Katherine Anne Porter free essay sample

She first handily experienced the Mexican cultural revolution, seen the rise of Nazism and lived through the time of the cold war. These travels and experiences from different cultures gave her a diverse pool of inspiration that influences her works and her writing style. In Porter’s early childhood her mother died because of complications during child birth and she was left alone with her father and four siblings. When she was five years old, Porter was sent to live with her dominant and puritanical grandmother who became the main source of influence throughout her childhood and early life. Her grandmother entrusted her with a strong set of feminist and values and made her believe â€Å" women could be as strong as or stronger than man† (Hendrick 85), which allured her to explore the world on her own and go against the traditional role of women. Grandma Cat died when Porter was eleven years old, and the family moved to San Antonio, where Porter attended the private Thomas School, the only source of real education she got in her whole life. She also studied acting and music and performed in summer plays. Through acting she alone supported her family, and gave her the experience of a single women’s work. Porter was ashamed of her poor southern background later maintained she had been educated in a convent school. Her time spent in San Antonio cemented her life-long desire to travel to Mexico. Porter’s life was the main source of inspiration for her stories, in which betrayal and disillusionment played a main role, specifically speaking, self-betrayal, the failure of romantic idealism, and the never-ending unsuccessful search for a home, and love. Porter became strong and self-reliant at an early age. Both the loss of her mother and her father’s subsequent neglect had a lasting effect on Porter—making her incredibly attentive to the harsh realities of the human endeavor† (PBS Katherine Anne Porter). The death of Porter’s mother at the age of three, the denial of her father’s care and protection, and the idolization of her grandmother caus ed Porter to sanctify motherhood. She believed that motherhood was a very important part of a woman’s life, because her own dad did not support her or help her in anyway. Porter’s idealized concept of motherhood and her failure to fulfill it due to passionate affairs marked by dramatic and vicious break-ups resulted in Porter’s frustration and loneliness. Her disappointment is often reflected in her works. Beyond being a writer in search for love and motherhood, Porter was also a political activist; she was a â€Å" moderate liberal, a civil-libertarian, and an avowed Democrat† (Hendrick 23). In 1920, she was offered a magazine job in Mexico which she eagerly accepted. While in Mexico she participated in reforms in education and the arts instituted during the Mexican Revolution. She also taught dance at a girls school and became close with many intellectuals and revolutionists. In Mexico Porter also took interest in the local politics, and social issues. She was disgusted by class antagonism in Mexico and was concerned for the conditions some of the Mexican people had to live in. Her experiences in Mexico were the basis for her first published story, and some of her later published works also. Porters stories were consistently and closely based on incidents she heard, people she knew and personal experiences. She explains this process, all of my experience seems to be simply memory. †¦thousands of memories converge, harmonize, arrange themselves around a central idea in a coherent form, and I write a story. (Hendrick 1) Accused of radicalism, Porter left Mexico in 1921 and returned to New York where she wrote and published her first story. In September, 1931, Katherine went on a voyage from Mexico to Germany on the SS. Werra, the basis for her 1962 novel â€Å"Ship of Fools†. While on the ship Porter took notes on the different people. The large variety of people affected the story in which ethnically and nationally different character travel from Mexico to Europe in the same ship. The characters used in the novel were real people that she kept notes on when traveling on the SS. Werra. The story closely compares the Nazi belief that disabled, ill or ethnic people are genetically inferior, and her era’s—beliefs about health, illness, ethnicity, genetics, and their relationships to morality. The novel demonstrates the ways in which common, seemingly banal assumptions and behaviors about health, not exclusive to the Nazis or even Nazi era Germans, formed one of the underpinnings of the Holocaust. † (Roney) Porter was not only politically, but personally motivated towards the subject of eugenics, as she too was victim of a socially stigmatized disease, tuberculosis. Porterâ⠂¬Ëœs works show a raw reflection of a person’s demons, such as her themes of self-betrayal, and life disillusions. She is an important writer during that period not only because her quality of writing but her first handed experience of the political activities of that time. She interacted with all the different races and lived in many different environments. Works Cited Givner, Joan. â€Å"Katherine Anne Porter† American Writers in Paris, 1920-1939. Ed, Karen Lane Rood, Detroit: Gale Research, 1980. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 4. Literature Resource Center. Web. 30 Sep. 2012. Hendrick, George and Willene. â€Å"Katherine Anne Porter†, Revised Edition.