In
"The Welcome Table", Alice Walker, the author of the Pulitzer Prize
winning novel, The Color Purple,
shows her literary genius in her short story portrayal of an elderly woman's
last day on earth. She catches the
reader’s attention immediately with a short poem of only five lines. The poem
basically conveys the image of what the title suggests. Sitting at a dinner table where you are a
welcome guest, and feeling comfortable enough with the host that you can talk
freely about anything, including painful life experiences. It also has a spiritual message of hope for
the future perceived through the religion of Christianity, which is illustrated
by indicating to who the host of the dinner party is (God), “walking and
talking with Jesus” and “one of these days”.
Ironically, the depth of the story shows the majority of followers of Christianity
in this story as inhospitable and hateful.
Like most of Walker’s literary work, “The Welcome Table” focuses on the
life of an African American woman (Clugston, 2010); hence, there are many concepts
that can be analyzed in this story, including the historical struggles of
African American women, or the illogical biases of racism; however, a
distinctive approach would be to analyze the religious aspect of this
story. This story is a criticism of Christian
hypocrisy, while simultaneously, celebrating the hope that comes from faith in
Jesus in a dismal world.
The
story starts with a very detailed description of a poor elderly African
American woman. Using words such as
"withered, remnants, old, aging, ancient, worn, and wrinkled", gives
the impression of her being elderly. The
depiction of her wearing her best attire that she owns, as suggested by the
words “Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes”, yet were mildewed, worn, stained, and missing
a button, tells of her poor financial condition.
Many
literary masterpieces are riddled in symbolism.
These symbols are given meaning by way of the human collective
unconscious. According to Carl Jung, the
collective unconscious, which is a universal conscious that all human beings
share throughout history manifests itself through archetypes (Herghenhahn,
& Olson, 2007). Archetypes are “innate
predispositions to experience and symbolize certain situations in a distinct
way” (Cowgill, 1997, para.5). We as
human routinely associate certain words with these symbols and experiences,
which is a thought pattern that we have inherited (Lewin, 2009).. When
literature is looked at with a critical eye, the demonstration of symbols can
really begin to appear. Mythological
literature is deeply interwoven with representative symbols (Clugston, 2010). When viewing literature with a critical eye,
the use of archetypes can become very evident than if the passages were read for
entertainment purposes.
An
archetypal comparison of being poor and elderly is symbolic of a loneliness, misery
without hope, as is the color gray (Hemphill, 1996), being weather
beaten, and overworked: words also used to describe the old woman. Among all this dreariness, the persona hints
of optimism by using the word “uplifted” and the woman’s hope that abounds in
Jesus, by reference of the “glittering cross that crowned”, regardless of her
depressing situation.
The
author’s criticism of Christian hypocrisy continues as she describes the
atrocious thoughts, attitudes, and actions of the pious white members of the
church. For them, the elderly black lady
was a threat, regardless of her harmless character, being not only elderly, but
also forgetful, and nearly blind. She
represented the illogical fear of servitude, evil negativity, and retribution
from the up and coming laws, especially for the women. The men seem to take more of a backseat to
the situation, suggesting that the contemptuous feelings were mainly coming
from the women, while the men were just doing what they knew the women
wanted. Later in the story, it mentions
that the Pastor and the usher possibly referred to her as a family member, which
could explain their gentler, but still uncompassionate, demeanor towards
her. The possible implications of the
men having an African American woman as kin, as well as the old woman herself
possibly having Caucasian blood as
indicated with having blue brown eyes, and a thin nose, once again, indicates
the hypocrisy and fear of the white church members.
The
founder of Christianity was Jesus Christ.
According to the first four books of the New Testament, he lived his
whole life with gentleness, kindness, love, and forgiveness. He dined with wrongdoers, healed the sick and
the blind, ministered to the poor, and his dying words were that of forgiveness
for those who put him to death. He
despised religious piety without love and compassion, just as he portrayed in
his reproof of the Pharisees. Although
the church members were obviously well off as suggested by their “leather
bagged and shoed, with good calfskin gloves to keep out the cold”, instead of
treating the old woman with compassion and love as Jesus would have, they look
at her with contempt and treated her cruelly by throwing her out into the
cold. As people claiming to follow
Jesus, he would not have approved.
It
was actually quite funny when the narrator went on to say “they felt at once
justified and scornful……inside the church, it was warmer. They sang, they
prayed. The protection and promise of God’s impartial love grew more not less
desirable as the sermon gathered fury and lashed itself out above their
penitent heads.” Although they were not
penitent in the least, they were correct in desiring God’s impartial love,
because the bible teaches that even the most wretched can and will be forgiven
if they truly were repentant. True
repentance would result in their own impartiality against those whom they hold
prejudices; whether it be justified or illogical.
However,
the old woman, on the other hand, regardless of her painful life experiences,
she kept her faith. It also appeared
that she was used to being mistreated, but did not allow it to bother her. She simply brushed it off without so much as
a thought. Although she has had many
grievances against others, she held no disdain, but remained pleased, as
indicated when she was thrown out. She
was bewildered, but not scornful. She
simply was bothered because they had interrupted her worship, which she again
picked up again soon thereafter.
The
climax to the story is when she sees Jesus approach her asking her to follow
him. She begins to walk joyfully with
him, until her heart gave out, but spiritually continued walking with him,
straight over the treetops to Heaven.
Although one could see her as delusional up until the point of death,
since those who saw her walking saw no one with her, I do not prefer to believe
she was at that point. I rather like
have the perspective of seeing the poor old woman’s end in being reunited with
the one person that gave her hope throughout her deeply trying life! Although the end resulted in her death,
ironically, I did not feel any sadness, but delighted in her having such a
“delusion” in her last hours.
Alice
Walker’s portrayal of an old African American woman living in the south
previously before civil rights had its reach was a sad story indeed. The old woman had known suffering and
mistreatment throughout her whole life.
Her day of restful peace had finally come. Although her story is one of racial hatred
and being mistreated, even from those who are supposed to treat her lovingly
and kindly the most, her story still ends triumphal even in contrast to her
demise through her continued faith in Christ regardless of her situation.
References
Clugston,
R. W. (2010). Journey into literature.
San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education,
Inc.
Retrieved from: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2
Cowgill,
C. (1997). Carl Jung. Muskingum University
History of Psychology Archives.
Retrieved
from: http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/jung.htm
Hemphill,
M. (1996). A note on adults' color-emotion associations. The Journal of Genetic
Psychology,
157(3),
275-275. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 228554982?accountid=32521
Herghenhahn,
B.R., Olson, Matthew H. (2007). An introduction to Theories of Personality
(7th
Ed.).Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall
Lewin,
N. (2009). Jung on War, Politics and Nazi
Germany: Exploring the Theory of Archetypes
and
the Collective Unconscious. London, GBR: Karnac Books. Retrieved from: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ashford/docDetail.action?docID=10478424&p00=archetypal%20approach%20literature%20criticism
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