"Daddy Said"

When Miss Myra Angelique Pettigrew commits suicide by falling off of the water tower, Daddy and Louis go to the scene of the crime to find out the whole story. Mr. Small who witnessed the entire thing tells Daddy, Louis, and Mr. Newberry what really happened. When other people start telling the story, Daddy sticks to Mr. Small’s version because he was actually an eye witness. Louis says, “However, no matter how lively and colorful the various accounts we sampled, Daddy and Mr. Newberry stuck by Mr. Small’s version. The others did not differ considerably from the original except in authority, but Daddy said that makes a world of a difference in this sort of thing.” (pg 57) What is odd to me is that Louis Benfield tells the story of his town and the people in it, mostly from what his dad tells him. Throughout the book, Louis says, “Daddy said” when he is telling a story. Most of the things that Louis tells in his stories are things and events that he wasn’t around for to witness first hand. Daddy says that it matters which story you stick to because the original story from the person who witnessed the event is the only person with authority over the story. Shouldn’t that mean that I should be skeptical of the book and all of the stories because they are not told by the actual witness of these events? It probably doesn’t differ much from the original story like it says in the quote but Daddy does say that the person you hear it from makes a big difference. I think T.R. Pearson makes Louis tell the stories that his dad told him to make us wonder if this is the real story and if we should trust it. It is frustrating now that I have thought about this matter and it really makes me wonder what Pearson was trying to convey about this book with this particular quote.

Themes From American Literature

Isolation & Community

Isolating yourself in a community can cause insanity. When people nowadays think of people who are crazy, they probably think of a cat lady, an animal hoarder who lives by themselves, or old people who live with their siblings. Miss Pettigrew and the Epperson Sister are alike in that they live with their siblings at a rather odd age. Miss Pettigrew isolated herself in a community that loved her after her brother Amory Wallace Jr. tried to give Miss Pettigrew’s hand in marriage to Mr. Nance who was already married. Miss Pettigrew was adored by the people of Neely for throwing grand balls and parties. She was very sociable and loved attention. After her brother’s selfish mistake, Miss Pettigrew stopped talking to her brother, as well as every as everyone in the town of Neely. She shut herself in the house for up to ten years at a time, and would come out for a short period of time. She was stuck in the house with only her monkey and her negro help, Aunt Willa. She couldn’t socialize with anyone, and just lost her mind sitting in a huge house by herself. Miss Pettigrew comes out of the house after at least forty years and shows everyone that she has completely gone nuts and then she commits suicide. The Epperson Sisters were also isolated and turned out to be like Miss Pettigrew. Of course, the Epperson Sisters had each and were not technically isolated, but they were isolated from society and didn’t have any outside stimulants that kept them sane. When you are around two other people who are just like and you and don’t talk to anyone else in the town except for the occasional hellos you could lose your mind.


Innocence to Awareness

A major theme in American Literature is the journey from innocence to awareness. A person growing up and losing their innocence is a common aspect and is seen in A Short History of a Small Place. The young narrator, Louis Benfield is so innocent and naïve at first and doesn’t realize why the people in his town are the way that they are, and why they do the things that they do. Louis says, “And that’s why Momma stormed off to the kitchen and to her sink and her window. I didn’t really understand it then, but something had passed on that day and Momma was obliged to mourn for it.” (pg 29) He doesn’t understand things but as he starts to mature throughout the book, he starts to sense that there is a deeper reason for their actions. As he senses that there is something wrong, he starts to talk with his dad. Louis’s dad teaches him things about the town and its history which helps him to fully understand the actions of his town’s people. He grows up to find out that life as a child is blissful and easy, the world as an adult can be full of tough decisions and hardship.

Baby Monkey, Put On Your Hat

Winter Clothes
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by Richard Graham


Baby Monkey, put on your hat.
Baby Monkey, put on your scarf.
Baby Monkey, put on your coat.
Baby Monkey, put on your boots.
Put on, put on, put on, put on, put on your boots!
Baby Monkey, take off your hat.
Baby Monkey, take off your scarf.
Baby Monkey, take off your coat.
Baby Monkey, take off your boots.
Take off, take off, take off, take off, take off your boots!


I was going through the internet looking for funny kid songs, and when I came across this song, I thought of Mr. Britches (Junious). Mr. Britches is Miss Pettigrew’s pet monkey that she dresses in clothes. Miss Pettigrew dresses Junious in a sport coat, a porkpie hat, a shirt, and duck pants so that he could be sophisticated and presentable like the Pettigrews of the Pettigrew fortune. On the first day that he is clothed, Junious climbs the flag pole in the Pettigrew’s front lawn. When an audience gathers around him, he pees at the top of the flagpole which causes a huge commotion in their little own, Neely. Most people thought that Junious started peeing at the top of the flag pole to get rid of his horrible duck pants. After several accidents, Miss Pettigrew puts Junious in a diaper which makes him “an ammonia pocket with legs” (pg 104) She figures that there is no point in Junious wearing pants. “So he got shed of the underwear, got shed of trousers altogether, and anymore when Miss Pettigrew or the mayor turned him out the door and off the porch he arrived on the front lawn wearing a porkpie hat and a plaid sport coat and only nature’s gifts otherwise.”(pg 104) When Junious starts to go commando, Miss Pettigrew changes the monkey’s name to Mr. Britches. I thought that this song went along perfectly because in the beginning Miss Pettigrew puts Junious in clothes, and then she ends up taking some off of him.

