The Optimist's Daughter: Parts 3 & 4
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May 2 • 1HR 0M
The Optimist's Daughter: Parts 3 & 4
Close Reads is a book-club podcast for the incurable reader. Featuring David Kern, Tim McIntosh and Heidi White, alongside a couple of other occasional guests, we read Great Books and talk about them. This is a show for amateurs in the best sense. We’re book lovers, book enthusiasts. This is not an experts show and it’s barely literary analysis in the way that literary analysis is commonly understood. Instead it’s a show about experiences with literary urge. Join us!
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What’s up with the birds? Is Fay even more despicable than we initially considered? Is the ending hopeful? Join David, Heidi, and Sean as they discuss these—and many other—questions on this week’s discussion of Eudora Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter. Happy listening!
The Optimist's Daughter: Parts 3 & 4
I was just finally listening to this podcast and David’s reference at the end about the children’s hands ‘twinkling’ made a connection for me that I hadn’t caught when I was reading it: is there a heartening back to the judge seeing the twinkling in the fig tree? 🤷♀️ I haven’t contemplated this enough yet to know if that’s a stretch; it just struck me as I was listening.
Some shorter thoughts on The Optimist's Daughter:
On page 159 there is a confluence of waters, the Ohio and the Mississippi. Laurel is dreaming she is with Phil. Those two rivers could easily be Styx (the dread river of oath) and Lethe (the river of oblivion and forgetfulness).
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In her dream, Laurel is with Phil and thinks, “we’re going to live forever”—
Left bodiless and graveless of a death made of water and fire in a year long gone, Phil could still tell her of her life. For her life, any life she had to believe, was nothing but the continuity of its love. (160)
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On page 162 Phil dies from a kamikaze -- like a bird swooping down. Like the pigeons that Laurel is so afraid of.
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Page 168 the bird escapes as Laurel is struck in the face by either the bird or the wind. It is like the Holy Spirit (which is often characterized by wind, a dove, or fire). Page 169, Laurel burns the papers in the driveway.
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Fay is a spirit, a fairy—sometimes evil. The word comes from the Latin “fata” which means “fate” or “destiny.” Fay can also mean “faith” (obsolete) or “pretentious.” One can see that Fay represents the future of a society that doesn’t accept sacrifice or suffering.
In contrast, Laurel’s name is infused with a deeper Christian meaning. Laurels can symbolize the resurrection, and in some cultures laurel branches are substituted for palms to remember the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem before the Last Supper, Passion, and crucifixion. Laurels are also an emblem of prosperity and fame, and the crown of laurels is placed on the head of a victor (think Caesar’s busts).
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The hibiscus is a flower associated with happiness and good luck.