"And Lots of Solid Color" is a short story by Jean Stafford published in American Prefaces (November 1939). The story is among Stafford's uncollected works.Wilson, 1996 p. 161-162: Selected Bibliography
A minor piece in her oeuvre, "And Lots of Solid Color" is notable as Stafford's first story to appear in print.Wilson, 1996 p. 32: "...a slight piece..."
Plot "And Lots of Solid Color" is presented as first-person narrative by its protagonist, Marie. The events describe a single day in her life.
Marie is a young woman who recently graduated from college. She has returned to Oregon to live with her parents and Aunt Eva while she anxiously seeks employment as a writer. Her efforts have so far proved futile: she has garnered nothing but rejection letters in the mail, a fact over which she obsesses. Marie's father has struggled aimlessly for years to create a best-seller and failed; she suspects that her aspirations, too, are doomed.
Compounding these self-doubts is Aunt Eva, who disparages her niece's college education and maligns all literary pursuits as pointless. In her despair, Marie retreats to vivid memories of a childhood trip to Mexico. There she was enchanted by the brightly painted houses and their decorative furnishings.
The story closes with Marie receiving yet another rejection letter.Wilson, 1996 p. 32-33: Plot sketch
Theme "And Lots of Solid Color"— as do a number of Stafford's short stories —"ends with characters accepting a life of compromise, accommodation, or at best, dreams of escape."Wilson, 1996 p. 46: Wilson notes its thematic similarities to "In the Zoo," "The Liberation," and "The Tea Time of Stout-Hearted Ladies."
Footnotes
Sources Wilson, Mary Ann. 1996. Jean Stafford: A Study of the Short Fiction. Twayne Publishers. Simon & Schuster, New York. Stafford, Jean. "And Lots of Solid Color". American Prefaces 5, November 1939. pp. 22-25.