Electing The Short Story 'The Welcome Table' By Alice Walker
The Welcome Table
Nadine Robinson
Eng 125 – Introduction to Literature
Instructor Mirranda Saake
May 2, 2011
Electing the short story “The Welcome Story”, by Alice Walker (1970) for me was an easy choice for me to write a critiqued essay about. I am using a reader response approach in my critical essay. I like this approach because of the initial dedication to her sister Clara Ward, “I’m going to sit at the welcome table, shout my troubles over, walk and talk with Jesus, tell God how you treat me, one of these days!” This statement indicates that the old woman in the story is a spiritual woman and is looking forward to her day of meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Welcome Table story was intriguing to me because the author describes the old woman as one who does not have emotional ties with the people around her, is alone, and does not have the luxuries of life that one would expect for a woman of her era in today’s time. The one luxury and seemingly the most important one anyone could ever have is her closeness with Jesus and the luxury of knowing that her time is here for her to join him for eternity. It is apparent the pain the woman has endured through her life just by the description of the condition of her body “beaten by king cotton and the extreme weather”, the condition …show more content…
Why would one want to open themselves up for ridicule and abuse if that is all they know to have been done to people of an African American heritage and being female on top of it only seems to make it worse as she was also alone and had no one to defend her. The old woman still has pride by dressing in her best clothes even though they seemed raggedy to others and walking into the church despite all the negativity around her. How brave and strong willed she
Nadine Robinson
Eng 125 – Introduction to Literature
Instructor Mirranda Saake
May 2, 2011
Electing the short story “The Welcome Story”, by Alice Walker (1970) for me was an easy choice for me to write a critiqued essay about. I am using a reader response approach in my critical essay. I like this approach because of the initial dedication to her sister Clara Ward, “I’m going to sit at the welcome table, shout my troubles over, walk and talk with Jesus, tell God how you treat me, one of these days!” This statement indicates that the old woman in the story is a spiritual woman and is looking forward to her day of meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Welcome Table story was intriguing to me because the author describes the old woman as one who does not have emotional ties with the people around her, is alone, and does not have the luxuries of life that one would expect for a woman of her era in today’s time. The one luxury and seemingly the most important one anyone could ever have is her closeness with Jesus and the luxury of knowing that her time is here for her to join him for eternity. It is apparent the pain the woman has endured through her life just by the description of the condition of her body “beaten by king cotton and the extreme weather”, the condition …show more content…
Why would one want to open themselves up for ridicule and abuse if that is all they know to have been done to people of an African American heritage and being female on top of it only seems to make it worse as she was also alone and had no one to defend her. The old woman still has pride by dressing in her best clothes even though they seemed raggedy to others and walking into the church despite all the negativity around her. How brave and strong willed she