The detailed telling of the monkey was my favorite part in this book. The chapter called “Junious” goes on from page 81 to 181. The whole chapter is not specifically about Junious but it mentions him quite often. Every single part that talked about Junious made me laugh because he did odd things and because the people would react to the monkey in the strangest manner. In the part where Junious pees on top of the flag pole, the town’s people form different philosophical groups. “Daddy said Junious Pettigrew’s accident atop the Pettigrew flagpole on the Pettigrew front lawn inspired considerable discussion and argument among the citizen’s of Neely. He said even folks who had not been there themselves and who had yet to get the story straight had a thing or two to say about the monkey and the monkey’s affliction, and according to Daddy it wasn’t until three or four days after the event that the general buzz and huzzah died down and the opinion began to solidify into several distinct philosophical camps, what Daddy called the various streams of thought on the urinary problem.” (pg 101)

Rhetoric Study

“And Daddy said the next day when the Pettigrew door opened up around midmorning it was a new monkey that came out and went down the steps and along the sidewalk on his knuckles. He was back in blue pants, Daddy said, but did not at all appear to be the same creature who had relieved himself into them previously. He was a haunted chimpanzee, according to Daddy, and went everywhere looking backwards so as to keep out of the way of the Neely Chronicle if one happened to come at him. Daddy said he did not go up the flagpole right away but stood cowering at the base of it all drawn up on himself and skitterish until Miss Pettigrew showed up on the lip of the porch and said, ‘Go on,’ which was not quite enough to send him scooting up the pole like before but did start him to creeping towards the top, still looking behind himself and still seeming altogether half the size he’d been the day before. But Daddy said something magical happened to that chimpanzee when he finally made it to the knob and stood up on it; he said Junious sort of blossomed like a flower, gradually opened up and swelled to his full size. And Daddy said he looked back at Miss Pettigrew one last time before he turned his attention to the horizon which he considered with a very grave and sobering expression as he soaked himself again.” (pg 103)

This passage is towards the middle of the book where Junious begins to periodically pee atop the flagpole. This is the passage that is told right after Junious gets scolded by Miss Pettigrew for peeing in his pants and drawing in a crowd. Junious comes out properly in this passage but returns to his old self when he relieves himself at the top.

This quote perfectly shows T.R. Pearson’s style. Pearson lacks punctuations and his use of run on sentences that look like a paragraph, are at times very confusing and just sound like rambling. He also uses a lot of pronouns while there are multiple characters in the sentence which makes it hard to figure who “he” or “she” is. Although the rambling and extremely long paragraphs can be frustrating, it serves a purpose. This book is a series of stories told by Louis Benfield, a young boy who is getting his stories from his dad. Louis was not alive or too young to witness most of what he is telling; the stories he tells are things his dad tells him. Louis usually starts off his sentences using “Daddy said” and there is a “Daddy said” somewhere in the sentence at any given time. The rambling on works in this case, because it sounds like a little kid trying to give you a lot of detail and information in one breath. I found it very annoying at first because I had to reread sentences to understand everything. Then, I figured it makes perfect sense for Pearson to make Louis talk this way. When people tell stories, they don’t tell it sentence by sentence, but rather as one big sentence with a lot of conjunctions with a few pauses (or commas in this case).

Pearson also uses similes in a comical way. In the end of the above passage, Pearson says, “he said Junious sort of blossomed like a flower, gradually opened up and swelled to his full size. And Daddy said he looked back at Miss Pettigrew one last time before he turned his attention to the horizon which he considered with a very grave and sobering expression as he soaked himself again.” (pg 103) Pearson makes Junious grow back to his full self, metaphorically, when he pees. He says Junious was like a flower and what do flowers need to grow? Water, or in Junious’s case, pee.

Anecdotes also make up A Short History of a Small Place. Anecdote: a short account of a particular incident or event of an interesting or amusing nature, often biographical. (Dictionary.com) A Short History of a Small Place is a book purely based on anecdotes. The incidents that Louis tells of are always funny, even when it is about suicides. The entire book is like the above passage which is a great example of one of his anecdotes. Louis is recounting the peeing Junious story that his dad tells him, which is amusing. Pearson’s use of anecdotes keep the readers interested and laughing which helps to make the book move at an even pace.

