A Visit of Charity

What literary techniques does Welty use to contrast Marian and the two women she visits in the Old Ladies’ Home?

The unnamed woman says to Marian that she has a “You have a nice multiflora cineraria there”(137). How does her knowledge of plants shape your reading of the exchange that happens in the old women’s room?

The old woman puts Marian’s plant on top of a wardrobe where it is hardly visible. How does this gesture affect your interpretation of her character and the meaning of the plant in the story?

Welty could have started the story with Marian already in the old women’s room, but she chose to include Marian’s earlier exchange with the nurse. What is the role of the nurse in the story?

What do you make of the fact that the nurse reads Field & Stream (a popular hunting and fishing magazine of the time)?

Why does the nurse invite Marian to stay for dinner?

What is the role of the apple in the story? How would the story be different if Marian had never placed it at the beginning or retrieved it at the end?

What is Welty’s message in “A Visit of Charity”? Does Marian show charity toward the two old women she meets?