Thomas Wolfe, the author of The Far and Near, doesn’t make it completely clear if he is an optimist or a pessimist. The Far and Near has both a happy and depressing tone to it. At the beginning of the story, the author describes the joyful engineer as a man that looked forward to seeing the two women waving at him every day. When he meets the woman in the end of the story, the author describes the engineer as a man that all the happiness in the universe was gone. Due to the main character in the story being extremely hopeful then extremely hopeless, it is not evident whether the author of The Far and Near is an optimist or a pessimist.
The beginning of The Far and Near displays the main character, the engineer, as a hopeful and joyful person. Every day for over 20 years, the engineer would approach a woman’s house. The woman and…show more content… However, he couldn’t recognize the town and was immediately filled with confusion. He made his way to the women’s house and instantly started to feel doubtful because he couldn’t recognize their house. Their house wasn’t what he thought he was seeing for 20 years. When he knocked on the door, the old woman opened it but didn’t say anything to him. At that very moment he felt at a loss, much grief, and regretting going there. The old woman’s face was described as harsh pinch and meager, she wasn’t welcoming to him. The engineer tried to explain why he went to their house but couldn’t find the words. He was regretful, confused, drowned of all his joy, and felt like all of his act of hope was shameful. The women invited him into their parlor, but they stared at him with hostility and timorous restraint. Their encounter was nothing like he expected it and to say he was disappointed would be a complete understatement. His heart that was once filled with confidence was now filled with doubt and regret. To him, all of the hope and light in the universe was gone and never coming