Compare and Contrast of Race/Ethnicity
ENG 125 Introduction to Literature
September 3, 2012
Racial background and ethnicities are represented in the short stories “Country Lovers”, and “The Welcome Table.” Both these stories have a main character or protagonist black female. Both of these women deal with some degree of discrimination because of their color. The theme of these stories is the hardships that these women suffer during their life can be suffered by anyone but growing up in a discriminatory situation creates a more dramatic story. The main themes in “Country Lovers” are love and racial politics. Country Lovers was written during a time when Africa was suffering from racial segregation. This story has irony throughout the entire story. Thebedi and Paulus grow up together and they fall in love. They grew up in Africa during the apartheid when their country did not allow interracial relationships. Paulus Eysendyck was the son of the farm owner and Thebedi’s father worked on that farm. They both knew they could not be together publicly. During the apartheid in Africa it was illegal to have an interracial relationship. There are several dramatic effects in this story. The first is when the narrator talks about Paulus going away to school “This usefully coincides with the age of twelve or thirteen; so that by the time early adolescence is reached, the black children are making along with the bodily changes common to all, an easy transition to adult forms of address, beginning to call their old playmates missus and baasie little master” (Clungston, 2010). There’s loss of innocence and forbidden love as described here when Paulus watches Thebedi wade in the water “The schoolgirls he went swimming with at dams or pools on neighbouring farms wore bikinis but the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now when the girl came up the bank and sat beside him, the drops of water beading off her dark legs the only points of light in the earth–smelling deep shade” (Clungston, 2010). This love would by any other means be normal, but since it is during the apartheid it is against the law. Eventually, Thebedi becomes pregnant at eighteen with Paulus’s child. In order to protect herself Thebedi marries another man, Njabulo a laborer on the Eysendyck farm, like her father. When Paulus returns home on holiday he learns of the child, fearing that it is his, knowing the legal issues he could face, he goes to see the child. When Paulus sees the child “He struggled for a moment with a grimace of tears, anger, and self–pity. He said, "You haven't been near the house with it?" (Clungston, 2010) Both Paulus and Thebedi know the consequences if the child is found out about. Two days later Paulus returns to Thebedi’s hut and drowns the child. The baby had been given a proper burial until “someone—one of the other laborers? Their women?—had reported that the baby was almost white, that, strong and healthy, it had died suddenly after a visit by the farmer's son” (Clungston, 2010). In the end, a trial resulted in a “not guilty” verdict because of insufficient proof. Each one of these events is dramatic. The main themes of “The Welcome Table” are impartial Christ-like love and racism. Walker’s story “The Welcome Table” never mentions a table except under the title it quotes an old spiritual. We are never given a name of the old woman in this story. This creates anonymity about the woman; this is tragic because she is unknown. Based on the description of the woman’s clothes the idea is given that “Perhaps she had known suffering “(Walker, 1973). In the story of the old black woman is described as, “the color of poor gray Georgia earth, beaten by king cotton and the extreme weather” (Walker, 1973). This old Black woman is on a mission. Even though there is no table in this story, the welcome table is a metaphor for impartial love. The old woman heads into a house of God expecting it to have impartial love. The church people discriminated against her because she is black. The good church folk are shocked. The reverend reminds her gently saying “Auntie, you know this is not your church” (Walker, 1973). The old woman thinks “as if one could choose the wrong one” (Walker, 1973). She brushes past them all and finds a seat near the back. Inside it is very cold, colder than usual. She ignores the request of an usher, referring to her as grandma, who asks her to leave. The ladies, who are celebrating the impartial love that they presumably have, finally insist and their husbands hurl her out. She is stunned, bewildered, and starts to sing a sad song. Then she notices something coming down “the long gray highway.” She grins toothlessly and giggles with joy, for it is none other than Jesus, and he is walking toward her. When he came close, he said, “Follow me” and the old woman “bounded down to his side with all the bob and speed of one so old” (Walker, 1973). The two of them walk on together. She tells him her troubles, and he listens kindly, smiling warmly. Jesus provides her with the welcome table. The people in the church never knew what happened to her. Some said they saw her jabbering to herself and walking off down the highway all alone. “They guessed maybe she had relatives across the river, some miles away, but none of them really knew.” The theme in this story is racism and hardship. The themes in both these stories are racism and hardship. Both women are survivors of a life of racial unjust. These stories are common to everyday life changes and lessons. These hardships, that everyone normally sees, are much more dramatic in a society that discriminates against color.
References:
Clugston, R.W. (2010). Journey into Literature. Retrieved from https:// content.ashford.edu
Milhauser, S. (2008, October 3). The ambition of the short story. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/books/review/Millhauser-t.html?_r=2
Walker, A., (1973). In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
