Melissa Tyndall Dr. Barnes Southern Fiction May 12, 2004

Elements in Southern Literature: “The Yellow Bird”

Southern Literature is a classifiable and significant genre in the realm of fiction and is very

vital in the study of literature as a whole. Southern Literature often has many distinguishable

characteristics (beyond being literature about the south, written by Southern authors) and often

includes anti-heroes, elements of the grotesque, the influences of family, sense of community

and isolation, the moral affects of religion, and stories about story telling. Southern Literature

also focuses on the change of a particular character despite his or her rural surroundings or “Old

South” upbringing. Tennessee Williams’ short story, “The Yellow Bird” exemplifies the

majority of these elements.

The first way in which a piece of Southern Literature is distinguishable is by the southern

author as well as the southern setting. Tennessee Williams, a native of Columbus, Mississippi,

also had southern born parents (his mother, if fact, was the daughter of a minister as is Alma) and

seems to write from his own experience with southern life. Though Alma and the Tutwiler’s are

from Hobbs, Arkansas, the south plays an extremely pertinent role in the story, for the new of the

family “spread throughout the Delta” (493).

Southern Literature is also largely classifiable through the anti-hero. An anti-hero is

often weak, malign, isolated, affected, and at times, grotesque. From the beginning of “The

Yellow Bird”, it is apparent that Alma is “freakish” or grotesque, for, “Alma had the reputation

of being a very quiet and shy girl, so this speech was nothing short of sensational”, which also

Melissa Tyndall Dr. Barnes Southern Fiction May 12, 2004 made it apparent that Mr. Tutwiler often carried out his owns desires—blind to what the desires

were of those around him (493). In addition, the fact that Alma is a minister’s daughter carries

the stereotype that preacher’s daughters are often misbehaved and sheltered—Alma herself was

“pushing thirty and still unmarried” and had “gotten to smoking in the attic” (494). It could be

argued that Alma was a freak, or grotesque, because of her lack of life experience. Due to her

father, Alma was encountering a situation she should have dealt with as a teenager. Alma had

lost her mind, it’s the hair-bleaching that’s done it” (497).

The influences of family, sense of community and isolation, and the moral affects of

religion are all southern elements that are tied closely together in “The Yellow Bird”. Alma

Tutwiler’s family situation as well as her father’s profession ties “her” religious beliefs tightly to

her family though “she had not had very much fun out of being a minister’s daughter” (493).

Her family situation and the pinion of her parents affect Alma late into adulthood, for their

religious views seemed to surround “that every girl who is driven out of her father’s house goes

right into a good-time house” (494). Mr. Tutwiler controlled his daughter in every aspect and

forced his religious views upon her, for “he was obsessed with the idea that Alma might get to

smoking, which he thought was the initial and, once taken, irretrievable step toward perdition”

(494).

Southern Literature also often focuses on the change of a particular character despite his

or her rural surroundings or “Old South” upbringing and Alma is no exception. Alma, at the age

of thirty, finally attempts to find herself and create her own identity separate from that of her

parents, “Mrs. Tutwiler’s hair had been turning slowly gray for a number of years, but after

Melissa Tyndall Dr. Barnes Southern Fiction May 12, 2004 Alma took to smoking in the attic, it turned snow-white almost immediately” (494). Alma also

illustrates her willingness to be independent when “she didn’t blink an eye, she just drew back

her right arm and returned the slap with good measure” (495). After “she had peroxided her hair

and put on lipstick”, she informs them that she is “going to do as I please around here from now

on, and I don’t want any more interference from you!” (495).