Comparison and Contrast of Two Literary Works

The short stories “Country Lovers” and “The Welcome Table” have some similarities and differences. Gordimer’s “Country Lover’s” and Walker’s “The Welcome Table” are both considered short stories and have racial disparities. The two stories share some common general features with racial themes but are also different in some ways. This essay will compare and contrast the two literary works, “Country Lovers” written by Nadine Gordimer in 1975 and “The Welcome Table” written by Alice Walker in 1970 in aspects of the racial segregation discrimination of blacks and whites and with the literary elements of theme. These literary works are the foundation that will allow the reader to increase a better understanding of how African Americans suffered in slavery days when the harsh discrimination of racism and segregation caused so much adversity in America.

To give a little background on segregation and racial disparities, we will look into how it was viewed in America in the era of racism. Segregation was a common racist action that stemmed from the Jim Crow Laws where African Americans were considered inferior to the white population. The Jim Crow Laws “…deprived African-Americans of their civil rights by defining blacks as inferior to whites…” (Anonymous, 2009). These heartless laws segregated the two ethnicities in civilization such as restrooms, buses, schools, restaurants, or any other establishment that they would interact. Segregation amongst the establishments would be labeled as “Colored” or “White” and was considered constitutional and legal under the Jim Crow Laws (Anonymous, 2009).

With the segregation era amongst blacks and whites in establishments and relationships, this essay will now discuss some of the comparisons in the literary works to support the racial segregation theories from the two works of “Country Lovers” and “The Welcoming Table”. “The Welcome Table” and “Country Lovers” both have clear themes of racial inequalities and segregation disparities that are apparent throughout both stories and create a hostile and cruel environment. A theme is defined as, “An idea, or message, that lies behind a literary work.” (Clugston, 2014, p. 395). In other words, it is the main idea or message that the author is portraying in their writings that he wants the audience to grasp. In Walker’s and Gordimer’s story, it shows segregation and racism in the very beginning of the stories.

For example, in “The Welcome Table”, the old woman attends an all-white church and is chastised by the congregation and is ordered to leave. The whites looked at her in horror. The author gave the readers a clear imagination with her narration and states: And so they gazed nakedly upon their own fear transferred; a fear of the black and the old, a terror of the unknown as well as of the deeply known. Some of those who saw her there on the church steps spoke words about her that were hardly fit to be heard, others held their pious peace; and some felt vague stirrings of pity, small and persistent and hazy, as if she were an old collie turned out to die. (Walker as cited in Clugston, 2014, p. 29).

The racial discrimination from the white church members is obvious in this scenario as it will be in “Country Lovers” when it is explained in this essay. The white people feared the blacks and old people as well. They talked about her in words that would be considered sinful. A church is a place to worship and praise their higher being. Most churches promote kindness and a racial-free ambiance. This scene in the story is absolutely degrading and humiliating and supports the racial theme that is set and created a discriminating environment. This can be compared to racial discrimination in “Country Lovers” as well.

“Country Lovers” was also written with a racial theme throughout the entire story and is introduced in the beginning the story from the first line. The author states: A story about forbidden love on a South African farm.

The farm children play together when they are small, but once the white children go away to school they soon don’t play together any more, even in the holidays. Although most of the black children get some sort of schooling, they drop every year farther behind the grades passed by the white children; the childish vocabulary…white children have surpassed these with the vocabulary of boarding-school…” (Gordimer as cited in Clugston, 2014, p. 38). This story depicts racism with the details of a white boy that is involved in a forbidden, romantic relationship with a black girl. In that era, it was considered atrocious for an interracial couple to be together. They were not allowed to have any sort of relationship and the blacks were servants and slaves to the whites.

Furthermore, it is written that black children did not have any schooling while the whites were allowed to get an education. Proof is given in the Civil Rights era timeframe. The blacks were able to go to segregated schools, but on May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court’s ruling on Brown v. Board of Education, stated that segregating blacks and whites in schools was unconstitutional. Furthermore, it allowed African American black students to attend the same schools that whites attended (Dougherty, 2001). The theme in racism and segregation with both stories were similar however the authors set completely different tones. We will now shift to the difference in tone for the two stories. The authors of the stories, “Country Lovers” and “The Welcome Table”, elaborated similar core concepts of racism and segregation habits, but both created a very different tone from the prejudice inequalities of blacks.

