Katherine Anne Porter once wrote, "I have never known an uninteresting human being, and I have never known two alike; there are broad classifications and deep similarities, but I am interested in the thumbprint." No work could better illustrate her interest than "Noon Wine," whose four main characters, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, Mr. Helton, and Mr. Hatch, are so clearly individuated through their actions, speech, and physical appearance that it is difficult to imagine how they could be more unlike each other. And yet their "broad classifications and deep similarities," attributable to their common parentage in the unifying and controlling imagination of their author, tell us more about the world which entraps them than their unique thumbprints. Miss Porter's own discussion of "Noon Wine" … proves the point: "Every one in this story contributes, one way or another directly, or indirectly, to murder, or death by violence," yet "every one concerned, yes, even Mr. Hatch, is trying to do right." Her generalizations clearly reveal the tragic dimensions of the story. (pp. 83-4)
First, we note that every character finds that his efforts to do right are thwarted by those in whom he has placed his trust…. This theme of undependability is found in Miss Porter's other works; for example, Miranda in "Old Mortality" loses faith in her parents and their contemporaries: "I will make my own mistakes, not yours; I cannot depend upon you beyond a certain point, why depend at all?"
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