In “The Welcome Table,” walker introduces the readers to racial and sexist themes in the modern society. Walker examines the inter-racial conflicts from a moral point of view to emphasize the need to curb the racial issues in the modern society. The plot and literary forms used in the story help the author to develop the theme in the story and build it to a clear understanding by the readers. Colorful words and prose narrations also help the author to develop a theme and increase the understanding of readers. The author demonstrates that the racial discrimination does not have a place in the society through practical analysis of cases where it failed, and people turned to a fair living like the story of heaven. This paper analyzes the main theme in the short story names “The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker showing the literary forms applied in the story and how they help in developing the main theme I the story.
The main theme in the story is interracial association through religion. The author uses the story of heaven as perceived by a woman to show the racial interaction between different people in the society. Walker (1970) uses the story of a woman who goes to a place she perceives as heaven. She welcomes all people to the area and does not care their origin, gender or color. Heaven appears as a place with ethnic and racial fairness devoid of confusion and lack of interactive living. The story starts by a symbolic representation of the links between worldly living and the life in heaven. Through a disorganized and seemingly disorderly house, the author shows the confusions that the earthly people had through their insistence o tribal and sexist views, as opposed to unity ideas and policies. However, with the story turning on, the author shows that the heaven is a place to unite the people irrespective of what they believed in or where they hailed from (Walker, 1970).
In delivering the main theme in the story, the author utilizes a number of literary forms. First, the plot of the story helps the author in delivering the message on interracial unity in the society. Walker starts by describing the old woman and a symbolic description of the disorderly society. The table also represents the last target of people in a society devoid of any racial issues. She then shows the practical discrimination in the church and later shows the ultimate aim of the society. She shows that the society believed many unnecessary divisions, but interracial unity would lead the people to ‘The Table’ (Walker, 1970).
The selected literary elements affect the theme of the story as they create a human feel to the story. The unity theme in the story occurs through unique comparisons to things like heaven and the church which bear emotional touches to the people. At the same time, the literary forms broaden the understanding of the readers on the theme as the plot helps the readers link the last goal in the story to the premises leading to it.
Concisely, The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker targets interracial unity and interracial issues in the society through symbolic comparison of the society to various stances in religious life like heaven and the church. The old colored woman represents the minority in the society segregated and discouraged by the fact that they have no alliances. The plot and symbolism in the story help readers to interact with the theme vividly and create an ideal rapport between the readers and the author.
Reference
Walker, A. (1970). The Welcome Table. Literary Cavalcade, 55(5), 32.