Clugston defines tone as “…the speaker’s attitude toward the reader or the subject.” (Clugston, 2014, p. 395) Tone can be defined as different feelings such as somber, spirited, sarcastic, loving, or sad to name a few. Tone is the attitude that the author wants to express in the literary work. “Country Lovers” initially created a tone of romance and happiness but ended with bitterness. Walker’s short story, “The Welcome Table” started with a cruel and hostile tone that ended with happiness. The following are examples and comparisons of the two literary works. The interracial couple in “Country Lovers” began their friendship at an early age and spawns into a beautiful romance and sexual relationship when they are about fifteen years old. Paulus is a white boy that is fascinated with Thebedi, a black girl, and thinks she is beautiful. He has many intimate conversations and makes love to her.

The author describes how he was not attracted to the beautiful white girls at the boarding school even though he probably should have been. “The schoolgirls…had never made him feel what he felt now when the girl came up the bank and sat beside him…” (Gordimer as cited in Clugston, 2014, p. 40). The romance led to a sexual encounter that he prized with happiness. “Country Lovers” began with a love story that ended on a bad note. “The Welcome Table” on the other hand, has the opposite tone. In the beginning of “The Welcome Table”, it started with a cruel, racial and hostile tone. The old, black woman is not greeted with open arms at the church. Instead, she is thrown out by the white ushers and cruelly talked about when they see the color of her skin and what she is wearing. “…church saw the age, the dotage, the missing buttons down the front of her mildewed black dress.

Others saw cooks, chaufferurs, maids, mistresses… jungle orgies in an evil place…” (Walker as cited in Clugston, 2014, p. 29). The whites did not look upon her as a lost soul that needed Jesus. They looked upon her as a poor black slave that was not welcome in the place of worship. The tone of the racial story changes after being thrown out of the church as she was walking along the highway. It ends with a happy tone when the woman she saw something coming towards her. “She started to grin, toothlessly, with short giggles of joy, jumping about and slapping her hands on her knees…For coming down the highway at a firm though leisurely pace was Jesus.” (Walker as cited in Clugston, 2014, p. 30.) Even though the white, segregated church initially saddened the old woman, it did not stop her from the joy she felt when she saw her savior. She grinned and slapped her knees out of pure joy and happiness! She talked to Jesus along the way and ended up dying.

However, even though she died, she went to a peaceful place in Heaven. The tone in “Country Lovers” began with a love story and ended with bitterness between the interracial couple. Thebedi married a black man and began to have a sexual relationship and became pregnant. When Paulus came home from school, he happily went to visit Thebedi and heard a baby crying. The tone soon shifts when he found out that Thebedi’s baby had a white complexion with fine hair. Paulus became overwhelmed with deep emotions when he comes to the conclusion that it is his own. “He struggled for a moment with grimace of tears, anger, and self-pity.” (Gordimer as cited in Clugston, 2014, p. 42). There is a change of tone to anger and went to see the child.

Thebedi waited at the door and “…heard small grunts from the hut, the kind of infant grunt that indicates a full stomach, a deep sleep.” (Gordimer as cited in Clugston, 2014, p. 43). The baby died the next day and a trial was set that accused Paulus of murdering the baby. After a year, the trial ended with a verdict of not guilty. Paulus quickly leaves the courtroom and Thebedi states, “It was a thing of our childhood, we don’t see each other anymore.” Thebedi was bitter and did not want to discuss the issue but let people know that they, did in fact, have a romance. This clearly shows the shift in tone from a love story to bitterness.

The short stories “Country Lovers” and “The Welcome Table” had some similarities and differences with racial disparities that were shown throughout both short stories. The two stories shared some common general features with racial themes but were also different in some ways. This essay compared and contrasted the two literary works, “Country Lovers” written by Nadine Gordimer in 1975 and “The Welcome Table” written by Alice Walker in 1970 in aspects of the racial and segregation discrimination. These literary works was the foundation that allowed the reader to increase a better understanding of how African Americans suffered in slavery days when the harsh discrimination of racism that caused so much adversity in America.

References
Anonymous. (2009, Feb 22). Jim Crow Era: A painful time. The Ledger Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/390309519?accountid=32521 Clugston, R. W. (2014). Journey into literature (2nd ed.). San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Dougherty, R. (2001, Mar 11). AFTER BROWN V. BOARD: HOPE, THEN COLDER REALITY BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION: A CIVIL RIGHTS MILESTONE AND ITS TROUBLED LEGACY. Boston Globe Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/405384635?accountid=32521