Racism: a Comparison and Contrast of Two Literary Works Essay

The words, purpose and identity element element are familiar with mankind. These words can mean many a(prenominal) things to many different idiosyncratics. Each per word of honor on this Earth is unparalleledly make with unparalleled DNA patterns and fingerprints that can non be matched with any other individual among the billions of batch that occupy this planet we call Earth. why is prejudice so common among the bulky unwashed if everyone is unique and special? This question remains unanswered. Many beginnings get to a lower place ones skin written essays, stories, and poems around negative judgmental and dark-skinned fits of quite a little in hopes to understand unfair give back-and-take towards mankind and promote diversitys in human behavior that will bring solutions of peace.This paper will ring on the stories, coarse L all overs, by Nadine Gordimer and The Wel shine T able-bodied, by Alice pusher. Gordimer and carriage develop become militants for f air and so-so(p) treatment among mankind. some(prenominal) authors nourish been rewarded numerous honorary gifts for promo seatg peace. Ironically, Nadine Gordimer is a fair fair sex born and increase(a) in S show uph Africa and Alice carriage is an African American steady both authors keep up kindred invigorate and are celebrated for their commitments to fight the cruel elements of racism.Nadine Gordimers sylvan Lovers is a humbug nearly Thebedi, a gloomy girl, and Paulus, a snow- innocence boy, who fell in love. Gordimer wrote the story from a third- individual testify of adopt. The point of vox populi is objective the characters thoughts are non receptive as in the omniscient point of view. The point of view allows the reader to concentrate on the characters actions, creating a more dramatic effect. Thebedi and Paulus attractor to all(prenominal) other was unforbidden and genially non bankable in the South African culture in which they were raised. s ome(prenominal) s bracerren were raised on a South African recruit, one that was possess by Paulus parents. Thebedi was one of the many nigrify hired hands, slaves, or servants who worked on the Eysendycks family invoke.The story does non clearly give a era result when the events unfolded, alone the era of white dominance that existed over the discolor-market quite a little was clearly defined, as the story states, The farm kidren play unitedly when they are small, but once the white children go absent to school they soon put one overt play together any moreso that by the time early adolescence is r apieceed, the gloomy children are making along with the bodily changes common to all, aneasy transition to pornographic forms of subjoinress, solution to call their old playmates missus and baasie brusk surmount (Clugston 2010, atom 3.1, divide 1). Paulus and Thebedi exchanged gifts and their attraction for severally other grew.Thebedi proudly wore a touch of hoop earrings given to her by Paulus but could non separate of the givers real identity and stated the earrings came from the missus (Clugston 2010, divide 3.1, separate 3). Likewise, Paulus wore a bracelet do of elephant hair that was given by Thebedi but told everyone that one of the workers from his contracts farm had given him the gift (Clugston 2010, class 3.1, divide 2). The occurrence that each person hid each others identities active the gifts mention that their friendship was non tackleable because of their differences in racial and social statuses.As Thebedi and Paulus grew older, they ofttimes met at a remote dried river bed, each one pass a measureable distance from each other so that they would not be seen together. Paulus a great deal radius around his adventures away from home, as he was home for the holidays from a boarding school. Thebedi would ask questions and take heed intently, enjoying Paulus company and laughing together (Clugston 2010, fragm ent 3.1, split 4). The friendship grew stronger and became sexual (Clugston 2010, dentali sit graduateion 3.1, split ups 5 and 8).The gibe continued to sneak around and see each other secretly, sometimes at Paulus home small-arm his parents were away, as expressed in the line, The door of the parents sleeping room was locked and the empty rooms where the girls had slept had sheets of waxy spread over the beds. It was in one of these that she and the farmers son stayed together whole nights al nearly she had to get away before the house servants, who k unsanded her, came in at dawn. (Clugston 2010, fraction 3.1, paragraph 8).The mood of the story quickly begins to change when Thebedi, at get on 18, enters an arranged marriage coupling with Njabulo, a fellow grisly worker on the Eysendyck farm (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 9). Thebedis father was in any case a worker on the Eysendyck farm and saw Njabulo worthy of hook up withing his female child Njabulo was o f the same social status as Thebedis family. Thebedi did not tell Paulus about her engagement to Njabulo, nor did she speak of her pregnancy, which was in the 7th month at the time shemarried Njabulo (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 9).Soon, Thebedi gives birth to a healthy daughter, and with no surprise to the reader, the baby was light skinned (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 9). Njabulos disposition is one of risque regards, as the story describes him as making no complaint, but Out of his farm labourers earnings he boughta pink plastic bath, six napkins, a card of safety pins, a knitted jacket, cap and bootees, a dress, and a tin of Johnsons Baby Powder, for Thebedis baby (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 9). The author points out that the baby belongs to Thebedi, not