Eudora Welty's novel, The Optimist's Daughter, tells the story of Laurel McKleva coping with the recent loss of her father while coming to terms with her past. Laurel McKleva, a widow from Chicago, returns to Mississippi to help her also widowed father, Judge Clint McKleva, when he requires eye surgery for a scratched retina. While dealing with the stress of remaining calm and collected for her father, Laurel also tries to deal with her new stepmother Fay. Fay is much younger than Clint and acts like that too. She is extremely rude and selfish and doesn't care about Clint in her time of need. Slowly but surely, Clint drifts further and further away each day and eventually dies. Fay and Laurel have made no progress in their relationship and find themselves in a delicate state after Clint's death. Laurel and Fay return to Mount Salas together for Clint's funeral. During her stay in her childhood home, Laurel must make sense of her past and come to terms with the deaths of those close to her, including her husband and mother. Welty uses themes such as vision, death, and memory to help Laurel better understand her past in order to move forward into her future. Vision, and more importantly, lack of vision, gives the reader a deeper insight into the current situation. Although growing older comes with weakening vision, for Clint it also represents his failing sense of reality. Becky, Clint's first wife, is portrayed as a free soul, which is ironic due to Fay's constant negative portrayal. Although Laurel tries to diminish it, she is aware of the boredom that Fay brings. There are no similarities between Becky and Fay, which is unusual considering the deep love Clint had for Becky. It is rare for a person to be blind to a situation because...... middle of paper...... actions and ideas that they were unaware of have left them perplexed. Laurel had to open her eyes and accept the man her father was by listening and recognizing the stories told by her father's friends. In order to see Clint for the man he was and recognize the part of his life that Laurel missed, she must admit the truth about the man he was, not the man she saw him as. Clint's death isn't the first death Laurel has had to deal with; Laurel also lost her husband and mother. Because Laurel seems to be surrounded by death, it is difficult for her to truly grasp the true meaning of life and death. Works Cited Memory Images in The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty. Contributors: Arnold, Marilyn - Author. Title of the magazine: The Literary Journal of the South. Volume: 14. Number: 2Welty, Eudora. The Optimist's daughter. New York: Vintage International, 1990. Print.