Compare and Contrast between New Criticism and Psychological Criticism on the Story The Hitch-Hikers by Eudora Welty - Essay Example

The knowledge claimed in a matter of fact has criticism in the said psychology, which conceives human thoughts and actions. In the story “The Hitch-Hikers,” Welty exposes characters that are faced with a lot of modernity to say so. A man of thirty years, Tom Harris, is introduced who dominates the entire story. This is an exemplary man who is presented as a salesperson, and at the same time, a travelling kind who on his way meets two men named Sanford and Sobby. In the story, the two fellows are introduced in a way that tells us critically what their inner nature could be.

For instance, Stanford is a talkative kind that carries along a yellow guitar. Moreover, he sings a lot and is always talking except when he is silent. The above paragraph is all about the manner in which the three colleagues met: something that creates room for critical analysis. The story talks of them, two hitchhikers that had been waiting against the sky for someone to pity them and drive them to their unknown destination. The fact that Tom Harris offered them a lift renders him a credit of generosity and a compassionate heart.

He does this diligently without a second thought and gets in a formal conversation with them making them feel comfortable and welcome in his sales vehicle. One may wonder why the two hitchhikers had to wait the whole day for a ride yet had found none until Tom came along. Sanford, the guitar man, confesses in great despair how they had been waiting all day long in one spot lying down at some points to take it easy. Conversely, Sobby is depicted as a silent, and particularly an inarticulate, man who is never eloquent in his speech.

He mumbles a lot as he tries to organize anything that he has to say. In addition, the story talks of him as an easily angered person who is ready to do anything. The friends meet and travel together due to Harris willingness to take them along with him. They then get into a conversation with another while in the vehicle travelling through Mississippi delta and towards Memphis. Harris then pulls over to register in a hotel as the two still wait outside in the vehicle for him. Now this is a strange situation in a strange place for analysis.

Here are total strangers who in a clear concept meet a strange salesperson who gladly offers them a ride. Under normal circumstances, trust would not develop as fast as it did between Harris and the two hitchhikers. This, therefore, introduces an easygoing nature of the thirty-years-old salesperson. He let them be alone in the vehicle without any worries as he thinks of only checking in at the hotel. It is as if he had learnt their psychological makeup and known that they had nowhere to go to especially at that very hour.

Essence of both sympathy and empathy is in Harris. He meets the two beggars and hosts them for a while without hesitation. He pays for their food of choice when they call at a hotel without any restrictions. In the story, the two tramps are abandoned fellows who are quite lonely and discarded. One of them only has a guitar, box as they call it, as a possession. The guitar itself had a lot for interpretation of dissimilar personalities of the three friends. In the first place, Harris introduces a social issue regarding the same guitar. He