Welcome Table Theme

Theme of The Welcome Table
Stephanie Brutus
ENG 125: Introduction to Literature
Instructor: Corey King
July 23, 2012

Theme of The Welcome Table
The short story I have chosen to write about is "The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker. The story speaks about an elderly African American woman that walked quite a distance to a church for the purpose of praising and worshiping her lord and savior Jesus Christ. She is unwelcome by the members of this congregation simply because of the color of her skin. She is stared at by the white parishioners; asked to leave the church by the pastor and an usher, and ultimately tossed out by force and still none of that fazed the old woman because of her faith. The story also confronts the racial tension
A symbol in literature is used to express a meaning opposite to its standard meaning
(Clugston, 2010) and this story is filled with symbolisms. An example of symbolism can be identified from the very beginning of the story; the desires of the old woman is clear she want to “ sit at the Welcome table, shout her troubles over, walk and talk with Jesus, and tell God how you treat me” (Clugston, 2010) she is ready for this journey to come to an end. “There was a dazed and sleepy look in her aged blue-brown eyes” (Clugston, 2010) the blue in this sentence symbolizes the peace the woman felt due to her faith. Another great example was in this passage “and so the gazed nakedly upon their own fear transferred; a fear of the black and the old, a terror of the unknown as well as of the deeply known” (Clugston, 2010). The word black in this passage is not only in reference the old woman’s skin color, but it also symbolizes the wickedness done to people of color at the hands of the “white” man during that
The beginning of the story is told from the white people’s perspective as they witness the old black woman come into their church. Then it is shifted to the pastor that refers to the old woman as “Auntie” when he says to her “you know this is not your church”? (Clugston, 2010) and then to the usher that asked her leave. The point of view again switches to the women inside the church, who took the old black woman being in their church as a personal insult to the point where their husbands had to take matters into their own hands and forcefully remove the woman from the church. From this point the story is told from the old woman’s perspective and towards the end it is told in more of an objective (detached) third person point of view.
There were many literary elements at play in this story, but we will discuss the two at hand which is symbolism and point of view. The writer’s description of the main character enables the reader to visualize the woman in their minds as an old, poor, lonely, and battered woman that has survived much pain throughout her life. Yet one can only imagine the writer is speaking