In answer to a student who wrote to ask her "Is the grandson really dead?" Welty responded, "My best answer would be: Phoenix is alive." What might have led the student to ask that question? How can the author's remark be seen as an answer?
Heh, boy did we have fun with this one in our small group. Well, the question was certainly on everyone's mind. What led the reader to believe the grandson was dead was primarily the unresponsiveness of Phoenix as the attendant asks her if he has died. What gives this some ambiguity is that Phoenix claims he's alive and she only, in her old age, forgot his state. Yet, as the encounter with the hunter shows after she took his nickel that she's certainly wily enough to craft her way through most situations. It's all ambiguous up in hurr. The author's remark is "her best answer" and by not answering the question that is focused on the grandson, then turning attention back to Phoenix, would be her tongue-in-cheek way of saying that whether the grandson is dead or not isn't all that important. It's the theme conveyed by Phoenix and her quest that makes the story what it is.
Truth.
YOU'RE the truth.
ReplyDeleteSo are you saying that Phoenix is lying about the boy being dead in order to get the medicine or that she's demented and convinced herself that he's alive even though he isn't?
Also, I feel like you always comment on my most boring blog post, which puzzles me, but that's neither here nor there.