LITERATURE

A comparison of “Country Lovers” and “The Welcome Table”

[Name of student]

A comparison of “Country Lovers” and “The Welcome Table”

“Country Lovers” written by Nadine Gordimer is a story of an inter-racial love between a slave and her master's son. It demonstrates how the prejudice and racism destroys the innocent. The story opens, and within the first paragraph, one recognizes that biases are a sign of these times. Children who used to play together or no longer doing so by school age, and by adolescence the slave children refer to their owners children as “missus and bassie little master” (as cited in Clugston, 2010 “Country Lovers” para. 1).

Another example of prejudice is found when Paulus goes to meet Thebedi to see for himself if there is a baby. Thebedi greets “him with hands brought together and a token movement representing the respectful bob with which she was accustomed to acknowledge she was in the presence of his father or mother” (as cited in Clugston, 2010 “Country Lovers” para. 10). This practice implies that Thebedi is subjective to Paulus just as she is to his mother or father (Kwaku, 2000).

Yet, another example of racism depicted in this story occurs when the authorities are alerted of the infant's death. Thebedi testified in a “preparatory examination” (as cited in Clugston, 2010 “Country Lovers” para. 24), that she saw Paulus pour something into the infant's mouth, but Paulus threatened that if she told he would shoot her. Two years later, when the case was brought to trial, Thebedi recanted her statement and claimed she did not see what had transpired in the house. No protection was offered Thebedi for her testimony against Paulus. Because Thebedi recanted her statement, the case was dropped against Paulus for lack of evidence. The courts even considered Thebedi as an accomplice in the crime, but no charges were brought for lack of sufficient proof (Clugston). In most cases, when the victim of a crime has been threatened, protection is awarded in order that the testimony is protected. In Thebedi case, she was most certainly a victim, yet not only was she not protected, she was also accused in having a role in the murder of her own child.

Even if “The Welcome Table” by Alice Walkers was written in a third persons narrative, she was still able to capture the interest of the reader in the way she intricately described her character, that there was almost no room for further interpretations from the reader. The story's plot has also been strategic because it extends to the interest and lives of many readers. Every person, might have at some point experienced maltreating others, or being maltreated. With this, there is always a way for any reader to relate. One strange thing I noticed about the story though is that its setting was not established sooner in the story. It was only when the woman went inside a church that the reader got a clearer idea of the ...