Traditional “Southern Gentleman

8 Pages 1998 Words

and relaxing in his favorite chair with a hot cup of coffee and the evening newspaper. Allen Tate, along with the Vanderbilt Agrarians, gives his definition of a traditional “Southern gentleman” in his biography of Stonewall Jackson in the early 1930’s (Phillips 13).
“In the South, the man as he appeared in public was the man; his public appearance was his moral life. The nearest equivalent to the ‘inner life’ was ‘private affairs.’ The New Englander was mystical, religious; the Southerner, practical, materialistic. Private affairs were not enquired into and they had no public value. A man’s property was his character” (qtd. in Phillips 13).
Tate’s definition of “Traditional Man” (Phillips 13) fits the characteristics of Welty’s father in One Writer’s Beginning. Eudora distinguishes her father as being a well-rounded, sophisticated man, who is able to support his family for the future, as well as love and comfort them in their times of need, while managing to be honest and considerate. He never fails to use proper diction and his manners are excellent. An educated man from the South should speak with a respectful, formal dialect, and Welty’s father is an example of an elevated, educated, and elegant man.
In this book, Welty’s father works at the Lamar Life Insurance Company. He strongly believes that success in business is “the solution to most of the problems of living-security of the family, their ongoing comfort and welfare, and especially the certainty of education for the children” (Welty, One 99). Due to Welty’s father working for the future and his strong practice of optimism, he causes his life to be ruled by caution and an awareness o...