The Devastation of Racism

The Devastation of Racism

William Wertman

ENG 125

Lesa Hadley

February 05, 2012

The Devastation of Racism

Racism is prevalent throughout the whole world from the United States to Southern Africa; it is something that has been alive for a long time. The slavery issue is not just for one race, it has had its grasp on many different cultures from the Jews to the slavery of African Americans. It seems that throughout the history of mankind someone has had a grudge on people of different races. Because of the devastation that racism has had on the world writers like Nadine Gordimer and Alice Walker have taken it upon themselves to symbolize racism in short stories.

According to Allan H. Pasco 1991; "A short story is at best, a literary short prose fiction" (pg 411). Short stories are also according to Nadine Gordimer in the Kenyan Review (1968), "the short story is simply another, the most obvious, kind of fantasy' (pg 460). Short stories can have more meaning behind them than actually meets the eye and at the same time can be a part of a person's imagination that is brought to life on paper. "The Welcome Table" and "Country Lovers" are both this type of short story. Both of these stories were written by women that have backgrounds that lead them to an understanding of what racism can actually do to a person and a nation as well. Alice Walker and Nadine Gordimer even though they are worlds apart not by race but actually continents apart both wrote short stories that have affected readers for a long time with the way that both of them relate to the destruction that racism brings about.

Alice Walker was an African American that was born to a share cropper family in 1944. She completed her degree from college in 1965 and in 1970 wrote the short story "The Welcome Table" (Clugston, 2010). "The Welcome Table" is about an elderly black woman who walked into a white church to have service. This of course was written during the times when our country was segregated and she was not allowed to worship with white people. She was thrown out of the church and while standing in the front of the church in confusion she seen Jesus walking toward her. She was then told to follow him and she done so hastily, while walking and talking with Jesus she never realized how far she had gone and basically she had walked herself to death (Clugston, 2010). The devastation of racism that shines through in this story is that a woman wanted to worship God and because of the hatred that racism brings they threw her out and she wondered aimlessly until she died. The racial issues that went on in America also went on in other places of the world even to a place that African Americans usually outnumber whites five to one and that place is, South Africa.

Nadine Gordimer was born in 1923 to white parents who were well off. She grew up in South Africa seeing what the suppression from apartheid done to the black majority in the country (Clugston, 2010). It was because of the suppression she witnessed that she wrote so passionately about racism and its damage on cultures. In 1975 she wrote the short story "Country Lovers". This story is about a young white plantation owner's son that falls in love with one of the black slaves on his father's farm. They go on to carry on a relationship in secret and she eventually gets pregnant with his child. Of course this has to end the relationship because this was forbidden. He eventually comes to see the child and while seeing the child, murders it. By the end of the story the affair becomes known through the court system and both parents are basically looked at badly because of what was done. (Clugston, 2010). The devastation of racism as in "The Welcome Table" is death. In Alice Walker's short story an elderly lady dies and in the short story "Country Lovers", Nadine Gordimer shows that even children become players in this devastation.

Nadine Gordimer was recognized for her writings by winning the Nobel Peace prize in 1991. She won this for fighting the apartheid that was going on in South Africa since she was a little girl (Eckstein, B.J., 1991). She was a very well know writer because of her stance against what was going on in South Africa. Alice Walker was an accomplished writer as well winning the Pulitzer Prize and an American Book Award for her work on books and short stories that dealt with many different areas the main being racism ( JBHE Foundation, 2001). Both of these women were accomplished writers and wrote from two different continents but were able to connect their issues without even noticing it.

In the "Welcome Table" Jesus walks up and tells her to follow him in a roundabout way. The woman knows and trusts him because he listens and shows comfort to her, in this story Jesus is the symbol of love. In "Country Lovers" the symbol of love is the husband to the black girl who is willing to marry and love her even though he knows the child does not belong to him (Clugston, 2010). Even when we have stories that show how much destruction comes from racism there is still a little hope when you can find a symbol in the story that shows unconditional love. Another comparison in both stories is the women. Both of the stories showing women to be silent, this could be a symbol of the times that both these women grew up in when women were supposed to be silent and not have a voice. In "The Welcome Table" the women wanted the elderly woman gone and with glances let the men know and in "Country Lovers" the women kept silent when Paulus came to see the child (Clugston, 2010). Unfortunately the silence in "Country Lovers" wasn't broken until after the death of the child. Racism has a way of keeping people's mouths closed seeing they don't want to be a part of something that is forbidden.

Walker and Gordimer were both activists in the fight against racism; both of these women were not ones to be silent. Walker wrote about the things that she had seen in her life from the threaten letters from the Klu Klux Klan to her marriage ending in divorce due to racial issues in the south (JBHE, 2001).You can tell this by the way she puts compassion into the "Welcome Table" showing that when a women is set out to do something she does it and the little old black woman was going to church rather it was a white church or not. Then you have Gordimer that also writes with compassion because of her dealings with Apartheid. This can be told by the way she describes the love that