23 pages • 46 minutes read
Eudora WeltyA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“A Visit of Charity” is one of 17 stories in A Curtain of Green, Welty’s first book. These stories are known for their empathy and close attention to detail. In “A Visit of Charity,” Welty invites the reader to consider the meaning of a charitable act. The main character, Marian, is more concerned with earning Campfire Girl points than spending time with two elderly women. Upon arriving at the “Old Ladies’ Home,” she notices the “prickly dark shrubs” (137). These shrubs foreshadow trouble ahead. The home itself is like a block of ice, a cold and inhospitable place. The reader senses more trouble when the nurse who greets Marian shows little concern for her. She later closes her in a room with two quarrelsome older women.
To Marian, Addie looks and sounds like a sheep, and the other woman seems bird-like, with claws for hands. Their room is tiny and dark, crowded with too much furniture. Marian is shocked by the living conditions. When the women ask her name and what she does at school, Marian is so stunned by their situation that she can’t answer. She tells them she can’t stay, but they ignore her. She almost reveals that bringing flowers to the home merits an extra point toward her badges. If she had brought a Bible and read to them, her points would have doubled. She stops short, knowing she shouldn’t mention this and sensing they wouldn’t listen to her anyway.
The longer Marian is in the room with the women the more trapped she feels. When the woman in the rocker touches her, Marian likens the woman’s hand to a clinging, sticky petunia leaf. Everything in the room is damp, from the floor to the furniture. Marian’s sense of isolation grows, especially when the women argue. But when Marian learns it’s Addie’s birthday, she becomes interested. A birthday is something Marian can relate to. She begins to identify with Addie. She pays close attention to Addie’s face and sees her as more than a feeble, old woman. Now Addie is someone like her who celebrates things like birthdays. She asks Addie how old she is, and Addie begins to cry, surprising Marian. She identifies with another person for the first time in her life. Her ability to connect emotionally with another human is a pivotal point in the story.
Marian’s interest in Addie doesn’t last long. When Marian points out to the woman in the rocker that Addie’s crying, the woman is unmoved. She says, “That’s Addie for you” (142). Marian’s connection with Addie disappears, and any compassion she had for her is gone. She leaps up, moving toward the door. The woman stands, clutching Marian, and pleads with her for money, Marian frees herself without saying anything and runs down the hall past the nurse. When the nurse invites her to stay for dinner, Marian leaves without replying.
Marian arrives at the home to gather points for her Campfire Girl badges. She tells the nurse who greets her, “I’m a Campfire Girl [...] I have to pay a visit to some old lady” (137). It seems that she thought it would be easy to offer a potted plant and gather points. But, after meeting the women and seeing their depressing living conditions, Marian learns being charitable is not easy. She is shocked by the ill-tempered nature of the women and the crowded, damp room they inhabit. To her, the women are like animals; it’s as if she’s visiting a zoo rather than a home for the elderly.
In only a few pages, Welty questions the idea of charity and asks the reader to consider the nature of a charitable act. Even though she identifies briefly with Addie, Marian is ultimately repulsed by the women. She shows little compassion for their plight. After her visit, she races out of the building. She does not reply to the nurse when she invites her to stay for dinner. She yells for a bus to stop and let her on. When she boards the bus, she bites into the apple she saved for herself. She has no thought of how one of the women might have enjoyed it. All her actions turn out to be those of self-interest or perhaps grudging duty, rather than those of true charity.
By Eudora Welty