All-American -
ambitious, bright.
Blithesome, cheerful,
carefree,
callow.
Cherished cemetery dweller.
Dewy-eyed daughter.
Decent, direct.
Eternal enthusiast.
Faithful, forthright.
Gladsome, genuine.
George's Grover's Corner girl -
hands innocently joined.
Joyful kinship.
Lighthearted,
loving life,
lovestruck.
Marriage,
motherhood,
marvelous memories.
Morality.
Normalcy.
Optimism.
Purity.
Quotidian reality recollected.
Remembrances relished.
Small town tales -
uncomplicated, unspoiled,
unsophisticated, unassuming.
Virtuous, wholesome.
X-tolling Yankee yesterdays -
Zeitgeist.
|
Author Notes
If you attended all your high school plays or now go to regional productions, you've probably seen Our Town performed.
At the center of Thornton Wilder's celebration of turn-of-the-century small town values is Emily Webb, daughter of the newspaper editor, brightest girl in her class, sweetheart and later wife of the class president, and young mother who dies in childbirth before she reaches thirty.
Grover's Corners is an unremarkable place where normal, decent, hardworking people lead their daily lives, dealing honestly with each other as they celebrate births, graduations and weddings and mourn the passing of those they love.
It is place where Emily and George first express their love for each other over ice-cream sodas at the drug store counter and where an entire community gathers to lay her to rest before her time. The farmers and townspeople of Grover's Corners live lives of contentment and good cheer, exemplified by the brief and innocent life of this unassuming girl.
|
|
