The Optimist’s Daughter 1121individual’s identity. It exerts a profound influence
over the individual and her identity, and she must
decide either to embrace this connection or sever its
ties to her. Individual identity exists, but the family
identity forms the foundation for the individual and
colors others’ perceptions of the individual. Welty,
however, presents the theme of family as a construc-
tion of the individual’s own making in The Optimist’s
Daughter, and the novel questions the extent to
which the notion of family influences the identity of
the individual and the different forms this influence
may take.
At Judge McKelva’s funeral, Fay’s mother, Mrs.
Chisom, states bluntly that Laurel has no family left,
“not a soul to call on.” This is the perspective of Fay
and her family, but the members of the Mount Salus
community feel that they, as friends of the McKelva
family, and particularly as friends of Laurel’s mother
and father, form their own family for Laurel. Oddly
enough, although Fay is legally related to Laurel by
marriage, she does not consider the two of them
“family.” This is only one of many ways in which the
Mount Salus community’s and the Chisom family’s
perspectives differ, and it is a good starting place for
discussing the concept of family in the novel.
Strictly speaking, Mrs. Chisom is correct in
that Laurel has no biological family remaining. Her
mother, father, and husband have all died, and her
stepmother, Fay, is younger than she is. Her relation-
ship with Fay is full of tension and is the dominant
site of conflict in the novel. Fay appears not to
value anything related to the McKelva family and
shuns their past. This is indicated by her desire to
have Judge McKelva buried in the new part of the
Mount Salus cemetery and her declaration to Laurel
that her own family is dead as well. This proves to
be a lie, though, when the Chisom family arrives
for Judge McKelva’s funeral. Unlike Laurel, Fay has
many biological brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, and
nephews, and in this way, her family appears more
stereotypical.
Welty does not present this type of family as
ideal, however. This is evidenced by the fact that Fay
has attempted to separate her identity from her bio-
logical family by moving away from them and telling
others they are dead. Laurel’s “family,” on the other
hand, consists of friends of her parents; the Mount
Salus community; and her six bridesmaids, who are
also her childhood friends. Another example of this
type of relationship exists between Dr. Courtland
and Judge McKelva, for whom the idea of family
is connected to Mount Salus. Although they are of
different generations, they are from the same place,
and this is presented as a point of connection for
their identities.
The ability to know other people and to know
oneself is particularly explored through the theme
of family in the novel. Judge McKelva, the optimist,
defied the expectations of his Mount Salus family
and married Fay, who is the complete opposite of
Becky, his first wife. His slipped retina and failing
eyesight may be interpreted as a representation of
his inability to “see” people and their true person-
alities. Laurel wonders if “through that dilated but
benevolent gaze of his he was really quite seeing
Fay, or herself, or anybody at all.” Throughout the
novel, identity is associated with family in its various
constructions, but this is a source of tension as well.
When her father dies, Laurel must decide where
her familial obligations lay. She has no real connec-
tion to Fay. She is more connected to her family
home and the memories contained there, but legally
they belong to Fay. At the end of the novel, Laurel
leaves Mount Salus and her communal family. The
tension between Laurel and Fay is not resolved, but
Laurel is at peace because she knows that her iden-
tity is connected to her family in her memory.
Sherah Wellsmemor y The Optimist’s Daughter
In the concluding paragraphs of The Optimist’s
Daughter, Laurel McKelva Hand prepares to leave
her family home in Mount Salus for the last time.
The previous evening, she had burned her late
mother and father’s private papers—in fact, all the
objects that she might normally be expected to
cherish because of their sentimental value. However,
Laurel now believes that “Memory lived not in ini-
tial possession but in the freed hands, pardoned and
freed, and in the heart that can empty but fill again,
in the patterns restored by dreams.” This means that
although the memory of the people she has lost is
important, it is more important not to be bound to
the past by these memories.