How do one’s love for literature and the written language get ignited? The short story of “One Writer’s Beginnings” by Eudora Welty, defines how she was compelled to become a writer through her passion for reading. The story takes place in Jackson, Mississippi when Welty was nine years old. Welty had an “insatiable” thirst for reading. Furthermore, her eagerness to read highly impacted her later writing career. Welty expresses her passion for books by utilizing rhetorical devices such as imagery, analogy, and characterization in her short story.
In the first scene, Welty starts by characterizing Mrs. Calloway as the obstacle that she had to overcome to read. The librarian has a “dragon eye”, which characterizes her as a menacing and unwelcoming figure that guards its treasure. Unlike most librarians in reality who have assistants to help them, Mrs. Calloway administers the library “by herself.” As a result, the librarian had a streaming countenance that shows her unnecessary hard work and a need to soothe herself physically and emotionally. Welty did not possess much flexibility in the library when Mrs. Calloway “could see through [one’s] skirt [and] send [her] straight back home.” To avoid the library
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Although her mother restricted Welty to read Elsie Dinsmore, Welty still views her as an idol or someone she looks forward to. Similarly to Welty, the mother has a big preference and passion for reading books, magazines, short stories, etc. The author considers her mother as someone who mainly multitasks because she reads them while alternately do something else such as watching the oven and “taking part of the wolf in a game of “Little Red Riding Hood.”” Both Welty and her mother share a feeling of insatiability because they want to read, discover, and learn more in books. Given these points about Welty and her mother, they enjoy and want every single moment that a book