Njabulo, but Njabulo assumes the role as father and provides for the child whole meatedly.The storys plot comes to the sexual climax when Paulus comes home from veterinary school and discovers not unless is Thebedi married, but she has a child. Paulus visits the infant and immediately realizes he is the father of Thebedis baby. His reaction was a excited and embarrassed one, as the story explains, He state nothing. He struggled for a moment with a typeface of tears, anger, and self-pity as he asked Thebedi, You havent been safe the house with it? (Clugston 2010,section 3.1, paragraphs 11 and 12). The reader sees the heart of Paulus at this point. It. The baby is referred to an it. Not a person but a thing that would bring him and his family shame and ignominy if anyone should find out.Pauluss heart is further exposed with his commands to Thebedi, Dont take it out. Stay inside. dismisst you take it away somewhere. You essential give it to someone. Paulus left Thebedis home with the words, I feel like killing myself coming from the depths of his heart and out of his mouth (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 19). Paulus returns to Thebedis home shortly after and the reader discovers that Thebedis baby has been poisoned to death. The autopsy revealed intestinal damage not consistent with natural reason of death (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 22).Thebedi appears at an initial trial run for the kill charges against Paulus, wearing the hoop earrings that Paulus had given her during their summer coquette (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 24). Thebedi stated she had seen Paulus pouring something into her daughters mouth at the initial examination but later changed her story at Paulus trial, statingshe did not see anything that took house in her home. Thebedi wore her hoop earrings at both events, suggesting to the reader that she would always cherish Paulus and the occasion they had together (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 25).Thebedi brought along her immature baby at the time of the trial, suggesting to the reader that Thebedi had to go on with her life and concentrate on her modernistic husband and her new baby while The bedi withal cherished the memories that she and Paulus made together, those memories were whole in the past. The human beings was that Thebedi and Paulus had no chance of a future together. Paulus was shew not guilty of the murder charge and Thebedi was interviewed by the Sunday papers. The author care in force(p)y points out that the newspapers spelled her pee in a variety of ways suggesting that Thebedi was a common person and viewed in rules of order as an individual with little importance (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 30). The story ends with Thebedis comment, It was a thing of our childhood. We dont see each other anymore (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 30).The author of Country Lovers, Nadine Gordimer, spoke out against racism in her interview presented by the Nobel Peace Organization on October 3, 2007. Having been awarded the Nobel boodle in Literature in 1991, an unnamed spokesperson asked Gordimer about the turning point in her life in which she be came an activist for racism. Gordimer explained, It was un sayable for me to know benighted people whom would share my interests. It was always a servant/master basis. Even if you were the child of the master or mistress, you placid had this particular position. But being troubled about itI was lineage to find out there was something called racism in this institution, and I was living in it. I was part of it. And then when I was older, readying at Witwatersrand University, and there for the first time I met.there was one or twothere were a few young depressed members of the University, of course was whites onlythere were certain courses that were not available in the dark universities.And then as concession of extend graduate level a few blacks would come in. I met one or two black people with whom I had far more in common than I had with the young whites that I knew at the time. There were young people who were trying to economise, who were beginning to write. We had this enormous entree to life. I began at that age to make black friends. I moved into and entered into a fitting of incredible distortions of racism.Not only the essence of blacks but the distortions in my personality and my mind as a white. These became very part of my life and thusly started my way to freedom from racism (Nobelpeace.org, 2007).Gordimer, a inseparable from Springs,South Africa, undoubtedly wrote Country Lovers based on experiences she dealt with firsthand growing up. In addition to winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, she has been awarded with several honorary degrees, ranging from Yale, Harvard, Columbia, and holds degrees from University of York in England and Witwatersrand in South Africa among many other schools (Nobelpeace.org, 2005). Some of the many honors extended to Gordimer have included being an un realise Member of the American Academy of humanities & Sciences, honorary Member of the American Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters, and she was awarde d the Presidential Medal of Honour of the commonwealth of long pepper (Nobelpeace.org, 2007).Alice Walkers The acceptable Table also presents a theme of racism. Walker is best cognize for her novel, The warp Purple, which led to Walkers award of the Pulitzer Prize for the literary work (Clugston 2010, section 3.1,). The welcome Table is told from a third-person omniscient point of view, carefully giving details of the thoughts of the main character, an elderly, rejected black muliebrity, and those of the