A Comparative Study of Alice Walker's 'Welcome Table' and Nadine Gordimer 's 'Country Lovers'

Alice Walkers Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self speaks about how ones perception of beauty affects ones self worth. From childhood we see that Walker was praised for both her beauty and intelligence leading her to become self absorbed and snobbish. At this point I found her to be a annoying child and when she refers to her siblings who were unable to go to the fair due to the lack of room in the car as the "unlucky ones" it seems though she thinks she is better than them. Though as she grows she gains respect for her older sister and brothers. At the age of ten Walker was shot in the eye by her brother while he was playing with a be-be gun leaving her eye blind and deformed. Overwhelmed by shame and self loathing as a result of her injury she

During the story, Revelation Mrs. Turpin and her husband, Claude are in their doctor’s office waiting room to check her husband’s ulcer on his leg. In the doctor’s office Mrs. Turpin starts to make racist remarks that attract the attention of everyone in the office. The story takes place during the civil rights movement in the south, so this was common people of the south talk about black in this matter. Mrs. Turpin is a Christian and should not being judged anyone, for example, she states” I sure am tired of buttering up niggers” this shows her true mindset. This begins to upset Mary Grace a girl that is in the office with her mother. Mary grace’s mother and Mrs. Turpin are having a conversation about how ungrateful Mary Grace acts. Mrs. Turpin completely angered Mary Grace when she says” If

In The Colour Purple, Walker cleverly uses the teachings of Christianity, a respected topic in American society, as the rose tinted lens to encase the key themes of racism and sexism throughout the novel. Furthermore, by doing so, she demonstrates the complexity of oppression at the time and provides insight into the stifling impact of traditional Christian teachings and the role this played on slowing the pace of meaningful reform. Through the common voice of Christianity, Walker portrays how black women can be both enslaved to, and liberated from, race and sex discrimination in American

In the beginning of the essay, Walker shares childhood event that help shape her character. She describes how when she was two, she got chosen to go to the fair by her father because of her beauty, “Take me, Daddy, I’m the prettiest” She reveals that she thought people admired and glorified her because “she is the cutest thing”. She felt that everyone “seem to hold their breath” in her presence. “I can tell they admire my dress, but it is my spirt, bordering my sassiness (womanishness), they secretly applaud.” She illistartes that she was also adored because of her personality, which was confident and self-assured until it all changed. “it was great fun being cute. But then, one day, it ended.” After her accident the doctor said “ Eyes are sympathetic, If one is blind, the other will likely become blind too” which “terrified’ her. Although this was a professional opinion, but it never became true physically but symbolically it showed that she was blind that she didn’t see the positive and beauty in life, which she felt people didn’t see that In herself.

She shows herself as cowardly when she was reeling after the accident, “For six years I do not stare at anyone, because I do not raise my head.”(444), she says, portraying her disgust for herself. Walker utilizes the tone of her writing to manipulate the progression of her attitude shift. For instance, in the stages soon after the accident she uses a very morbid and pessimistic tone to describe the events that are transpiring at that juncture of her life. Stating, “I do not pray for sight. I pray for beauty.”(445), proving that even though this accident has occurred she has still remained very resistant to a change in attitude. She also couples detail to multiply the effect that these strategies have on the reader because when she describes these events, the details she uses reflects the tone, so it visibly transmits the idea of her attitude at that phase, which would be much harder to achieve without these rhetorical techniques used appropriately. The dialogue also plays into this idea as well as it also reflects the current mood of the stage. For example, when she was still very young she used very flattering words as dialogue to complement the tone where she thought beauty was everything and being most beautiful was most important. “That girl’s a little mess.”(442), “And got so much sense!”(442), people bombard

Known for implementing religious views into her writing, Flannery O’Connor composes the short story, “Revelation”, which includes her views on morality and ethics in society. Through a religious lens, O’Connor writes of the life of a woman, Mrs. Turpin, who is in her forties and who regularly reminds herself that she is an acceptable member of society, because she is not “white trash” nor is she part of the lower class African Americans. Engulfed and blinded by her hypocrisy, the woman constantly judges those around her and is only polite to her African American workers so that they will continue to work for, thus all her “good deeds” are never truly genuine, because she does them in order to benefit herself. O’Connor portrays themes such

