Short Story 'The Welcome Table'

“He was a quiet , soft-spoken man who wore old-timey clothes, fedoras, button-down wool coats, suspenders, and dressed neatly at all times, regardless of how dirty his work made him” (Mcbride 6).“His father was a black man, a railroad brakeman, and his mother a Native American, so he had a lot of indian in his face: brown skin, slanted brown eyes, high cheekbones and a weather-beaten outdoor look about him..” (Mcbride 120).The writing is figurative by the use of similes and metaphors. “In running from her past, Mommy has created her own nation, a rainbow coalition that descends on her house every Christmas and Thanksgiving.” (277)“Her grits tasted like sand and butter, with big lumps inside that caught in your teeth and suck in your gums.”(McBride 67) . “Ma cried, and she wailed and wailed, the sound of her cries circling the house like a spirit and settling on all the corridors and beds where we ay, weeping in silence.”(McBride 128) Allusions are used to give a timeframe of the time period by talking about issues.“She actually liked Malcolm X. She put in nearly the same category as her civil rights heroes, Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Eleanor

The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to

Another big point in Prose’s essay is the assignments associated with high school literature. She argues that teachers make students write around the books and not about the books they read. “No wonder students are rarely asked to consider what was actually written by these hopeless racists and sociopaths. Instead, they’re told to write around the book, or, better yet, write their own books,” (430). The assignments that teachers give these days are nto about the book or the story itself. They usually ask the student to rewrite the ending, or ask what the student would do if they were in the same situation as the character. Prose argues that high school students are seen as having the same experience as some of the characters they read about, such as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. “And is it any wonder that

She is acknowledging that she is not perfect and that she has flaws too. Due to the mistreatment she faced she found it difficult to trust white people at first. However she could see the intentions behind what happened, albeit misguided. The church was trying to save them, and yet they were doing the exact same things they were preaching

Thomas C. Foster in ‘How to Read Literature like a Professor’, references the different literary devices that authors use in literature, in order to enhance the reader’s ability to critically analyze literature from any time period. Foster expands the reader’s understanding of literature by exploring the profound impact of symbols and common themes on literature.

-As readers we come across many details in literature that hole significance, however the common reader usually misses the deeper

Throughout the story there is much detail about what is happening without telling the readers everything which leaves all the details that were left out up to the reader’s imagination. It is a masterpiece that plays on the emotions and never-ending imagination of its readers. Because not all the small details were given by the author, readers are obligated to dissect the story and try to understand exactly what Joyce Carol Oates meant by what she wrote and the meaning behind this story. What makes this story beautiful even though it is full of evil is the way it was written, how every action, and dialogue within the story is carefully thought through, making every part of the text essential to the overall

“The Welcome Table” was written in third-person omniscient point of view. Third-person omniscient is a the point of view in which the narrator or speaker is not a part of the story. A speaker using third-person omniscient point of view is all knowing, they know the point of view of every character in the story. “Using an omniscient narrator gives you the advantage of moving seamlessly from one point of view to another” (Sunday Independent, 2006) “Some of those who saw her there on the church step spoke words about her that were hardly fit to be heard, others held their pious

It was not all fun and games, breaking this barrier. Some challenges that she faced were worries for her safety, prayers given from her families and minister because this journey was dangerous going to a white school, and finally there was a mob after them. According to Beals the text says ,”...protect those youngsters and bring them home. Flood the holy spirit into the hearts and minds of those who attack our children.” This contradicts with the fact that they are risking their safety because the minister is asking to protect them from the danger along the way. Her initial reaction to these events was that she was nervous because everything around her seems to be going into slow motion. The text says,” walked on the concrete path toward the front door of the school, the same path the Arkansas National Guard had blocked us from days before. We approached the stairs, our feet moving in unison to the rhythm of the marching click-clack sound of the Screaming Eagles. Step by step we climbed upward-where none of my people had ever before walked as a student. We stepped up the front door of Central High School and crossed the threshold into that place where angry segregationist mobs had forbidden us to go.” This states that she is feeling like everything is going in slow motion because she is only walking

    One of the best ways to fully understand an era is to study its literature. The printed word has the incredible capacity to both reflect and shape the hopes, fears, and ideologies of the time. This is very evident when reading literature from 1960's America, a turbulent period in the history of our country. While the authors' styles are very different, there are definite thematic patterns and characteristics evident in many of their works. For one, there is a prevalent concept of the unenlightened masses. This concept serves as a foil for the enlightened few often represented as the main characters and more specifically as the authors themselves. There also

As time went on she became more involved in church, and religious activities. She got baptized and saved at the church that she always attended. She grew to love the black church that she grew up mocking. The old lady that always sat in the front row made her realize how deep the roots of her church were.

Considering is analyzing. The symbols were the specification of the season. It was winter and below freezing. This symbolizes her life cycle being about over. The church was cold and freezing inside (a sign of death). Another symbol of her death was the storyline that said “as if she were an old collie turned out to die”. (Clugston, 2010) The old woman also had the color of poor gray Georgia earth. Her description of her dress she wore being black and the description of her face being dazed and sleepy, and shut now like an ancient door symbolizes her death.

All characters represents an actual person in American society during the 1930s. The linking between the book, characters and The Great

The opening paragraph of the story describes how peaceful the dead woman looked in her bed before her children could say the final goodbye to their loving mother. Her facial features looked calm, and her long white hair was carefully arranged as though she wanted to leave this world as beautiful and blameless as her life was. At the beginning of the story her character was introduced as a "sweet soul that lived in that body," who managed to raise two successful children alone by "arming them with a strict moral code, teaching them religion, without weakness, and duty, without compromise."

It also follows the story of Nicodemus who came to Jesus in the night and was taught about being born again. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and was referred to as “a ruler of the Jews”(he was a member of the Sanhedrin). Whereas, the woman was just that, a woman, without a husband and a Samaritan––who were even more despised by the Jews. She went to get water at the well in the middle of the day when it was the hottest because that’s when no one else would be there. She met Jesus when it was light, whereas, Nicodemus came in the night. Both were alone with Jesus, but Nicodemus went in the night to hide because he was ashamed of being seen with Jesus. The woman had no intention of hiding, in fact she didn’t even know who Jesus was.