The Old Order: Stories of the South

The Old Order: Stories of the South is a collection of short stories and novels by Pulitzer Prize winning American author Katherine Anne Porter. It draws stories from The Leaning Tower and Flowering Judas. It also contains Porter's short novel Old Mortality. All nine short stories and the novel take place in the American south during the late 1800s and early 1900s (Porter 1955). The collection of stories are based largely on Porter's experience of growing up in the American south at that time. The collection, in addition to being excellent specimens of writing, offers a social critique of southern society of the time and its negative effects. These negative effects include slavery as a destructive influence on the African American race and general racial inequality, social norms hampering the discussion of "unpleasant" topics like death or sex, and the vast inequality of gender roles.

Porter was praised for writing with an especially human style. In addition to that her stories had a wonderful simplicity to them that also reflected depth in a unique way. The Old Order contained many short stories that would win her a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1966. This collection of stories served to further her fame and increase her popularity. These stories really provide a window into life in the American south at the turn of the twentieth century.