I'm sorry Mrs. Thompson

 

Noon Wine by Katherine Anne Porter (1939)

Life was all one dread, the faces of her neighbors, of her boys, of her husband, the face of the whole world, the shape of her own house in the darkness, the very smell of the grass and the trees were horrible to her… How was she going to keep on living now? Why had she lived at all? She wished now she had dies one of those times when she had been so sick, instead of living on for this. (268)

The moment embellishes the idea of death and shows how truly miserable Mrs. Thompson is with her life. What is important about this moment is how it foreshadows the death of Mr. Thompson. Suicide seems to be a poetic motif in many authors’ writings as most display it to be a beautiful rescue. The use of darkness in language argues in favor with naturalism as in you are born alone and die alone.

I’m not familiar with the theme of region but in some sense I guess it would follow from hard labor and tie into some Marxism. Perhaps the land/area is what defines who you are in the world. The farm was nothing without Mr. Helton and once he was gone it would make sense that the farm would go with him.

Why is it significant to the story that Mr. Thompson killed himself?