Short Story "The Welcome Table"
Understanding “The Welcome Table”
One of the main focus points of all literary works is the theme of the story that is being read. To identify a story s theme you must look beyond what is happening in the story but look at what the story is really about. In this short paper I will be covering the theme of “The Welcome Table” and examples of certain elements of the story.
Theme of “The Welcome Table”
When reading writings of any kind you must try and understand what the story is really about instead of looking too much into what the story is being wrote about. For lots of pieces of literature that was written in the era before the 1950’s when writers had an underlying meaning for their writings that weren’t noticed unless read closely. In the short story “The Welcome Table” written by Alice Walker, you see the plot immediately start when an older black lady is at the front steps of a white community’s church. The story is obviously written in a time when black people where thought to be unequal to white people. Considering that the author of this short story was born in 1944 and growing up in a time when racism against black people was at the highest point. Throughout the entire story the theme is racism. Many of the people in the story saw the old lady as an invasion or maid, to the young usher telling the lady that this wasn’t her church. Then after the ladies in the church practically made the men throw this harmless old black lady out of a church, you could tell the theme had to be about race.
The tone throughout the entire story that these people had against this old black lady, was not necessarily hatred but of disgust. The women made their husbands grab this old lady and take her outside into the cold. I wasn’t like this one old black lady was there to hurt anyone of disrespect the white people in any way but to come to church. As we look father into the story after the old lady is outside she sets the tone for more of an uplifting tone. As she is
One of the main focus points of all literary works is the theme of the story that is being read. To identify a story s theme you must look beyond what is happening in the story but look at what the story is really about. In this short paper I will be covering the theme of “The Welcome Table” and examples of certain elements of the story.
Theme of “The Welcome Table”
When reading writings of any kind you must try and understand what the story is really about instead of looking too much into what the story is being wrote about. For lots of pieces of literature that was written in the era before the 1950’s when writers had an underlying meaning for their writings that weren’t noticed unless read closely. In the short story “The Welcome Table” written by Alice Walker, you see the plot immediately start when an older black lady is at the front steps of a white community’s church. The story is obviously written in a time when black people where thought to be unequal to white people. Considering that the author of this short story was born in 1944 and growing up in a time when racism against black people was at the highest point. Throughout the entire story the theme is racism. Many of the people in the story saw the old lady as an invasion or maid, to the young usher telling the lady that this wasn’t her church. Then after the ladies in the church practically made the men throw this harmless old black lady out of a church, you could tell the theme had to be about race.
The tone throughout the entire story that these people had against this old black lady, was not necessarily hatred but of disgust. The women made their husbands grab this old lady and take her outside into the cold. I wasn’t like this one old black lady was there to hurt anyone of disrespect the white people in any way but to come to church. As we look father into the story after the old lady is outside she sets the tone for more of an uplifting tone. As she is
References: Clugston, R W. (2010). Journey into Literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books Bradley, D. (1984, January 08). Novelist Alice Walker Telling the Black Woman’s Story. The New York Times on the Web. Retrieved August 05, 2012, from http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/04/specials/walker-story.html