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 ...view middle of the document...
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...
