C'est mon propre résumé. (+ quelques élements d'analyse incorporés)
THE GOLDEN APPLES.
Eudora Welty
*A Golden Shower : Mrs Mac Lain is an albino. King Mac Lain, her husband, ran away from home and from his wife several times. And the last time, he put his hat on the river, so he was thought dead. But he is seen, at his house on Halloween day. The children (aged of 7 years old) run into him, so he runs away once more.
*June Recital : Loch, a child who suffers from Malaria, observes the neighbouring house. His parents are gone, they are at a party in a neighbouring house. A piano melody can be heard from the vacant house. Lock sees two young people in it (who go upstairs after piano is heard) and an old woman (downstairs), and he thinks the old woman is setting the house on fire. Loch goes out of bed and climbs on the tree next to his window. Loch’s sister, Cassie, is in her room. She remembers her past as she too hears the piano sound coming from the vacant house. She remembers Virgie Rainey the best piano-player girl in Morgana, and their piano teacher, Miss Eckart. She also remembers the yearly June recital which miss Eckart organised. Then she sees that her brother is hanging on the tree. Finally the old lady sets the house on fire. Two men come around the house ; so Loch shouts that the house is on fire. The two men go in, as they are in one of the ex-owners of the vacant house comes. He makes the two man stop the fire, then while he tries to remember who the lady is, the two men are looking for the source of the tick-tack noise they hear. Loch thinks it’s dynamite, but actually it’s a metronome. The lady is questioned, but she tries to set the house in fire one more time and her hair is on fire. The lady happens to be Miss Eckart. She is taken by the two men and dragged along the street. Lock goes out of his room and takes the metronome which was thrown away. Cassie goes out, too. The party ends at the neighbouring house, the ladies see first the sailor, and then Virgie Rainey flee. They all go back home, and for the parents it’s as if nothing had happened. The children consider the day differently, with excitement and remembrance. The Mc Lain kinds have grown up and go out with Cassie Morrison.
*Sir Rabbit : Mattie Will thinks she saw Mr Mc Lain, but it’s actually the twins whom she’s seen. They play with her. Later when she is married she meet Mc Lain in the woods while she is hunting with her husband, Junior Holyfield and Blackstone. Mc Lain asks Mattie Will a question. Junior doesn’t want Mattie to go near Mc Lain. He thinks Mc Lain to be dangerous. Mc Lain shoots Junior dead and French-kisses Mattie Will. Mattie is fascinated, and has been fascinated by Mc Lain since she was fifteen. She seeks for Mc Lain, sees him sleeping, then he wakes up and she skedaddles.
*Moonlake : Lock is now a young adult and is in charge of a group of scouts. He frames an expedition with other adults from Morgana. In the group of scouts there are girls from Morgana and orphan girls. All have to swim in Moonlake, looked after by the adults : most noticeably Mrs Moody. The orphan girls cannot swim. One of the them, Easter, has a strong character, she possesses a jack-knife. They play cards. Easter, Nina and Jinny Love escape from the tent and try to use a boat. Jinny love doesn’t go along with Easter. They are called back to the camp by Loch’s horn-blowing. They go back to the camp. Exum is a nigger who is a good fisher, accidentally makes Easter fall down from her branch into the lake, and she gets drowned. Loch tries, that’s his job, to save her. Miss Lizzie Stark, Jinny Love’s mother comes. Ran Mac Lain (24) also comes (one of the twins). He has a gun and dogs for hunting (he is like his father, and so is his brother). Nina faints. Finally loch manages bringing Easter back. Miss Lizzie Starks departs. Jinny Love and Nina might be in love with Loch. (last page).
*The Whole World Knows : Ran Mc Lain (one of the twins) is married to Jinny Love, but they are separate. Ran and his female friend Maideen go and visit Jinny and her mom. Jinny has had an affair with Woodrow Sprights. Various people come at the Sparks’, including Woodrow, and Ran knocks him off. He would like to kill Jinny. He has his father’s gun. He and Maideen go away. They lie down together, he tries to commit suicide but she takes the gun away. They lie down again, ran sleeps, and Maideen uses the gun on herself.
