Mule killers 2

Mule Killers

The author of the short story Mule Killers is Lydia Peelle. It is about a man, who tells a story about some events from his father’s life, from that time when the mule killers were present. It is events like how and where his father met his mother, but also about a man who become mangled. We do not know exactly where we are or when, but we are hearing about a place called Nashville.
As mentioned above, we do not know where and when the short story takes place, but it isn´t an imaginary world with demons, vampires etc. Mule Killers do not have an introduction, maybe a little, but still in medias res is present.

The social environment in this place could be compared with rural areas. It seems to be a rural place, a small town, community, where everybody knows each other. We are hearing that the father takes the pale haired girl to the only drugstore in town. The atmosphere and the details in this place are not described suited, just like the character´s feelings, personality etc. Everything seems to be hidden and taboo, so this consideration could also refer to, that this place is a small community and rural maybe old-fashioned.

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There are few characters present in this short story by Lydia Peelle. We are hearing about the grandfather, a father, a mother, the first person and a beautiful girl called Eula Parker. The father is telling his son of these two girls, and one of these is the mother. The mother is dead now, but once she was pale haired and the father loved her and still love her. At the beginning, actually he loved the other beautiful girl called Eula, but she refused the father, but the pale haired girl, the mother, accepted the father.
These characters are being introduced gradually to us readers, so they don’t appear all at once. The characters don’t remain the same throughout the story, they develop. The father and the mother get a boy, the first-person, but later she dies as mentioned above. An interesting thing is the father’s personality. He tries to suppress his personal feelings and do not show it for his family. Not even when the mother died, tells the first-person. Again an interesting thing happens, this time at the end of the short story. The father cries. His son, the first-person believes that it must be the lost mules, or the mangled man who lies in the hospital in Nashville. Fortunately, later he admits that his far is crying for his son, for him.
The causes of the mothers dead and the man who get mangled are hidden. Could it be the mule killers? Maybe, but the characters complexity and the way the short-story is written results in, that I am not able to see and then study the causes of these developments.
The main idea of the text is love, would I think, because we are hearing about a couple´s relation to each other. At the end we are hearing that the father and his son are in the garden, once it was the mothers, and nothing has grown in the garden since the mother died. No one wanted to tend it. Another way of love is also present, that is the connection between a father and a son. His father loves his son, but doesn´t show it, again suppression of personal feelings.

I think also that Lydia Peelle has tried to tell the readers of this text that time doesn´t wait human beings. The father is telling his son a story about himself, few events etc. but once he was just like his son. So appreciate everything, respect people and their dissimilarity and live your life fully.
Is there a link between the title, the characters, and the cause of events? I am not sure, but again as mentioned above, maybe the mule killers could be the reason of the mothers dead, and the mangled mans situation. Tough the title created some expectations about the text for my part.

Cart Drawn by Oxen on the Heath Sunset. The Train passes by painted by Hans Smidth shows us a family, which easily could be the family in Muse Killers. There are the father, the mother and the son. They are on right corner of the picture and it as a rural place. The train passes and they look at the train at sunset.

Progress by Jim Heynen takes also place I a rural territory. We are hearing about a man, who tells a story, just like in Muse Killers. Development is the word for both stories. Events develop in Muse Killers and the mother dies, everything is getting modern in Progress and ends also negatively.