The Optimist's Daughter, Part II, Chps. 1 - 4

As I said, this book would not have been my choice to lead off this experiment. It is not that I find it difficult reading - I am just not all that compelled to pick it up once I have put it down. But big thanks to my friends at OTB for their encouragement, since so many of them were so excited by the idea.

Part II:

Part II is dominated by the return of Judge McKelva to his home - for the wake and the funeral.

These scenes will be familiar to anyone who has lost a loved one, especially for any child who has lost a parent. On the day after my father passed away, his entire family (at least the feminine part of it, anyway) - sisters, sisters-in-law, nieces - all descended upon our home, to clean, mostly, and cook. To console in their own way. It was a nice gesture, in its way, but to some extent an intrusion, too. Still, it is an example of the kind of dynamics that surround mourning, which Welty illustrates in this section. While clearly deeply rooted in her Southern upbringing, these scenes have a universal feel to them.

The section is dominated by two moments - one, the arrival of Fay's family, the Chisom's. It is fairly apparent, even before the narrator tells us:

Laurel closed her eyes, in the recognition of what had made the Chisoms seem familiar to her. They might have come out of that night in the hospital waiting room - out of all times of trouble, past or future - the great, interrelated family of those who never know the meaning of what has happened to them...

that the family is the New Orleans hospital are a warning of things to come. Fay had lied to Laurel earlier, claiming all of her relatives were dead and at first, she does not seem pleased to see them. But, by the end of the section, she is taking an impromptu trip to Texas with them because she wants to be with people who "speak her language." Much of that language is regarding her prospective inheritance of the McKelva home.

The second scene that dominates is during the viewing that takes place in the home. Again, anyone who has ever attended a wake will recognize the story-telling of the recently departed that takes place here. But Laurel is particularly perturbed by some of the stories being shared by Major Bullock, an old friend of her father's. She thinks he is spreading a false impression of her father, as a man prone to dramatics and grandiosity. She insists her father really was modest. She feels her father's life is more in danger now, in death, as being portrayed differently than it was.

As an aside, I think that this is both an interesting and true comment - the lives of those who died are left up to how those who left perceive them, even if the one who has passed on has left some legacy - written or otherwise. And in a sense, their "true" lives are in danger since the tendency is either to deify or demonize. However, that is also certainly part of the ritual of death, especially during that period immediately following a loss. Laurel's struggle to have her father perceived "truly" is understandable but a bit of a lost cause at the wake. And, in any case, there is no reason to believe that Laurel's perceptions of the Judge are any truer than Major Bullock's.

As stated, the house is becoming a bone of contention. Additionally, we are getting some glimpse into Laurel’s mother, Becky. She had a closed casket, for some mysterious reason not yet named. And she is the one that Laurel can envision taking on the KKK, in direct and dramatic fashion, not the Judge (as was the point of Major Bullock's story).