Miss Amelia

"Miss Amelia let her hair grow ragged, and it was turning gray. Her face lengthened, and the great muscles of her body shrank until she was thin as old maids are thin when they go crazy. And those gray eyes -- slowly day by day they were more crossed, and it was as though they sought each other out to exchange a little glance of grief and lonely recognition. She was not pleasant to listen to; her tongue had sharpened terribly....Miss Amelia hired a Cheehaw carpenter and had him board up the premises, and there in those closed rooms she has remained ever since." (Last page)

In the course of the story, we come to find that Miss Amelia is a established and flourishing store-owner, businesswoman, carpenter, doctor, whiskey brewer, restaurant owner, cook, boxer, wrestler and cotton grower. By any time period's standards her success and abilities are outstanding for either male or female, almost super-human (trying new remedies on oneself while figuring out which organ is being affected, for example). My questions repeatedly throughout the story were: How strange is the character of Miss Amelia to the reading audience of the time it was written? Did women with this sort of power really exist in this time period, given the social restraints? Was she a 6 foot 2 super-hero?

I chose the end of the piece because, given her incredible attributes, she is still conquered in the end. It can be easily argued she is the backbone and life of the entire town through her cafe, but she is still left shacked up alone. She treats the hunchback with nothing but pure kindness, and yet he burns everything of hers he can. Does Miss Amelia's defeat imply women like her, in her time period, cannot make it through life without being "cross-eyed" somehow?

Hunter