*Music from Spain : Eugene McLain lives in San Francisco with his wife Emma. He repairs watches. They had a little girl, Fan, who died. One morning Eugene slaps his wife, and is tormented and decides not to go to work. He saves a Spanish guitarist, ‘the Spanian’ who was almost rolled over by a car.
‘or the old senator from back home’ => reference to the senator Wardaman
apples of Atalanta ; golden haired Thelma
This guitarist played at a concert Eugene and Emma attended, and Emma liked him very much. An old woman is hit dead by a car and the Spaniard and Eugene have lunch together. Than they walk together. A cat is threatened by some other animal in the grass. The walk on the beach, a fat woman laughs loud. Eugene talks to himself and reproaches himself for having ‘assaulted’ his wife. The Spaniard takes up a flower (the only word he pronounces is the name of this flower) and examines it but he almost falls off a cliff. Eugene catches him. Then the Spaniard’s hat his blown away by the wind and Eugene takes it back. The Spaniard holds him (he had hold the former before), he appears to want to drop him of the cliff, but he puts Eugene down & sexual intercourse + at that moment Eugene has flashbacks of intercourses with Emma. Then they go back and enter a café Eugene knows what the Spaniard wants (they are getting used to each others : like lovers) but he doesn’t help him => punishment. The waitress insult Eugene and says she bullies her husband who is as small as he. Eugene is a bullied man. He leaves the Spaniard and takes a streetcar. Then at home there is a neighbour and Eugene doesn’t talk much è he is dominated once again + the two woman have seen the Spaniard, too : his outstanding expercience (walk etc…) which was special to him is henceforth minimized.
*The Wanderers :
Mrs Stark organises Katie Rainey’s funerals. Fate Rainey, her mother, was Virgie’s grandmother. Virgie is now over forty. She was with her mother when the latter died, and called for help. Cassie’s mother had died previous to that. Ran Mc Lain was elected mayor beating Mr Charmichael. Mr Nesbitt hired Virgie and has always helped her : he keeps asking credit for it. Snodie is seventy and has prepared the body. Jinny Mc Lain had herself offered a diamond from Ran. King Mc Lain talks lightly of Katie Rainey and tell Virgie jokes about her è his attitude is different from that of the others. Virgie swims naked in the river. + naked young boys => freedom. She wishes for a cigarette : she wants to enjoy life + She merges in the water. The Mc Lain boys attract the other kids ‘magnetic’ => as King Mc Lain was. Virgie takes the stick out of the room è feminist gesture (stick => phallic symbol) + she did this right when the priest began his speech è rebellious, she imposes herself to the other. Empathy between Virgie and King ‘he chose her’ , ‘she felt refreshed’ at the sound he made sucking his chicken bone. Before they go and burry the body she says they would have less careless for somebody else’s burial (a child entered to see the coffin) è she and her mother’s style of life is neither appreciated, nor respected in Morgana. They all go to the cemetery, they see Maiden’s grave and Miss Eckart’s one. They burry the body and everyone goes back home. Then Virgie is offered a night-flower by a lady who knew her from her piano playing at the Bijou. Juba comes to help Virgie packing and says she has seen Mrs Rainey’s Ghost. Mierva and Juba have stolen things in the house but Virgie doesn’t care. While she is driving out of town Virgie is called by Cassie who wants her to come along and see Mrs Morrison’s grave. The house is now a pension, and Cassie leads the same life Snowdie did. Besides she now gives piano tuitions the way Miss Eckart did : she has synthesised the examples of lonely women whom she has been in contact with. When Virgie goes away, Cassie says she is happy for her and Lock, people who can get a life of their own. Virgie drives to Mc Lain (town) and sees its cemetery. King Mc Lain’s Father was a confederate soldier and his grandfather (King’s) is also involved in the military history of the country. Eugene died of tuberculosis and is buried here too. She sees Mrs Nesbitt’s twin in the Mc Lain Bijou. She remembers Miss Eckart’s poster of Perseus holding the head of Medusa. She goes out and sits in the rain, she remembers King Mc Lain’s gimmick at the Burial, Perseus, and the swan.
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Sujet: RESUME : The golden apples.