Small Charity in A Visit of Charity by Eudora Welty In the story "A Visit of Charity" by Eudora Welty, a fourteen-year-old girl visits two women in a house for seniors to bring them a plant and earn points for the Campfire Girls. Welty implies through this story, however, that neither the company that supports the house nor the girl, Marian, know the meaning of the word "charity." The dictionary defines “charity” as “man's love for his fellow man: an act of good will or affection”. But instead of love, goodwill and affection, self-interest, insensitivity and dehumanization prevail in this story. Welty's depiction of the setting and her portrayal of Marian dramatize the theme that people's selfishness and callousness can blind them to the humanity and needs of others. Many features of the setting, a winter day in a home for elderly women, suggest coldness, abandonment, and dehumanization. Instead of evergreens or other vegetation that might lend softness or beauty to the place, the city has landscaped it with "dark, thorny shrubs."1 Behind the shrubs, the whitewashed walls of the Old Ladies' Home reflect "the light of the winter sun like a block of ice."2 Welty also implies that the nurse's cold appearance is due to the coolness of the building as well as the stark, impersonal white uniform she wears. In the interior parts of the building, the "loose and bulging linoleum on the floor"3 indicates that the place is poorly constructed and poorly maintained. Rooms that "smell like the inside of a watch"4 suggest a used, numb machine. Perhaps the clearest evidence of dehumanization are the small, crowded rooms, each inhabited by two elderly women. The room Marian visits is dark,...... middle of paper...... dotted plants qualify as an act of charity. Indeed, as analysis of the environment reveals, the House is inhumane in many ways. Marian indicates in her thoughts, words, and actions that she is opportunistic and indifferent to the needs and feelings of older women. Welty also suggests in this story that pseudo-charity can destroy the very humanity it pretends to recognize and support. People like Marian, acting out of duty or personal gain, created the House and conditions that made the inhabitants irritable, greedy, and unlovable. Marian left the women more alone and distraught than she found them. This type of charity is very uncharitable. Work cited Welty, Eudora. "A charity visit" that makes literature a topic: an anthology for readers and writers. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 2000.