SOURCE: Vande Kieft, Ruth M. “The Mysteries of Eudora Welty.” In Eudora Welty, pp. 25–54. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1962.

In the following essay, Vande Kieft analyzes Welty's representation of human inner life in fiction.

I

One cannot undertake to write about the stories of Eudora Welty without feelings of trepidation and of hope because she has provided her readers and critics both with ominous warnings and with delightful allurements. It is as if the welcome mat were clearly out before her door while the sign on the gate post read “Keep Out,” or as if she had given us a map to reach her but had not promised it wouldn't turn out to be the sketch of a labyrinth in which we would get hopelessly lost. The allurements are chiefly in the stories themselves. The warnings have been posted (quite unofficially) in a small volume on Short Stories (1950)¹ and...