ABSTRACT
Eudora Welty sets her 1939 story “Petrified Man” in Leota’s western Mississippi beauty parlor. As the story opens, Leota is speaking highly of a new friend, a Mrs. Pike. Mrs. Fletcher, a customer, is irritated to learn that Mrs. Pike is so sharp that she detected from a casual glimpse that Mrs. Fletcher is pregnant. Since the community now knows about the pregnancy through the gossiping of the newcomer, Mrs. Fletcher will certainly have to have the child. Leota, ignoring Mrs. Fletcher’s irritation, goes on to tell about her friendship with Mrs. Pike: Leota and her husband Fred have rented rooms to Mr. and Mrs. Pike, Fred and Mr. Pike go fishing together, and Leota and Mrs. Pike have gone to a traveling freak show together. Among other things, they view a man whosejoints have supposedly been slowly turning into stone.
