Memory and Meaning
Eudora Welty’s “A Memory” illustrates how memory often imbues ordinary life with significance. In the story, the narrator recalls a morning spent on the beach as a child. The meaningfulness of this day is profoundly shaped by its connection to another memory of hers—a memory of the time she brushed the wrist of the boy she loved in the stairwell at school. This memory doesn’t simply appear in the narrative as something remote, but instead…
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Reality vs. Perception
“A Memory” showcases the narrator’s growing awareness of the divide between her internal and external worlds and how they are increasingly at odds. The narrator is obsessed with making observations about the world around her, but through these observations she is also forced to confront the limitations of her own perceptions. Initially, the act of making frames with her fingers makes these limitations literal, as the frames create actual constraints and boundaries around what…
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Childhood Love, Innocence, and Growing Up
Eudora Welty’s “A Memory” is in part the precursor to a coming-of-age story. While the narrative provides no reference to the narrator’s exact age, it is clear that she is on the cusp of a great life transition. Throughout the story, Welty emphasizes the contrast between the narrator’s innocence (which borders on naïveté) and her growing consciousness of the real world. In doing so, Welty hints at a process of maturation that is about…
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