Shower of Gold by Eudora Welty
"Shower of Gold" by Eudora Welty is a short story set in Morgana, Mississippi, narrated by Mrs. Fate Rainey, who recounts the tumultuous life of Snowdie Hudson, an albino teacher married to the enigmatic King McLain. The story unfolds through Mrs. Rainey’s conversations with an implied outsider, shedding light on King’s notorious behavior and the community’s complex reactions to it. Mrs. Rainey describes how King, a charming but irresponsible figure, often abandons Snowdie for extended periods, yet she seems to maintain an inexplicable joy in her life, even during his absence. The narrative reveals a community that simultaneously admires King’s allure while expressing sympathy for Snowdie's plight.
A significant incident occurs when King mysteriously disappears, leaving behind a hat to create the illusion of his drowning. Snowdie, however, radiates happiness upon learning of her pregnancy, suggesting a deeper connection to her circumstances than mere victimhood. The story takes an intriguing twist when King is rumored to return on Halloween, leading to an enigmatic encounter with his twin sons. Mrs. Rainey’s reflections reveal her ambivalence and insight into the nature of love, loss, and community judgment, ultimately portraying a rich tapestry of human emotions and societal dynamics. The narrative invites readers to explore the complexities of relationships and identity within a Southern setting.
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Shower of Gold by Eudora Welty
First published: 1948
Type of plot: Realism
Time of work: The early twentieth century
Locale: Morgana, Mississippi
Principal Characters:
Mrs. Fate Rainey , "Miss Katie", the narratorSnowdie McLain , the wife of King McLainKing McLain , a traveling man
The Story
Mrs. Fate Rainey is talking to an implied listener, a visiting stranger in Morgana, Mississippi. After Snowdie McLain comes for her butter and leaves, Mrs. Rainey begins to tell Snowdie's unusual story. It is the story of how badly King McLain treats his wife and how well she takes it, a private story, though everyone knows it. "But," Mrs. Rainey says, "I could almost bring myself to talk about it—to a passer-by, that will never see her again, or me either." Mrs. Rainey then relates several astonishing incidents from Snowdie's married life.
First, she explains the inexplicable marriage between King McLain, the most desirable man in the area, notorious for the number of children he is supposed to have fathered, and Snowdie Hudson, a teacher and the albino daughter of a respectable family. In Mrs. Rainey's opinion, King has wanted to shock the community, to keep it off balance.
This desire also accounts for King's staying away from Snowdie for long periods. Though he works as a traveling salesperson, he is gone too often and too long. The next astonishing incident occurred after his longest absence to that date. He sent Snowdie a note asking to meet her in Morgan's Woods. Though it is quite difficult to construct an accurate chronology from Mrs. Rainey's account, it appears that Snowdie's twin sons were conceived under the tree where she met King, and that King departed immediately afterward, leaving his hat on the bank of the Big Black River to make it appear that he had drowned. However, it may be that he impregnated Snowdie and left his hat on the river bank at a later date.
Mrs. Rainey's characterization of the town's reactions to these strange events is amusing. It ranges from a kind of wondering, almost admiring acceptance of the inevitable in King's behavior, on the one hand, to a kind of outraged sympathy for poor Snowdie, on the other. Though the women of Morgana should think King a scoundrel, they find him irresistibly attractive. Though they want to pity Snowdie, she seems irrepressibly happy. When Snowdie announces her pregnancy to Mrs. Rainey, she is radiant: "She looked like more than only the news had come over her. It was like a shower of something had struck her, like she'd been caught out in something bright." Snowdie seems to find joy in her life despite King's supposed death. King continues to fascinate the town. No one seems really to believe that he is dead.
The story's second part centers on the most recent astonishing event, the apparent return of King to Morgana on Halloween, when his sons are about eight years old. No one sees his visit except an ancient black man, Plez, whose testimony is impeccable, and King's two sons, who confront him on the front steps of his house, wearing outlandish costumes and roller skates. Plez's account of the antic meeting suggests that it is a sort of exorcism, and the boys report that they have frightened off a "booger." Though no one in town will tell Snowdie the full account, all know it. Mrs. Rainey knows that Snowdie believes that King came that day, and she believes that Snowdie holds it against her that she was there at the time, somehow preventing the desired meeting.
Mrs. Rainey finishes her narration, regretting that her friendship with Snowdie has cooled since that day, and reflecting, "With men like King, your thoughts are bottomless. . . . But I bet my little Jersey calf King tarried long enough to get him a child somewhere." Finally, she expresses amazement at her ability to say such things.
Bibliography
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Gygax, Franziska. Serious Daring from Within: Female Narrative Strategies in Eudora Welty's Novels. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Gretlund, Jan Nordby. Eudora Welty's Aesthetics of Place. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1994.
Gretlund, Jan Nordby, and Karl-Heinz Westarp, eds. The Late Novels of Eudora Welty. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Johnston, Carol Ann. Eudora Welty: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1997.
Kreyling, Michael. Understanding Eudora Welty. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999.
McHaney, Pearl Amelia, ed. Eudora Welty: Writers' Reflections upon First Reading Welty. Athens, Ga.: Hill Street Press, 1999.
Montgomery, Marion. Eudora Welty and Walker Percy: The Concept of Home in Their Lives and Literature. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004.
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Weston, Ruth D. Gothic Traditions and Narrative Techniques in the Fiction of Eudora Welty. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.