Petrified Man

Born in 1909 in Jackson, Mississippi, Eudora Welty was a fiction writer and photographer who predominantly wrote about the American South. After finishing college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Welty spent her entire adult life in Jackson, and her stories often reflect the intimacies of everyday Mississippi life. Published in 1939, “Petrified Man” is a Southern Gothic short story that offers a glimpse of an average morning for two women at a hair salon in a rural Mississippi town. By anchoring the story to such a specific moment in time and through her use of accented dialogue, Welty offers insight into the conceptual framework and way of life in the mid-20th century American South. Welty was the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize (1973) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1980).

Content warning: The end of this story mentions rape.

The story begins with a conversation between Leota, a beautician, and one of her regular clients, Mrs. Fletcher, during Mrs. Fletcher’s weekly appointment. The entire story takes place within the women’s dialogue, at a salon in a small, unnamed Mississippi town. While searching for a cigarette in Leota’s purse, Mrs. Fletcher asks Leota about the peanuts she finds. Leota explains that they were given to her by Mrs. Pike, her new tenant and friend. As Leota is combing through Mrs. Fletcher’s hair, she notices some hair fall out. Embarrassed, Mrs. Fletcher accuses Leota of “cooking” her hair during her last perm. Leota is confident it was not her fault and confides that one of yesterday’s clients was gossiping about Mrs. Fletcher being pregnant. Leota suggests Mrs. Fletcher’s pregnancy could be causing the hair loss.

Mrs. Fletcher indignantly calls over another beautician, Thelma, demanding to know who this customer was. Thelma insists she cannot remember, and Mrs. Fletcher threatens that whoever was gossiping “[will] be sorry some day!” (2). A young boy playing on the floor with supplies interrupts the women, and Leota explains that this is Billy Boy, Mrs. Pike’s three-year-old. Mrs. Pike works at a women’s hat store, where Billy is not allowed to spend the day, so he accompanies Leota to work.

Mrs. Fletcher expresses she is “tempted not to have [her child]” and is not worried about Mr. Fletcher’s retaliation (3). Leota assures Mrs. Fletcher that she has not and will not tell anyone else about the pregnancy, but then admits she has told Mrs. Pike. Leota then reveals that it was Mrs. Pike herself who guessed that Mrs. Fletcher was pregnant after observing her on the street the other day.

To change the subject, Leota then describes the experience of attending the freak show next door to the salon, where she and Mrs. Pike saw conjoined fetuses, “pygmies,” and a “petrified” man whose body has been “turning to stone” (4). They also visited a psychic, Lady Evangeline, who read the women’s palms. Evangeline predicted that Mr. Pike would “come into some money,” which Mrs. Pike believed (4). Leota and Mrs. Fletcher discuss how they met their husbands, and then Leota leaves Mrs. Fletcher during the hair-drying process to give Mrs. Pike a free facial.

The story resumes a week later, when Mrs. Fletcher returns for her standing appointment. Leota insists she still does not look visibly pregnant. Then Leota tells Mrs. Fletcher about the stressful time Mrs. Montjoy came to her appointment while in active labor, because she “just wanted to look pretty while she was havin’ her baby” (7). While discussing women and their husbands again, Leota admits she is “sick of Fred,” her husband, and hopes he leaves for Vicksburg after hearing Lady Evangeline’s predictions from Leota’s second palm reading.

Mrs. Fletcher asks about Mrs. Pike and notices Leota looks exhausted. Leota describes “the awful luck” she experienced the other night: Mrs. Pike was reading one of Leota’s old magazines and noticed a “Wanted” ad for a man named Mr. Petrie, an acquaintance Mrs. Pike had known in New Orleans. He was wanted for raping four women in California, and Mrs. Pike realized that he was the Petrified Man at the freak show. Eager to receive the $500 reward, Mrs. and Mr. Pike travel to collect the money, leaving Billy in Leota’s resentful care. Both women insist that they would have “[felt] somethin’” after seeing the man in the freak show, and Leota stresses that seeing Petrie left her with a “funny-peculiar” feeling (9). Billy interrupts their conversation by eating the stale peanuts in Leota’s purse, and his subsequent spanking draws the attention of everyone at the salon. Billy frees himself from Mrs. Fletcher’s hold and leaves the salon, on his way out asking the women, “If you’re so smart, why ain’t you rich?” (10).