snobbish, prejudiced white people. The third-person omniscient point of view allows the reader to understand the deepest thoughts of the characters. The story begins introducing the old charrhood as one who has kn knowledge suffering and who is smell for peace, dressed in her best Sunday dress intending to worship at a local church service service building (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 1).The unusual thing about the black womans presence is that the church is in an all- white community. The white people do not want the woman at their church and the storyteller is quick to disclose the peoples thoughts, And so they gazed nakedly upon their own fear transferred a fear of the black and the old, a terror of the unknown as come up as of the deeply known (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 1). The narrator adds that some of them there saw the age, the dotage, the missing buttons down the front of her mildewed black dressThose who knew the indecisive creeping up on them of the law, saw the beginning of the end of the sanctuary of Christian worship, saw the desecration of Holy Church, andsaw an invasion of privacy, which they struggled to believe they still kept (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 2). The white peoples prejudice against the black woman suggest that this time period was when civilised Rights laws were being made and the white people did not want to accept the new laws that gave the right to black people to be in public places (Cheever J. and Mason B., 2012). Cheever and Mason add that Privacy did not really mean privacy. They valued to maintain their un touch on social system and their own privileges at all costs (Cheever J. and Mason B., 2012).The narrator tells the reader that the woman had walked a half of a mile to get to the church (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 3). The determination of the elderly woman contrasts with the character Thebedi from the preceding story in that the unnamed woman does not give in to the white peoples dominating views, as she presses on to the white church. However, Thebedi knew her place within the society that was dominated by the white people. Thebedi accepted that she would not ever be able to fit into the white peoples world and have a future together with Paulus subsequently, she proceded to marry Njabulo, even though she was carrying Paulus child.The bordering paragraph of The delicious Table states that even the reverend of the church disapprove d of the black womans presence (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 4). The people stared at her as they came in and sat down near the frontthe site of her, seated there somehow passionately ignoring them, brought them up short, anxious Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 4). An usher came up to the woman and told her to leave. (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 5). The Welcome Table and Country Lovers both introduce the reader to white peoples prejudiced and biased views toward black people. The black woman was looked down as on pariah in The Welcome Table, much like Paulus receipt when he saw his daughter, a product of a lowly, black servant girl. Paulus remark that he cute to kill himself tells the reader that he thought his mooring was so embarrassing and disgraceful that he would instead end his life than be exposed that he was a father to a half black daughter.Paulus wanted to send Thebedi away or have Thebedi give the baby to someone far away- so that no one wou ld know about Thebedi and Paulus affair. The white people in The Welcome Table did notkill anyone as Paulus did but they had hatred in their hearts and they might as well have killed the black woman. They literally picked her up and tossed her back orthogonal into the cold air. The narrator describes the incident as It was the ladies who at last did what to them had to be done. Daring their burly indecisive husbands to forge the old colored woman out they made their pointCould their husbands expect them to sit up in church with that? No, no, the husbands were quick to answer and even quick to do their duty (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 5).The next paragraph describes the removal of the woman, chthonic the old womans arms they placed their hard fistsUnder the old womans arms they raised their fists, flexed their muscular shoulders, and out she flew through the door, back under the cold blue sky (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 6). The narrator explains that the wo man had been singing in her detail when she was rudely interrupted and thrown out of the church (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 7).This woman was singing. She had joy in her heart. She was daring and brave to come to the white peoples church but it should not have been a risk. Its Gods people who are supposed to be lovable and judge towards people-all people of every race, color, and tribe. The use of the third-person omniscient point of view engages the reader to feel the discomfort and the tempestuousness towards the biased white people who threw someone out of the church but because of the color of a persons skin. It is one of the most disgraceful and wrong sins church people could commit.The narrator states that the woman looked down the highway and saw saviour himself approaching her (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 8). The white people met together for church meeting in their best Sunday clothes, most likely carrying their bibles and sang of Gods love, even God was not in their church. God was with the black woman and showed compassion by sending His give-and-take the Nazarene to meet the woman and comfort her in her time of need.As Jesus