Comparative Paper of Race/Ethnicity
Comparative Paper of Race/Ethnicity
Kimberly Stratton Ballantyne
ENG 125 Introduction to Literature
Fawn VonFrohling
March 28, 2011
Racial background and ethnicities are represented in the short stories “Country Lovers”, “The Welcome Table”, and the poem “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl”. All of these stories have a main character or protagonist black female. All three of these women deal with some degree of discrimination because of their color. The hardships that these women suffer during their life can be suffered by anyone but growing up in a discriminatory situation creates a more dramatic story.
The main themes in “Country Lovers” are love and racial politics. Country Lovers was written during a time when Africa was suffering from racial segregation. This story has irony throughout the entire story.
Thebedi and Paulus grow up together and they fall in love. They grew up in Africa during the apartheid when their country did not allow interracial relationships. Paulus Eysendyck was the son of the farm owner and Thebedi’s father worked on that farm. They both knew they could not be together publicly. During the apartheid in Africa it was illegal to have an interracial relationship. There are several dramatic effects in this story. The first is when the narrator talks about Paulus going away to school “This usefully coincides with the age of twelve or thirteen; so that by the time early adolescence is reached, the black children are making along with the bodily changes common to all, an easy transition to adult forms of address, beginning to call their old playmates missus and baasie little master” (Clungston, 2010).
There’s loss of innocence and forbidden love as described here when Paulus watches Thebedi wade in the water “The schoolgirls he went swimming with at dams or pools on neighbouring farms wore bikinis but the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now
Kimberly Stratton Ballantyne
ENG 125 Introduction to Literature
Fawn VonFrohling
March 28, 2011
Racial background and ethnicities are represented in the short stories “Country Lovers”, “The Welcome Table”, and the poem “What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl”. All of these stories have a main character or protagonist black female. All three of these women deal with some degree of discrimination because of their color. The hardships that these women suffer during their life can be suffered by anyone but growing up in a discriminatory situation creates a more dramatic story.
The main themes in “Country Lovers” are love and racial politics. Country Lovers was written during a time when Africa was suffering from racial segregation. This story has irony throughout the entire story.
Thebedi and Paulus grow up together and they fall in love. They grew up in Africa during the apartheid when their country did not allow interracial relationships. Paulus Eysendyck was the son of the farm owner and Thebedi’s father worked on that farm. They both knew they could not be together publicly. During the apartheid in Africa it was illegal to have an interracial relationship. There are several dramatic effects in this story. The first is when the narrator talks about Paulus going away to school “This usefully coincides with the age of twelve or thirteen; so that by the time early adolescence is reached, the black children are making along with the bodily changes common to all, an easy transition to adult forms of address, beginning to call their old playmates missus and baasie little master” (Clungston, 2010).
There’s loss of innocence and forbidden love as described here when Paulus watches Thebedi wade in the water “The schoolgirls he went swimming with at dams or pools on neighbouring farms wore bikinis but the sight of their dazzling bellies and thighs in the sunlight had never made him feel what he felt now
References: Clugston, R. W., (2010). Journey into Literature. San Diego: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved March 20, 2011 from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUENG125.10.2/sections/h3.2?search=Country%20Lovers Walker, A., (1973). In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 81-87. Smith, P., (1991). Life According to Motown. What it’s Like to Be a Black Girl (for those of you who aren’t). Tia Chucha Press.