Ivy also writes to Mrs. Brown about her experiences in Sugar Fork. She talks about how she shot a gun and is able to paint a vivid picture of the winter season. “Ice just shining on each and evry limb of evry tree and isickles thick as your arm hanging down offen the house. It was lik I looked out on the whole world and I culd see for miles, off down the mountain here, but it was new.”(Smith, 18) This also ties into her past because it shows us why she later has such an attachment to Sugar Fork. The beauty of the mountain stays with her the rest of her life.
In Letters from Majestic, Ivy continues to use letter writing as a means to express emotions and thoughts that she could not otherwise express. “I feel I am bursting with news but I can not tell it to a sole, I have no one to talk to.” (Smith, p. 96) This quote shows just how much Ivy needs to write. She has no one to talk to and cannot express her feelings to anyone save through writing these letters. She continues to feel as thought she needs to hold on to the past and continue with her exploration of herself by looking backwards instead of forwards. That is one of the biggest themes in this book. Her journey of exploration by looking backwards instead of forwards. It is rare that in any of her letters she really talks about things to come. It is always about what has already happened and what is happening, very rarely does she talk about what is to happen later.
Other reviewers of the novel agree that Ivy’s letter writing is helpful for her and the people she writes to. “The adolescent Ivy's letters are often therapeutic. Her mother's plan to move to town after the family farm fails prompts a letter to her deceased father in which Ivy not only deals with the impact of change, but eulogizes her passing childhood.”(Studies in Contemporary Fiction) This quote shows how her letter writing is helpful to her mentally and emotionally. By writing she is able to expel her bad feelings and misunderstandings with people and her views of the world and how it is run. Lee Smith also helps to show how the mountain is so important to Ivy because the mountain was important to smith. “Lee Smith understands mountain ways, spirit, and people. She understands human nature. She continues to guide her readers on journeys full of laughter and tears, anger and fear.“(Henderson)
Ivy Rowe, in Lee Smith’s Fair and Tender Ladies, uses letter writing to keep a hold of her grip on the past and where she came from. She continues this throughout her entire life as she goes on a journey of self-exploration and struggles to retain her memories and views of the past. She does this by staying in contact with the people who she has met throughout the years. When everything ends she stays true to herself and her last letter defines her life when she says “Slow down now, slow down now Ivy. This is the taste of spring. I never have slowed down.” This shows her need to continue and persevere through all she has been through. Ivy as a character goes through a lot in her life and by writing these letters and expelling all her feelings and emotions onto the paper she was able to find a sort of peace with her existence.
Bibliography:
Henderson, Lara Beth A True Storyteller: Appalachia’s own Lee Smith October 1, 2000,
Robbins, Dorothy Dodge “Personal and Cultural Transformation: Letter Writing in Lee Smith’s ‘Fair and Tender Ladies’” Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction (Winter 1997, Volume 38 n.2): p. 135
Hill, Dorothy Combs “An Interview with Lee Smith” The Southern Quarterly 28.2(1990):5-19
Ivy Rowe’s Ideas of the Past in Fair and Tender Ladies
Logan Buccolo
English 101
Mr. Butler