Character Study

Louis Benfield Jr.
"When Daddy leaned his face down towards mine there in the sitting room and looked directly at Momma and said, 'Madness,' I was somewhat confused since I didn't see any reason for people like Miss Pettigrew to go mad, but Momma was openy dismayed and deflated." (pg28)
“Daddy didn’t see it or anyway didn’t make it like he did and I don’t know as it would have meant much at all to him if he had, but I saw it, saw it as Momma switched it on, and it struck a note with me. And I said to myself without really saying it but just knowing it right off, this is the sort of thing that sets me apart from Daddy and him from me and both of us from everybody else, not simply that I saw the porch light come on and he didn’t and nobody else would care anyway, but more that Momma could switch on a single bulb and switch on something in me with it, something of sadness and grief and shot through me with the melancholy of twilight, something I could not be sure Daddy would know as I knew it, felt as I felt it. “ (pg 82)


Louis, the narrator of the story, is an innocent teenage boy who grows up hearing about the events of his small town from his dad. In the beginning of the story, Louis is innocent and a little bit naïve. When he narrates the death of Miss Pettigrew in the beginning of the story, he is so blunt about her falling off the water tower and killing herself. He doesn’t fully understand why Miss Pettigrew is even insane. His first realization that there might be something truly wrong with some of the people of this town is when he sees his mom turning on a light. It’s like a light bulb just lit up in Louis at that moment and he realized that people were depressed. Louis is able to feel the sadness that his mother feels, and Louis feels that his dad can’t feel that sadness for some particular reason. He starts to mature from that point and learns some of the history of his town that causes its inhabitants to do the odd things they do. Daddy and Louis start to talk and have important conversations about the Neelyites and specifically Miss Pettigrew. His understanding and being able to discuss the grave matters represents Louis’s step into the adult world.


Momma (Inez Benfield)
“And Momma and all the women of Neely suffered a kind of defeat that afternoon because they themselves were not elegant, did not lead elegant lives, and required for their own satisfaction that Miss Pettigrew do it for them. And that’s why Momma stormed off to the kitchen and to her sink and her window. I didn’t really understand it then, but something had passed on that day and Momma was obliged to mourn for it.” (pg 29)
“Momma is the one of us who tends to suffer most through the season. She hold up well enough until Christmas and on into the New Year, but by the first week in February Momma is a lost woman.”(pg 70)

Momma really liked Miss Pettigrew and thought very highly of her. When she finds out that Miss Pettigrew has gone crazy, she goes to her window and her sink to do the dishes and stare at her apricot tree. Washing the dishes seems like something Momma does every time something bad happens. It’s her way of coping with the tragedy. When Sheriff Browner dies, Momma does the dishes, and she does the same when Miss Pettigrew commits suicide. At first I thought Momma was just weird but by the time Louis starts to realize what is wrong with people, I figured out that Momma is a very weak and feeble person on the inside. She suffers from depression which causes her to cry and nap a lot. In the second quote Louis even says that his mom seems crazy. Even though Momma is depressed she is very social and loves to talk to her “negro grapevine,” Mrs. Phillip J. King about her favorite topic, Miss Pettigrew.



Miss Pettigrew (Myra Angelique Pettigrew)
"Daddy said it was a bedsheet, a fitted bedsheet, and he said she was wearing it up on her shoulders like a cape with two of the corners knotted around her neck. She was standing barefoot on an oak stump, he said, standing on the one nearest the front walk where there was ordinarily a clay pot of geraniums, and he said her hair was mostly braided and bunned up in the back but for some squirrel-colored strands of it that had worked their way loose and hung kind of wild and scraggly down across her forehead and almost to her nose.”(pg 9)

Miss Pettigrew is the wealthy spinster of the Pettigrew Fortune. She has a pet monkey named Junious (Mr. Britches). She is the most elegant and sophisticated woman in the town of Neely, North Carolina. She used to go out in public and was very sociable until her brother Wallace Amory Jr. agreed to give her hand in marriage to Mr. Nance. Since that day, Miss Myra Angelique stayed in her house for years at a time with her negro help, Aunt Willa. One day, Miss Pettigrew came out of her house with a bedsheet tied around her neck and ran around her house like a superhero. People start to realize at that moment that Miss Pettigrew is insane. After the bedsheet incident, Miss Pettigrew comes out of the house looking elegant along with her pet monkey Mr. Britches. Miss Pettigrew walks to the water tower, climbs it, and lets go of the handles to kill herself. The death of her doesn’t stop Louis from talking about her, and his story revolves around the life and death of Miss Myra Angelique Pettigrew, the town aristocrat.


Daddy (Louis Benfield Sr.)
“Daddy was afflicted by what Momma called an involvement with tobacco, which seemed to mean that he was always either smoking, had just smoked, or was preparing to smoke a Tareyton."(pg10)

Louis Benfield Sr., Louis’s dad, is the man that provides little Louis with all of his amusing stories. Daddy happens to know about everything that went and goes on in Neely. His only vices are smoking and cussing, and those privileges are limited by his wife, Inez Benfield. She doesn’t let Daddy carry around a lighter because it is a fire hazard, so he puts matches all over town to make sure that he will have a light to light his cigarette where ever he is. He is a heavy smoker, and when Momma gets Daddy a Zippo for Christmas, he quits smoking. Daddy tells great stories about the people of Neely and Neely itself, and it is only because of him that Louis fully understands what is wrong with some people in Neely along with it’s history.