Petrified Man

In her essay “Place in Fiction” (1957), Welty argues that “location is the ground conductor of all the currents of emotion and belief and moral conviction that charge out from the story and in its course.” As in her other works, setting is fundamental to the story of “Petrified Man”; the location is crucial to understanding the emotions and behaviors of the main characters. The town and salon remain unnamed, but certain details, in addition to Welty’s use of dialogue and dialect, imply that the narrative takes place in a rural Mississippi town in the late 1930s.

Welty creates an intimate “den” in an already intimate small town, narrowing the scope of the story to a deeply personal experience. Gossip is expected, even eagerly awaited, at the salon, in a town where everyone desires to know everything about each other. This is a place where everyone is subject to observation, rumor, and scrutiny, which Welty showcases by strategically placing the freak show next door to the salon. Having spent her entire adult life in Mississippi, Welty establishes the setting authentically, which allows both insiders and outsiders to this locale the opportunity to experience the minutiae of an average week for people like