Eudora Welty's Life Choices

Life choices
Vincent (Wen Da) Zhan Have you had an adult influence your life choices as a child? Often, especially in today’s world, influences can come from many places: Parents, teachers, maybe even a certain strict librarian. Eudora Welty’s flashbacks to her childhood were no exception: The famous author’s successful career was clearly shaped and moulded by the adults who surrounded her, and through their actions made her into the person she is today. In an excerpt from her book One Writer’s Beginnings, Welty details how adults in her life, such as Mrs. Calloway, her librarian, impacted her choices and character. From her mother’s passionate love for reading, to her librarian’s iron rule on her beloved library, Welty reveals her own passions
Calloway, whose totalitarian regime over the books she loved forced her to demonstrate her willpower and bravery. With her “dragon eye on the front door”, she would glare at all the visitors to her library with a menacing, almost hostile air. Welty would describe her librarian as a personified dragon, a mythical beast capable of causing imperceivable amounts of of destruction to the existence of any mortal being. Through this rich imagery, Welty is able to cast her librarian in a negative light as well as foreshadow her role as an opponent to her love for reading. When Welty recalled that “she sent her strong eyes down the stairway to test you”, she reveals Mrs.Calloway’s judgemental personality, as well as he xenophobic impressions of outsiders. This anecdotes classifies her as the authoritarian dictator, whose reign of tyranny is imposed onto all whom trespass into her library. Mrs.Calloway’s apathetic hostility is offset,however, by the mention that “it made no difference to her that you’d read every word of it”; In spite of the confirmation of her apathy, her hostility has reason: Her strictness was to ensure the reader got the most out of the books they read, imprinting the information deeper within their minds. This care conflicts with Welty’s impatience, yet allows her to fully appreciate the books she reads. Due to Mrs. Calloway’s actions, Welty develops a sense of bravery in approaching
Welty states, “I was willing. I would do anything to read.” in relation to Mrs. Calloway’s strictness. Through this sentence, Welty quickly establishes that her love for reading is greater than the challenges she has to bypass in order to accomplish that objective, and she was more than willing to partake in those ordeals if it meant accomplishing her goals. Welty’s impatience is demonstrated when she “wanted to read immediately”, her speed limited only by the two library books she is allowed to check out from the library a day. Finally, her statement that “Taste isn't nearly so important, it comes in its own time”, reveals her naivety. This naivety, which can be classified as a youthful, undirected yet powerful interest, is crucial to her future development as a writer, exposing her young mind to ideas of all kinds. Overall, Welty herself is a brilliant asset to her future: Her interests coincide perfectly with her career, allowing the seeds of the future to be planted in the