One Writer's Beginnings Rhetorical Analysis
Coping Mechanism
Confronting the truth often reveals painful realities. In “One Writer’s Beginnings,” Eudora Welty details her very sheltered life. Afraid of any dangers that may affect her, Welty’s parents attempted to shield her from the world around her. Welty’s mother made the world around her seem more dangerous. As a byproduct of her sheltered youth, Welty reveals the truth in a palatable manner. She spends considerable effort making the truth non-painful. Every person copes with pain and loss differently. In many ways, Welty hides from the truth or at least protects herself from it by detaching herself from reality. Through context, clever word choice, and rhetorical devices, Welty compares and contrasts how she confronts pain compared with her parents, revealing a greater truth about humanity’s ability to cope due to upbringing and life experiences. Despite living a sheltered life with relatively low risk, Eudora Welty has experienced great loss and pain in her life. In 1931, leukemia claimed her father’s life. When her father lay there in pain and agony, she stood there watching, helpless to stop the pain. Welty watched as her mother tried to save her father’s life with a blood transfusion. She witnessed the blood transfusion go horribly wrong, and her father die before her very eyes. She lived through seeing her mother become frail and weak with age, “lying helpless and nearly blind” (52). In her long life, Welty has witnessed all of these tragic events happen to the people she loved and had to learn to cope. Welty’s methods of coping with the pain reveal fascinating things about her and the effects of her upbringing. While Welty’s statements and words provide great insight into her thoughts, what she does not write has almost, if not more, value. She never directly describes how the loss of her parents affected her emotionally. After her father’s death, she makes no mention of how the loss impacted her or hurt her. Clearly she respected and
Confronting the truth often reveals painful realities. In “One Writer’s Beginnings,” Eudora Welty details her very sheltered life. Afraid of any dangers that may affect her, Welty’s parents attempted to shield her from the world around her. Welty’s mother made the world around her seem more dangerous. As a byproduct of her sheltered youth, Welty reveals the truth in a palatable manner. She spends considerable effort making the truth non-painful. Every person copes with pain and loss differently. In many ways, Welty hides from the truth or at least protects herself from it by detaching herself from reality. Through context, clever word choice, and rhetorical devices, Welty compares and contrasts how she confronts pain compared with her parents, revealing a greater truth about humanity’s ability to cope due to upbringing and life experiences. Despite living a sheltered life with relatively low risk, Eudora Welty has experienced great loss and pain in her life. In 1931, leukemia claimed her father’s life. When her father lay there in pain and agony, she stood there watching, helpless to stop the pain. Welty watched as her mother tried to save her father’s life with a blood transfusion. She witnessed the blood transfusion go horribly wrong, and her father die before her very eyes. She lived through seeing her mother become frail and weak with age, “lying helpless and nearly blind” (52). In her long life, Welty has witnessed all of these tragic events happen to the people she loved and had to learn to cope. Welty’s methods of coping with the pain reveal fascinating things about her and the effects of her upbringing. While Welty’s statements and words provide great insight into her thoughts, what she does not write has almost, if not more, value. She never directly describes how the loss of her parents affected her emotionally. After her father’s death, she makes no mention of how the loss impacted her or hurt her. Clearly she respected and