Ivy Rowes Ideas of the Past in Fair and Tender Ladies Essay -- Englis

Ivy Rowes Ideas of the Past in Fair and Tender LadiesIn leeward Smiths Fair and Tender Ladies, Ivy Rowe has a constantattachment to her past. This attachment is one of the main themes inthe novel. It is one of her main reasons for letter composition and whyshe does some of the things that she does, because she does non wantto lose her grip on her past. Ivy Rowe, in Lee Smiths Fair and TenderLadies, uses letter writing to nurture a hold of her grip on the past andwhere she came from.In Letters from Sugar Fork, Ivy writes for a number of reasons. Shewants to see how and what other people argon doing, wanting to improveher writing skills, asking for help from her grandfather at one point,in addition to except having some way to release alone her thoughts andemotions. These letters, being a window into her mind, show us theprogression of her as she grows. There is one letter in particular,which shows how important this correspondence is to her. I abhor you,you do not write back nor be my Pen Friend I think you are the IceQueen instead. I do not have a Pen Friend or any friend in the world,I have only Silvaney who laghs and laghs and Beulah who is mad now allthe succession and Ethel who calls a spade a spadeI will not send thisletter as I remain your hateful, Ivy Rowe.(Smith, 17) This lettershows just how important letter writing is to Ivy. As she is not ableto receive correspondence from Hanneke she cannot fully expressherself and has a hard time with her anger, as is secern by theexcerpt from her letter.Ivy also writes to Mrs. Brown about her experiences in Sugar Fork. Shetalks about how she shot a gun and is able to key fruit a vivid picture ofthe winter season. Ice just shining on each and e... ...her last letter defines her life when she says Slow downnow, backward down now Ivy. This is the taste of spring. I never haveslowed down. This shows her need to continue and persevere throughall she has been through. Ivy as a timbre goes through a lot in he rlife and by writing these letters and expelling all her feelings andemotions onto the paper she was able to find a motley of peace with herexistence.BibliographyHenderson, Lara Beth A True Storyteller Appalachias own Lee SmithOctober 1, 2000,http//www.etsu.edu/haleyd/engl3134/ejournal/henderson.htmlRobbins, Dorothy Dodge Personal and Cultural Transformation LetterWriting in Lee Smiths Fair and Tender Ladies Critique Studies inContemporary Fiction (Winter 1997, Volume 38 n.2) p. 135Hill, Dorothy Combs An Interview with Lee Smith The SouthernQuarterly 28.2(1990)5-19