The Narrative Study Of The Optimist’s Daughter

Eudora Welty is known as the “Chekhov” of American literature.Her novel The Optimist’s Daughter tells the story of the old judge Mckelva who needs surgery due to eye disease,and her daughter Laurel has to spend time with her stepmother Fay,whom she has been deliberately avoiding.Her father claimed to be an optimist,but he never recovered after the surgery.Just after the funeral of the old judge,the wayward Fay left,leaving Laurel to organize the belongings alone.In this home filled with memories,her parents’ belongings brought her back to that beautiful,happy and cruel time in the past.The power drawn from memories made her ultimately decide to bury the past,and be optimistic like her father.There are not many real-life events in the novel,and the writer uses the character’s memories to condense the “ups and downs”of the life into a few pages.In order to convey a message to readers: how ordinary people should solve the problem of life and death,as well as the difficulties of loneliness and despair.Based on narrative theory,this thesis interprets The Optimist’s Daughter to deepen the understanding of Welty’s narrative techniques.The main body of the thesis is divided into three parts: firstly,the novel alternates between internal and external perspectives.Occasionally,external perspectives are used to interfere with narrative beyond boundaries,revealing the inner world of characters,and confirming the objectivity of the external perspectives.Sometimes from an inner perspective,the narration focuses on the main characters,enhancing the authenticity and appeal of the work.The constant conversion of internal and external perspectives in the novel makes the narration of the novel dramatic,objective and defamiliar.Secondly,the novel perfectly adopts the technique of flashback,resulting in a narrative mechanism of time reversal and constructing a rich narrative time and space.In addition,the narrative time,narrative space and the relationship between narrative time and space all deepen the theme of the novel —escaping from the past.Once again,the novel utilizes a large amount of images,not only for narrative needs,but also to meet the demands of the narrator and even the readers.This section presents the living conditions of the Laurel family by analyzing the narrative images in the novel.On the one hand,as she grew up with excellent living conditions,facing the departure of her parents and husband-in-law,Laurel is deeply trapped in the dilemma of the past and reality,and does not know how to choose.On the other hand,the strong female consciousness in her heart and Fay’s repeated verbal “taps” bring her back to reality and ultimately make a decision.The final conclusion of the thesis is that the novel reflects on the fate of ordinary people through trivial matters in daily life and sheds light on their vicissitude.It also tells people to escape from the past and face the reality when the past conflicts with the reality.