Extended Response to Welty's "Where is the voice coming from?"
             Discussing the use of "heat" throughout the story and what it symbolizes.
             "I'm just so tired of ever'thing in the world being just that hot to the touch! The keys to the truck, the doorknob, the bedsheet, ever'thing, it's all like a stove lid."
             In this story, there is a repeated reference to heat. I believe that this reference has two purposes. I believe that it is a reflection of the rage that the assassin was feeling before he committed murder. This quote also refers to the feeling of guilt and coconscious that the assassin experiences after his crime.
             The assassin felt everything had become to "hot", so he was compelled to take action to "cool" things down. With all of the uproar of the civil rights movement, he felt that this murder would slow it down and make other white supremacist feel better about the situation. After committing the murder, it gets hotter because he realizes that he has done the opposite of what he intended on doing. He helped spread the civil rights message by committing an act of violence against a black person. I think some of this "heat" also came from the lack of recognition the assassin got from the murder. "His face was in the front of the public before I got rid of him, and after I got rid of him there it is again-- the same picture. And none of me." His actions bring even more attention to the black man, while he feels no one will ever know who he is. I think that in this time his fellow white supremacist would be proud of him for stopping the black man from getting father in life. The assassin probably thought that he would have not even been punished for his act. It seems he almost wanted to be caught for this murder. After killing Summer he waits around to make sure he is dead and to see if anyone is going to come out of the house.
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