The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty presents Wanda Fay on the surface as selfish, manipulative, insecure, thoughtless, shallow, spoiled, and volatile as well as thoughtlessly and carelessly cruel. On the contrary, it was not difficult for me to see Fay as a victim of her family and upbringing, of the Mount Salus elite, and of her own personal aspirations. Throughout the novel, even though I despised Fay and her weaknesses, I felt sorry for her. Her apprehension upon discovering that her family was downstairs when she finally decided to leave the room to see one last time the body of her husband, the judge, showed me that she had probably hoped to escape her family by marrying the judge, only to discover that she was forced to confront them when the judge died and no longer “belonged” to her. The Optimist's Daughter is a deliberate metaphor for society. Eudora Welty was slightly prescient, as she never focuses on political issues, but rather on crass materialism/unlimited energy versus civilized values/privilege and class. Fay is a living troublemaker, and she is guilty of bringing a lot of tension to the story. . Despite the fact that her family and her own elements support her in her loss, it is also very clear that they do not seem to particularly like her, and that she does not particularly like them. After the funeral, Fay plans to return home to Madrid, Texas and her mother responds first by asking how long she plans to stay, then her sister responds, "I haven't heard your excuse to go yet . Do you have one? (97). Surprised by this comment, Fay complains about not bringing DeWitt with them. He is the only member of the family who speaks the Fay language, and despite the fat his family does not...... middle of paper...... prig. However, the differences between the characters are eventually resolved and the narrator writes: "Memory did not live in the initial possession but in the hands freed, forgiven and set free, and in the heart that can be emptied but filled again , in the models restored by dreams” (179). This is indicated at the end of the novel as Laurel leaves town to go to the airport, making peace with the past, especially with Fay, as she moves toward a future of her own. Works Cited Moss, Howard, “Eudora Welty's New Novel about Death and Class,” in New York Times Book Review, May 21, 1972. Welty, Eudora. The Optimist's daughter. New York: Random House, 1972. Print.