Walnut Knobs In Georgeann's Rose-Johnny

In the story Rose-Johnny, we can see that there are different type of perspectives and altitudes towards one another amongst the town of Walnut Knobs. Walnut Knobs is rural southern town which in fact was filled with hatred and prejudice especially in the story setting, the nineteen fifties. The townspeople clearly did not appreciate weird different woman like Rose-Johnny that worked at Walls Feed store. Rumors of Rose-Johnny were heavy circulated amongst the townspeople. Although such rumors were that Rose-Johnny was a pervert and also a lesbian, Georgeann, the innocent ten year old pushed them aside. The ten year old narrator says that their “mothers warned them time and again not to go near them” (p.98 p2). However due to the growing curiosity fueled by the universal forbiddance to go near and speak to Rose-Johnny, Georgeann bravely befriends Rose-Johnny. It was almost like a personal dare which really turned into finding out the truth about Rose-Johnny.
This was because Georgeann found out the truth; the rumors were not what they seemed to be. Georgeann described Rose-Johnny that “she was not, as we always heard, half man and half woman.” (p.99 p4) The half man and half woman is a rumor that the townspeople said about Rose-Johnny like she was some sort of unknown creature. Georgeann was “astonished by Rose-Johnny’s ordinariness.” (p.99 p4) Georgeann defended Rose-Johnny with the weird looking lady rumors. She said that it is true that Rose-Johnny wore Red Wing Boots, but the rest of her looks like anybody’s mother “in a big flowered dress without a waistline and with two faded spots in front.” (p99