Flannery O'Connor once said: "Whenever I am asked why Southern writers have a particular penchant for writing about monsters, I say that it is because we are always able to recognize one. In the brilliant short story The Ponder Heart, the central character of Uncle Daniel Ponder, played by Eudora Welty, another great southern writer of the 20th century, is undeniably a "monster" in the sense that he stands out within society from his small town in Mississippi. No one in the prestigious Ponder family really knows what to do with him. Uncle Daniel is a lovable simpleton who recklessly gives away family possessions to friends and strangers. He does not understand how to behave within the simple, structured society of Clay, Mississippi, and as a result his actions disrupt the town's entire way of life, even though everyone enjoys his pure-hearted company and his innocent nature. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay This story is told in the form of a humorous porch monologue narrated by Daniel's niece, Miss Edna Earle Ponder. Although years younger than her uncle, Edna Earle is an intelligent and capable woman who acts as his guardian angel. Aside from running the Beulah Hotel in town – which Uncle Daniel himself gave her – Edna Earle's deep, protective affection for her uncle keeps her busy fighting to protect his innocent spirit and return him happy. She says of herself: “I am the intermediary, that’s what I am, between my family and the world. I almost never find a word for myself. For nearly two hundred pages, she regales her unknown listener – apparently a stranger to Clay and a guest at the Beulah Hotel – with the misadventures of Uncle Daniel, while offering him an amusing insight into the inhabitants and society of her little town in Mississippi. from her uncle, Edna Earle is single. Her late grandfather raised her and sees his role as caring for Uncle Daniel - who, as heir to the large Ponder estate, must be protected from himself and society usually, lest it cause irreparable damage to the family name and fortune. Besides Uncle Daniel, Edna Earle is the only remaining Ponder and is therefore responsible not only for her uncle, but also for the honor and reputation of Ponder in general - and indeed, for the good of the entire town, since his distinguished family is key to the clay economy. In addition to managing the Beulah Hotel, the Ponders also own the bank and are owners of land and a large fortune. Uncle Daniel becomes heir to it all after Grandpa Ponder's untimely death, but because of his habit of recklessly giving away his belongings, the whole town colludes to prevent him from knowing exactly how much he really owns. . living within society - particularly in the changing society of the American South in the 20th century. The Ponders represent an old Civil War family with respectability, wealth, and social stature. Edna Earle and Uncle Daniel are the only remaining members of this proud lineage. Their antithesis is the Peacock family, whose uncle Daniel gets married at random (his father drops dead upon hearing the news). The Peacocks represent the over-educated and under-educated backwoods families who begin to vitally change life in the South during this period. Edna Earle regards the Peacocks with thinly veiled disgust. According to her, they are the kind of people who breed indiscriminately, leave watermelon rinds on the palace lawnjustice for others to clean them up, accept favors without gratitude, and spend the little money they earn senselessly on senseless purchases for which they have no use. They are simply what the Southern elite would call “white trash” – and their presence threatens the survival of the Southern aristocratic way of life. Edna Earle understands this, but she loves Uncle Daniel so much that she will do anything to make him happy. What she feels obligated to preserve - the last threads of her family prestige - her lovable idiot uncle methodically undermines with his crazy generosity, his failed marriage to Miss Teacake Magee, and finally, his second marriage to a ten-year-old airhead. seven years. -old Bonnie Dee Ponder, which ends in total disaster when Bonnie Dee is found dead and Uncle Daniel is framed for her murder. Eudora Welty's Simple Yarn is, on the surface, a random, disconnected comedic monologue, a ridiculous story about ridiculous people and the situations they find themselves in. There is, however, a much deeper level to this story. Beneath the surface, it's a tragic look at the Old South in its final days, a time when everything is moving and changing. The Peacocks are an example of the group making this change. Edna Earle and others like her view them as quiet invaders of the Old South. Another changing dynamic developing during this period was that of relations between white Southerners and African Americans. Although slavery had long been abolished and the Thirteenth Amendment granted blacks equal voting rights, memories of the pre-Civil War South were still strong, and racism and prejudice were still driving forces within the culture. The Africans in this story, such as the servant Narciss and the fool Big John, are depicted as ignorant and foolish, unable to communicate and living on the fringes of society. Blacks enjoyed little respect from most Southerners during this period, but legally they had all the rights of white men. This tightrope is walked in The Ponder Heart, as Big John is called to testify in Uncle Daniel's trial. Whereas a hundred years earlier, the words of a black man on the witness stand would not have been highly appreciated, in Edna Earle's time in Clay County, Big John's slow words could incriminate his beloved uncle on murder charges. This is certainly a big transition, and it's one that Edna Earle, with her scathing description of the unintelligent witness and her words, clearly does not approve of. In the midst of all this turmoil, change and class conflict, against a backdrop of societal pretension and falsehood, the reader of The Ponder Heart meets Uncle Daniel. In all his naive innocence, Daniel Ponder is a wealthy, upper-class Southern gentleman from an aristocratic family. He is, as he knows very well, “rich as Croesus” and loved by the whole city. He has everything in his favor. And so Welty creates the only situation in which such a privileged man would do the things that Uncle Daniel does: she gives him the mind of a small child. Uncle Daniel is not crazy. He is just completely innocent. While Edna Earle turns her nose up a bit when it comes to rogue peacocks and their offspring, Uncle Daniel herself marries Miss Bonnie Dee Peacock. No one in town has any respect for poor Big John, but Uncle Daniel enjoys his company and considers him a friend. In a materialistic society built on a class system – a society that values ​​wealth, possessions and prestige above almost everything – Uncle Daniel is not even informed of the true extent of his possessions because he distributes them with joy to all those he wishes...