Essay Questions

How does John Berendt employ a covert allusion of Biblical Eve when elucidating Luther Driggers’ and Eli Whitney’s innovations?

Berendt elucidates, “ Luther Driggers was the modern equivalent of Savannah’s other famous inventor, Eli Whitney. As it happened, neither man had made a dime from his invention. Eli Whitney had carefully kept the cotton gin under wraps while he applied for a patent, but made a tactical error when he allowed women to have a look at it, assuming they would not understand what they were looking at. A male entrepreneur put on a dress one day and slipped in with a group of women visitors, then went home and made his own cotton gin.” Berendt faults women in both Driggers' and Whitney’s failures. The culpability is comparable to that which Adam assigned to Eve after ingesting the ‘forbidden fruit.’ Berendt’s allusion insinuates that women are inherent traitors whom menfolk should not unconditionally trust.

How does Joe Odom engage in a moral hazard?

Berendt reports, “It was widely assumed that Joe Odom had set his house on fire to collect insurance money, even though he no longer owned the house. Joe’s landlord asked him to vacate the premise at once, not so much because of the fire but because Joe had never paid them any rent.” If it is factual that Joe Odom calculatingly set the house ablaze, then he engaged in moral hazard with the hope of profiting monetarily which would be undeserved to the insurer.

Apply psychoanalytic theory in elucidating Mr. Glover’s connection with Patrick.

Mr. Glover explains, “ Patrick was Mr. Bouhan’s dog. Mr. Bouhan sued to give him Chivas Regal scotch liquor to drink. I walked the dog, and I was the dog’s bartender too. Mr. Bouhan said that after he died I was to be paid ten dollars a week to take care of Patrick. He put that in his will…The dog is dead twenty years now, but I still walk him. I walk up and down Bull Street and look over my shoulder and say, come on, Patrick!” Psychoanalytically, Mr. Glover is exploiting Regression; Patrick was substantial and irreplaceable in his life; he is not ready to suppress his memories although he has been dead for two decades. Patrick’s demise adversely impact Mr. Glover’s mental stability. Walking the imaginary dog calms him by mollifying his unconscious nostalgia for the dog’s companionship.