In The Welcome Table, we see an elderly African American dressed in her best clothing entering a place of worship. This place of worship happens to be a Caucasian place of worship and the parishioners worshiping within the walls of this church treat her unjustly. (Walker, 1973) Walker uses figurative language, and imagery to put the reader into the mind of the charters of the story. Figurative language is defined as the use of language in a non literal way to convey images and ideas, an example of this as used in The welcome table is" On her face centuries were folded into the circles around one eye, while around the other, etched and mapped as if for print, ages more threatened again to live." (Walker, 1973) We see the age and poise of this woman, her determination her world weary wisdom gained via her years, we see suffering and strife also we see the threat of her continuing to thrive and with each year, she is able to enter into their white society more and

her. The beginning of the story is told from the white people 's perspectives as they see an old black woman come to their church and go inside. Inside the church, the point of view switches to the usher who tells the old black lady to leave. The point of view then switches back to the white women inside the church, who take it as a personal insult and feel the most threatened about the old black lady being at their church. They rouse their husbands to throw the old lady out. The perspective then changes to the old black lady. This constant changing of point of view is useful in that it portrays the fears, thoughts, and feelings of almost everyone in the story. Firsthand, the reader is able to know what the people are thinking and why. In

In a world that is all too often obsessed with attaining spiritual enlightenment as if it were a twelve-step program to the gates of heaven, sometimes a voice comes along that transcends the myriad of confusing and contradictory rules that numerous religions use to shuffle followers to the promised land. In The Color Purple Alice Walker rises above the confines of gender and race in relation to religion. Her voice is also Celie’s voice—the voice of a person who has grappled with ideas of God and religion in order to allow an interpretation of a higher power that inspires characters within the book as well as its readers. The author draws attention to what happens when someone is forced to live by established ideologies that exclude rather than

Alice was born into a Quaker family and was raised in a logical and pious family. In spite of becoming a jaunty and frank woman Alice was originally introduced to this situation by her mother who had influenced her to fight for women rights.

As the family is getting ready to head out to their desired destination, the grandmother brings up a newspaper article about the Misfit in attempt of changing the family’s destination instead of wanting the family to be safe and happy. Her selfishness and able to manipulate others in order to achieve what she wants is demonstrated through that small part of the story. Also, she makes a great effort to look well-dressed even though her family is dressed casual. She mentions that “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” She is dressed in her best outfit, as if she were going to meet the lord which is ironic since before the day is out she will actually meet the lord. Having a suitable and ladylike appearance mattered more to her than anything else, even her own life. Despite her personality, the grandmother has important contradictions of her character. From her references to Jesus, the bible, and praying, it appears that she thinks of herself as a Christian

Although each literary piece used the same theme, the authors delivered their message of racism in different forms. In short stories “The theme is associated with an idea that lies behind the story”. (Clugston 2010) “The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker was written in short story form. Here Mrs. Walker tells a story in an omniscient third person point of view. She speaks of the main character in the story from the people seeing her approaching and then entering an all-white church. Written in eleven paragraphs, Mrs. Walker uses descriptive words to describe the old black lady and the incident from the onlookers the way they perceived her to be. Unlike the short story, the theme of a poem is rarely stated explicitly: it has to be looked for, discovered. And to identify it, you must consider the implications and representations of everything that appears in the poem”. (Clugston 2010) In the poem “What it is like to be a

Alice Walker who wrote “The Welcome Table” had issues of race and gender that was the center of her literary work and her social activism. She participated in civil rights demonstrations. (Clugston 2010). This short story has a theme of life and death. It shows the plot of the story, the point of view and has symbolism used to show the death of the old woman and what the church members thought of her as a black woman. (Clugston, 2010, Section 7.1 and 7.2) Later in the story, she is walking up the road with Jesus, who came to get her and take her to The Welcome Table that she always

In her essay "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens," Alice Walker speaks first about the untouchable faith of the

The emotional focus of Alice Walker's story is rage, red-hot and isolating.  As I read this piece, I became livid, not only at the thought of her devastating