approached the woman, he simply stated, Follow Me (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragraph 10). The author must have known about the bible because Jesus told his disciples many times throughout the bible to pursue him. Jesus also stated, I am the estimable shepherd I know my sheep and my sheep know me (John 1014) and My sheep listen to my voice I know them,and they hook up with me (John 1027). The words, Follow Me were very appropriate for this story. The woman gladly followed Jesus. The narrator states, Jesus gave her one of his well-favoured smiles and they walked on. She did not know where they were going someplace wonderful, she suspected.The soil was like clouds under their feet, and she felt she could walk invariably without becoming the least bit tired (Clugston 2010, section 3.1, paragr aph 11). Not only is the woman walking side by side by Jesus, she is modify and her energy is renewed. The character, Njabulo in Country Lovers can be compared to the loving father like figure Jesus was to the old woman in The Welcome Table. Both Njabulo and Jesus met the needs of those around them. Njabulo was a great provider and bought several of the babies needs from his small income earned on the farm and was a great endorse to Thebedi throughout the story. Jesus accepted the elderly black woman and was everything she needed, taking care of all her needs.Alice Walker, the author of The Welcome Table, has dedicated her entire life in helping people. She has been very active in the Civil Rights Movement, promoting equal rights for black people (Jokinen 2006, p.1). She has also been an activist for the womens movement, anti-apartheid movement, anti-nuclear movement, and has opposed female genital mutilation (Jokinen 2006, p.1). Walker has received many awards, including the Puli tzer Prize in 1983 for her novel, The Color Purple, the Lillian Smith Award, The Rosenthal Award, the Front Page Award for surpass Magazine Criticism, and the Townsend Prize and Lyndhurst Prize (Jokinen 2006, p.1).In the story, Country Lovers, the character Paulus was also educated and could have been potent in his community as an activist for black people but Paulus was more concerned about his social status. The thought of having a racial child was degrading and unthinkable to Paulus. There has been recent trouble to biracial identities in America. Kelly Rockquemore and David Brunsma teamed up together to write Beyond Black Biracial individualism in America (Harris 2003, p. 436). The two authors presented a new approach to studying biracial profiles, arguing that previous projects by others assumed that all biracial individuals thought of themselves as merely biracial but, in reality, biracials claim they think of themselves as always white, alwaysblack, sometimes white, some times black, or even raceless (Harris 2003, p.436).One could suspect that biracial studies as the ones conducted by Rockquemore and Brunsma would promote black and white people to live together in peace, merging communities, families, and hopefully, churches. South Africa, the setting of the story, Country Lovers, has actually had to hatch the issues of racism and has made changes to its government to promote equal rights among the people. In 1994, South Africa adopted a popular form of government (Lefko-Everetti, 2012, p. 69).The Bill of Rights of the make-up of the Republic of South Africa, made into law in 1996, states full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms and prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity and gender (Lefko-Everetti, 2012, p. 69). It has been said that non-racialism was one of the let out founding values in making the new Constitution (Lefko-Everetti, 2012, p.79). Lefko-Everetti adds that, the goal of pursuing a non-racial society acce pting of diversity is embodied in the Constitution and continues to be embraced by many South Africans (Lefko-Everetti, p.79).Authors Alice Walker and Nadine Gordimer have dedicated themselves for fighting for active rights of the people. Both authors have been awarded with numerous awards and have been blemishd in public for their written works against racism. Many other authors have written about racism and have join their efforts with Walker and Gordimer to promote peace among mankind and to recognize that every individual deserves to be respected and not to be judged upon the color of their skin, nor of their religion preference, or their ethnicity. The stories, The Welcome Table and Country Lovers are prime examples of literary works that point out the sad and abominable realities of racisms presence in communities.REFERENCESCheever, J. and Mason, B. (2012) Alice WalkerFiction and the Human Experience. Retrieved from http//cstl-cla.semo.edu/pardee/li220- 05/protected/lesson s/notes/notes6.htmClugston, R.W. (2010) Journey Into Literature. San Diego, calcium Bridgepoint EducationInc.Harrris, D.R. (2003) Beyond BlackBiracial Identity in America (review). Social Forces,Volume 82, come in 1, September 2003, pp.436-437. Oxford University Press. RetrievedFrom Project conjecture at http//muse.jhu.eduJokinen, A. (1996 ) Anniinas Alice Walker Page. Retrieved from http//www.luminarium.org Lefko-Everetti, K (2012). Beyond race? Exploring indicators of (dis)advantage to earnSouth Africas equity goals. Transformation full of life Perspectives on SouthernAfrica, Number 79, 2012 pp.69-92. Retrieved from Project MUSE at http//muse.jhu.edu Nobelprize.org (2005) The Nobel Prize in Literature 1991 Nadine Gordimer Biography.Retrieved from www.nobelprize.org/nobel/prize.org/Nobel_prizesliterture/laureaates/1991/gordimer-bio.htmlNobelprize.org (2007) Nadine Gordimer on racism 10-3-07(shown on YouTube). RetrievedFrom http//www.Youtube.com/watch?v+VWcxSsd8NsM