Throughout Katherine Anne Porters Old Mortality, a variety of elements are
present. Some of which consist of romance, memories and the illusions instilled
upon the legendary status of Amy. All of these elements play a solid role
towards the persuasion of Miranda. They persuaded her into acting on certain
ideas that she pulled out of the stories about her Aunt Amy. Now even though
Aunt Amy was portrayed in a very special light, the elements that surrounded the
story did not exactly have a positive effect on Maria and Miranda. What this
paper is going to do is explain that all the above mentioned characteristics
play a positive and negative role on the lives of the two children, Maria and
Miranda. In the first chapter, Maria and Miranda were told the story about their
Aunt Amy and their very romantic Uncle Gabriel. People spoke of Aunt Amy in a
very loving way, but they masked the truth. They merely told the story the way
that they felt it should have been told. There is no problem with this in the
eyes of the brother and grandmother, but they neglect the idea that children at
this age are very impressionable. This is definitely a negative aspect towards
the exaggeration of how wonderful their Aunt Amy was. It carried the negative
following because of many reason demonstrated throughout the story. First is
that the buildup of Maria and Miranda’s Aunt and Uncle were just the first
step towards a larger let down in all facets. The first time that Maria and
Miranda met Uncle Gabriel at the racetrack, after all of the good words spoken,
they had a false idea of what he looked like, talked like, and acted like. They
discovered that he wasn’t the perfect looking man that he was made out to be,
and that he wasn’t as elegant as described. He was merely a large, loud
spoken, sort of obnoxious gambler. He had a false identity stapled to him and
his surroundings. It wasn’t just the fact that he did not meet the description
given to him, but the idea that things surrounding him were not all that they
were made out to be either. This was Miranda’s first dose of reality, and not
just the stories that were being told to them. It was the first major
disappointment that either Miranda or Maria faced and that changed a lot of
things from that moment on. Miranda’s childhood dream of becoming a horse
jockey, due to all the fond memories experienced and told to her, was changed
after she realized reality. On top of that, the idea of since their Aunt Amy’s
better half wasn’t all he was made out to be; maybe she wasn’t as perfect as
everyone claimed her to be either. This is a very negative force in the novel,
because it is the first step taken by Miranda to change her life and fall into
the same trap as her Aunt Amy did. Another negative aspect of the memories,
illusions, romance about Aunt Amy was that in the third chapter, Miranda is told
the real version of the story about her Aunt Amy by her Aunt Eva. Aunt Eva is a
“chinless, feminist, Latin-teaching, spinster.” They meet on a train ride to
Uncle Gabriel’s funeral, and that is when, during the train ride, that Aunt
Eva tells Miranda the whole story about her Aunt Amy. It wasn’t a flattering
story, it revealed such issues about how Amy was addicted to sex and that she
was caught in some very compromised position. Not just about the scandal
involving Amy and the stranger being underplayed by the family, but also about
how maybe she did not die because of reasons believed, but maybe she committed
suicide. Aunt Eva made Aunt Amy look like a wreck loose youngster not afraid of
anything. She was wild, impure and not exactly in love, but looking for an
escape from family and reality. At the end of her time all of this caught up to
her and she had only one escape. This was the version told by Aunt Eva, and to
Miranda’s surprise, she has lived almost an identical life so far. She has
participated in a broken marriage, she wants to escape the family mold and she
wants to be free and wild. One thing though, Miranda refuses to acknowledge that
this version of Aunt Amy’s life is any less romantic or true then the other
version that she remembers. My personal view on this is that she doesn’t want
to admit that this story is more realistic then the other one because then she
wouldn’t have an excuse for doing the same thing were her life. “Miranda has
reenacted Amy’s mistakes.” She claims that it is still a romantic story
because if she doesn’t then how is she going to justify what she did with her
life. She has done many of the same things as Aunt Amy and she has looked up to
her all this time, so admitting that her Aunt Amy was less than perfect, or not
as romantic as portrayed, would be admitting to herself that she is less than
perfect and made the same mistakes as her Aunt, following the same path to the
end which leads to only one exit. The before mentioned elements involved in this
novel have a very negative outlook on Miranda’s life. A false sense of her
family has Okayed her the right to act how she feels that her Aunt would have
done. Such a sense of pride was instilled upon her by the rest of the family
gave her and her sister, Maria, the idea that Aunt Amy set a path that should be
followed and that is what she did. When one looks up to a person that much,
without knowing the facts or the person even, then you are being built up for a
let down. The way that Maria and Miranda acted once they met their Uncle Gabriel
for the first time was just foreshadowing about what was going to happen in the
future. The thing is that Miranda threw a curveball, she wasn’t let down by
the real version of Amy’s life but she has built it up in herself so much that
she can’t possibly distinguish what is reality and what is not when it comes
to her Aunt Amy. Miranda has come up with her own ideas such as freedom and
youth that she has taken from all of those stories, but what will come out of it
for Miranda? Will the same ending prevail or will she accept the truth and
change her ways? These elements present in the story also have positive effects
on the people involved. In the first section, the mere telling of the story to
Maria and Miranda gives the two young girls something to appreciate, to look up
to and to take pride in their family history. At such a young age, children are
so impressionable and to tell them how wonderful a family member is makes them
proud. It is also a positive thing for family members to remember one in such
great terms; the only problem with this is that once you tell a lie enough times
you start to believe it. Granted the older members of the family can remember
Aunt Amy as a wonderful person because they are older and they know the
difference, but when it came down to it, they should have thought about what
they were doing by telling Maria and Miranda such a diluted story. Another
positive outcome that is established by this novel is the notion that maybe
Miranda and Maria learned something about their own lives by looking at the life
of their Aunt Amy. Since Miranda is set on the same path as Amy, then maybe she
can see what she needs to do to make her life work for her. She can interpret
her life compared to Amy’s and maybe end up happy. A definite look at her
situation is in order after she heard the story from her Aunt Eva, because even
though she claims that Amy’s story is romantic, it is a tragedy and Miranda is
given the image in this novel that she deserves better. Not to be depicted as
better, but she really deserves to live a better life. Even though there are
positive elements contained in the story, such as finding herself, having
something to look up to and even knowing the truth, the negative aspects of the
romance, illusions and diluted memories outweigh all of those positives. It
really is sad because what is actually storytelling in one person’s mind is
thought of as truth in Miranda and Maria’s minds and ultimately gets acted
upon. The differences in truth, reality and even past and present times are
quite a force to reckon with in Old Mortality. The times definitely developed as
the young girls grew up. I guess as the times change so do the people living
within those times, so as inappropriate it was for Amy to have the affair and
the scandal to take place, it is probably more accepted during Miranda’s time.
It is still not a good thing, but is a more common action than back in Amy’s
days. So in conclusion, as we come to the end of the story, an analysis of the
characteristics would lead me to believe that the negative force is much greater
than the positive force especially present in Miranda’s life. There is nothing
wrong with her wanting to get out on her own, see the world and experience, but
she needs to learn about herself from her Aunt Amy and not fall into the same
traps that she is so destined to do.

Bibliography
1) Beaty, Jerome. The Short Novel. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.,
1999.