feel? What is his plan? Why do you think Welty chose this conclusion?
10. What is the significance of the title of the story? Other titles that Welty considered were “It Ain’t Even July Yet”; “Voice from an Unknown Interior”; “From the Unknown” and “A Voice from the Jackson Interior.” Was the one she selected the best choice? Can you answer the question in the title? Where is this “voice” coming from?
Karina Le, Isabella Watts, Tamaron McKnight, Deja Simmons
ReplyDeleteThe short story, “Where is the Voice Coming From?” by Eudora Welty, follows the The two literary purposes are achieved with the simple lines of “I says to my wife, ‘You can reach and turn it off. You don’t have to set and look at a black nigger face no longer than you want to, or listen to what you don’t want to hear. It’s still a free country.’ I reckon that’s how I give myself the idea” (481) through the use of dialect in the narrator’s voice, making it apparent that the narrator may come from a southern part of America (as seen from the “says”) and with the use of the n-word signifies the possibility that the narrator’s racist, and with how the narrator mentions that “it’s still a free country” despite the fact that . The second line (“I reckon that’s how I give myself the idea”) creates an ominous tone that seems to give the audience a clue in what could possibly happen.
However, that is not the most fascinating part of the story, but of how the narrator never takes the moment to describe himself throughout the story, and that the only information we get about him is through inferences of his character. We figure he’s a racist white Southern (most likely uneducated) through his voice and dialect, and how he feels about the black face on the television. We don’t even know his name, as the narrator himself states how the most the public knows of him “The best that newspaper could do for me was offer a five-hundred-dollar reward for finding out who I am” (485) which is basically: nothing. But for the sake of things, let’s just randomly throw around a random name like, I don’t know, Byron. So Byron makes several references to other happenings around the time of the murder, like the fact that the NAACP is big during the time, as it was a time of racial tensions between white and black Americans. There’s also the reference to the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan through “Nathan B. Forrest Road”, and through the descriptions of it. All of it was to build the environment of “Thermopylae”. Roland Summers, the victim, is significant as well, as he is the representation of the murder of Medgar Evers that had happened the night of the story.
In the grand scheme of the story, Welty wrote in anger about an event of great prejudice. She wrote a narrator that was supposed to represent the nature of the environment she lived around all of her life, and it shows in the way her language is so blatant in characterizing the narrator as an uneducated, racist man. She enhances this through various allusions to both the NAACP and Nathan B. Forrest. In the end, the “Voice” in reference to the title is the voice of hatred that we see through the narrator, and how it can consume a person within its “heat”.
The short story 'Where is the Voice Coming From' is based on the murder of Medgar Evers. When she learned of his murder, she wrote it in the perspective of the murderer to show just how vile and haunting the murderer's actions were. She wrote it in the first person to show the true disgust in this person's mind and why problems of race and class were getting worse. In a way, her 'risky' move proved a point both as a writer and activist. Writing in this perspective highlighted that the racism and hatred needed to end as the tension and acts of violence got worse. She did not shy away from the bitter truth of the racist who killed Roland Summers, although she didn't name who he was. I believe she didn't name the narrator both for not realizing information that would affect the case, but also by leaving the narrator nameless it allows the reader to guess. Not putting the narrator's name and leaving his identity ambiguous showed that this racist and murderer could have, or could be anyone. This style of writing also leads to the title of the story, 'Where is the Voice Coming From' is her analyzing all that had happened wondering herself who it was that committed such a horrendous crime. Though we don't know the narrator's name, we do get to read all of his thoughts for what they are. We see how he acts towards his life with disdain as if he is the 'victim' or the one who is genuinely suffering. The delusional hatred is all too real, a lot because it was. The realism was shocking and also believable which was the point of her writing this. It showed there could be no more ignoring or ignorance towards the problems everyone was facing from the racial bias.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe author manages to write a story from the point of view of a murder who took down a civil rights activist. The news will cover the man who was shot and the man who shot him. The narrator doesn’t take a moment in the story to describe himself. Usually in a story we know key details about the narrator but the reader can only make inferences based on the narrator's actions. The reader figures he is just a typical racist Southerner. There is a lot about this story that the reader doesn’t know allusions are made using the NCAAP. Even though this story is wrote in anger it explores the other side of the shooting, the reader has a natural sympathy for the victim but now a connection is created through the shooter.
Jocelyn & Sammy
ReplyDeleteKyra Majewski and Alexander Christie
The first lines work to characterize he narrator as they clearly identify him as a white man in the racist south. He is disgruntled, most likely poor and unhappy with the changing times. This sets the tone of the story as well as it displays his motives for his later acts of racist atrocity and hatred. On multiple occasions, the unnamed narrator uses highly offensive language towards black people, conveying anger, ignorance, and hatred, being the motives for the murder. The narrator is often portrayed as envious of Roland Summers as a result of his nicer property. He frequently references his paved street and driveway and his nice lawn, demonstrating that the narrator is most likely poor, angry that a black man has more than him. At the end of the novel, the narrator is almost preparing for the end as he sings and plays the song “A-Down,” symbolic that he too will soon go down for what he did. He replaces the gun in his hand with a guitar from his past, as if he is preparing for his end. He seems content with himself, however, as he was able to accomplish what he set out to do.
Frank Cruz and Dan'Nae Palmer
ReplyDeleteThe initial lines characterize the narrator as a racist white male most likely living the southern region of the United States. This sets the tone and also displays the narrator's views and ideas that influence his later actions. The narrator finds himself consistently using highly offensive and derogatory language towards black people in his area, displaying openly his hatred of black people. This hatred is what fueled him to murder Roland because of his jealousy.