Wety and Seaver--a Point of View

An Unfortunate, Undeniable Truth
Welty and Seaver demonstrate that through society’s failure to overcome the neglect and alienation of the elderly, loss of identity and dehumanization are the ultimate results.
From Seaver’s personal accounts and Welty’s short story, society’s failure to mend its indifference and neglect of nursery home residents is made painfully obvious. Anna Seaver and the elderly women from “A Visit to Charity,” are subject to both social and psychological isolation. An unseen barrier has been placed between Seaver and what she terms “the outside world”   Despite receiving brief reprieve from her loneliness through family visitations, Seaver describes how her guests would “visit for awhile,” and then she would “be alone again” .   Her contact with others is limited, and meaningful communication with society is all but lost. While life keeps moving forward elsewhere, Seaver is pushed to the sidelines, becoming insignificant in the midst of the hustle and bustle of society’s everyday routine.   A similar situation, the “Old Ladies’ Home,” in Welty’s “A Visit of Charity” is located on the “outskirts of town,” the residents forced to live alongside the “bulging linoleum on the floor” and the smell “like the interior of a clock” (. The home is in a state of disrepair, pointing out society’s negligence to care for these elderly women as they reside in such conditions. Addie, grown bitter and resentful, is incredulous, questioning, “Is it possible that they have actually done a thing like this to anyone…?” ).   Suffering from the knowledge of her alienation from society, Addie is now forced to endure everyday bedridden with an unfamiliar roommate, waited on by an indifferent staff.   Both Seaver and Addie must live with abandonment and exclusion from the world they were once a part of. Society has turned its back on these women, leaving them to spend their final days in isolation. The alienation of the elderly is an unfortunate theme that permeates both...