characters who are deprived of something and are living on the edge of life. They view
this lifestyle not as a social issue, but as product of humanity. They have no desire for
standing within the community, riches or power, however they merely aspire for love and
companionship. Her character?s stand at many different places on the latter of success,
however they share a common hunger for love.(Jones 482) Welty has mastered the art of
walking the tightrope. She performs the amazing balancing act of accenting the tenderness
and brutality which can live in the hearts of humanity. (Harris 464)
In ?Flowers for Marjorie?, Welty mystifies the reader and leads them on a journey
which is indistinguishable from reality or fantasy. She brilliantly entangles Howard?s
violent dream of killing his wife into a precession of ironic events. The reader is led on a
journey, unsure if it is really happening or if it is Howard?s mind running wild. However,
in the end reality prevails and his wife?s dead body is the only reliable truth. (Hardy 487)
The descriptive details are not especially grisly; she understates, as always. But, the
blood-terror is unmistakably evoked and the terror of the inexplicable permeates the
pages. (Hardy 487) Some critics argue that Welty?s tactical scheme in ?Flowers for
Marjorie? results in a irritating parody. The sequence of ironic events and disarray of
symbols in the story produces confusion. Placing the reader in an unrealistic fantasy world.
(Hardy 487) ?The Hitch-Hikers?, unlike ?Flowers for Marjorie?, is not impaired by irony
and illusion. Welty furnishes the reader with a simple bizarre plot which leads up to a
mysterious conclusion. (Hardy 487) Welty surpasses the imagination of most authors
through her perseverance of hope which embodies the characters. This hope leads to the
ability of concrete matter to overcome and endure through the death of their users.
(Hardy 488). In ?Flowers for Marjorie?, a bouquet of dying flowers instantly become
alive again as the small girls run to put them in their hair. (Hardy 488)
Welty?s writing embody many racial undertones, however she masks this motif by
emphasizing the presence of African American humanity. She has mastered the art of
delicately capitalizing the concept that African American?s are the source of many spiritual
barricades. Nevertheless, she fails to recognize that these burdens are collateral to the
history and culture of the white man. (Hardy 488).
The works of these two great authors have presented people of present and past
with different outlooks on death through style, themes, and motive. Although their views
are distinctly personal, they both tackle the essence of mans greatest fear and fascination.
Their views represent a certain era of history which deserves to be passed down from
generation to generation through their words. Jack London and Eudora Welty engage in a
battle to help people fathom the unfathomable mystery of death. They have become the
trailblazer?s in the journey to explore the winding backroads ?Death? has traveled.
843
Geismar, Maxwell. ?Jack London: The Short Cut.? Rebels and Ancestors: The American Novel
1890-1915 1953: Rpt. in Short Story Criticism Ed. Thomas Votteler. vol.4. Detroit:
Gale Research Company, 1990. 264-7.
Glenn, Eunice. ?Fantasy in the Fiction of Eudora Welty.? Critics and Essays on Modern Fiction:
Representing the Achievment of Modern American and British Critics 1920-1951 1952:
506-17. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism Eds. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald.
vol.1. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988. 470-3.
Hardy, John Edward. ?The Achievement of Eudora Welty.? Southern Humanities Review vol. 2.
No. 3 Summer; 1968: 269-78. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism Eds. Laurie Lanzen Harris
and Sheila Fitzgerald. vol.1. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988. 487-8.
Harris, Laurie Lanzen and Sheila Fitzgerald. ?Eudora Welty.? Short Story Criticism vol.1.
Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988. 464-5.
Jones, Alun R. ?The World of Love: The Fiction of Eudora Welty.? The Creative Present: Notes
on Contemporary American Fiction 1963: Rpt. in Short Story Criticism Eds. Laurie Lanzen
Harris and Sheila Fitzgerald. vol.1. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1988.