Noon Wine Character Analysis

In the chapter, Noon Wine, of the novel The Collected Stories written by Katherine Anne Porter, the Thompsons’ lives were uprooted by two strangers (Helton and Hatch); both are on different ends on the society spectrum. Porter uses these strangers to bring up topics like immigration and capitalism. Each character affects the Thompsons, particularly Mr. Thompson, in ways that could be translated as positive or negative. From beginning to end, Mr. Thompson’s views on foreigners, whether they are from a different country or a different state, start to change throughout the story. His feelings change because he is benefiting from Helton’s hard work. On the other hand, Mr. Thompson’s feelings of hatred toward Hatch continue to increase. His feelings increase because Hatch threatens Mr. Thompson’s good fortune. The farm is better than it has ever been, and Mr. Thompson would not …show more content…
In the beginning, when Mrs. Thompson sees Helton for the first time she makes an awful judgement just by looking at his appearance. She basically judges Helton by the way he looked and what he was doing. Eventually, she feels bad about her negative thoughts she had of him because he had done such a great job in the milk house. Farther on in the story, the Thompsons get a little irritated with Helton because he does not communicate with them hardly at all, and if he does it is not very polite in the eyes of the Thompson family. Mrs. Thompson describes it as, “sitting down at the table with a disembodied spirit” (Porter 236). They even disregarded the fact that Helton, even though it was a minor situation, assaulted their two sons. Nevertheless, they dealt with Helton’s false because he is a hard worker that is making them money. Porter uses the relationship of the Thompsons and Helton to relate it monopoly capitalism and how it relates to immigrant