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The Welcome Table vs Country Lovers

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The Welcome Table vs Country Lovers
The Welcome Table vs Country Lovers
Jonni Duncan
Instructor Karen Lawler
English 125
June 25, 2013

Thesis Have you ever experienced discrimination and/or racism? It is my belief that, sadly, most of us have; for this paper I have chosen to compare and contrast the literary works, “The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker, and “Country Lovers” by Nadine Gordimer. Both of these literary pieces give the reader awareness of the pain and suffering endured by the two African-American characters that were subject to racial discrimination and the superior mentality of those that participated in the discrimination. Discrimination and racism is the core issue in both of these short stories; I will address the subject of racism in various ways. A similarity of both short stories is that the narrator reveals the characters through observation which means both stories are told in the third-person omniscient point of view. I will explore how the narrator drew me in when reading each of the stories. I can relate to to each through experiences in my life's journey, and will explore those emotions a bit as well. The stories authors will also be compared and contrasted and compared.

“The Welcome Table” Storyline

“The Welcome Table” story was intriguing to me because the author describes the old woman as one who does not have emotional ties with the people around her. “The Welcome Table” theme is racism. I was moved deeply by ''The Welcome Table,'' in which an old, dying black woman is evicted by bodily force from a white church, but then meets-up with Jesus on the highway. I believe the old woman is bitter from the days she was a slave to the white people. Because of this, it appears she has focused only on Jesus for some time now; she knows it will soon be time to join Him. The old woman in the story is a spiritual woman, but bitter, and is so looking forward to her day of meeting with her Lord Jesus Christ, it appears she cares little about anything

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