The Welcome Table

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 of her clothing items “a long rusty dress adorned with an old corsage, long withered, and the remnants of an elegant silk scarf as head rag stained with grease from many oily pigtails underneath”, and the emptiness conveyed by her to the outsiders “a dazed and sleepy look in her aged blue brown eyes.”

The old woman has closed herself off to the people of the church, as she enters the church and the reverend addresses her as “Auntie” yet attempts to discourage her from entering the church. How can one be a family member possibly biologically and a relative of the reverend of

a church and still be turned away by the reverend himself? That seems to be...

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...The WelcomeTable was one of the many short stories that I chose to analyze. “The omniscient technique is used in this story and is particularly effective in allowing the reader to understand the old woman's predicament and how she, and the others, dealt with it” (Clugston, 2010). This is a story that is being told in third person, it switches from the white person side to the old black lady side. In the story of The WelcomeTable, there was an old black lady that had put on some church clothes for Sunday that appeared to be ran down. After putting on her clothes the old lady walked a long way in the freezing cold to attend a church that was full of white people. When the old lady finally made it to the church she took a break from the long walk on the church steps before going inside the church. When the old lady finally went into the church the reverend of the church stopped her to let her know that she was in the wrong church, but the old lady walked right past the reverend in a hurry. When she finally got into the church the old lady set on the first bench from the back looking at the stained glass window, she had notices that the church was just as cold as it was outside. This is when everyone in the church stared at her as if she was a piece of trash, but the lady paid the people of the church no mind and set there quietly. There was an usher in that church that was sent back to ask the lady to leave but the old...

...Analyzing The WelcomeTable by Alice Walker
Cyndi Moore
Eng125 Introduction into Literature
Instructor Renee Gurley
January 13, 2013
“Acceptance. It is the true thing everyone longs for. The one thing everyone craves. To walk in a room and to be greeted by everyone with hugs and smiles. And in that small passing moment, you truly know you're loved, needed, and accepted” (Harmon, 2003-2004). This paper will discuss a literary piece called The WelcomeTable by Alice Walker. This writing is about a journey a poor older black woman faces in light of racism and judgment from Christian churchgoers. Struggles of oneself and of society are brought to light with words and images from the life and mind of Alice Walker. The WelcomeTable will be analyzed using a reader-response approach, and a historical approach. I connected with The WelcomeTable through its intense story of struggle and hope, as well as very thought provoking because it intertwined the present with the past, reveals raw human impurity in the church, and gave insight to how this woman coped with injustice and how in the end, she prevailed.
Upon reading this short story, I was touched in an impactful way because I have also felt the sting of a misinformed and judgmental world. Alice used tone to fire up my emotions, like the old black woman, I have also felt the sadness of being a shunned...

..."The WelcomeTable"
Introduction
We as humans have learned to be considerate of people and their differences, we have also encouraged the development of all human beings. But many years ago people were not considerate of people of other ethnicities. The possibilities for everyone have become more equal during modern times. I have been intrigued by the racial and ethical dilemmas that most of our ancestors had to endure. The short story that I have chosen to discuss is “The WelcomeTable” By Alice Walker. The human race has come so far since we have had such severe racial discrimination, although it has not disappeared completely. " The WelcomeTable", along with many other new age stories really have shown the importance of acceptance of many ethnicities.
Point of View
The theme of a story is a representation of the idea behind the story. (Clugston 2010). “The WelcomeTable” written by Alice Walker, is about an old African American woman who attends a white community church. This story is told in omniscient third person point of view. Third person point of view occurs when the speaker is not the participant in the story. (Clugston 2010). On her way to church, she received looks of horrible disgust. People felt sorry for her, and they feared her. She walked into the church, and she was...

...The WelcomeTable by Alice Walker expressed that the person is very complexly
to a certain idea of great metaphors, appear so resounding for the bookworms now know
is connected to the unattainable individual. The narrative was voice in a third person so
it was much simpler for the booklover to remark it was truthfully speaking about a
vagabond. The all-inclusive portrayal of the personality like the woman exhausted
garments and messiness made the booklover considers the essence of compassion.
Although the story is being told in third person, the information and correctness of the
recitation granted a feeling of knowing it would feel like a first person encounter.
The information the writer was attempting to compose, I feel Alice Walker
received it from her spiritual surroundings and the book is inferred idea of collaborating
communication of the way of treating people. The other attention-grabbing factor is she
did this not candidly presentation in the book on how the lady touched all the quandaries
she had turned-out, it states her leaving it up to the booklovers to consider and fathom.
The lines for example, “Others saw cooks, drivers, housekeepers, kids, mistresses refused
or stifled in the obsequious mode she detained to her cheek on the side, toward the
ground” as a replacement to openly listing the emotions of the woman, Alice Walker
selected to control the section to her...

...Comparison of The WelcomeTable &amp; Country Lovers
Eng. Literature 125
Instructor Garcia
January 29, 2013
The Summary of “The WelcomeTable &amp; Country Lovers
Through literature we are able to learn about different meanings and other human experiences. “Literature influences each individual differently” (Clugston, 2010). In Alice Walker’s short story “The WelcomeTable,” it allowed the readers to read and learn about how, and what life was like for an elderly black lady during the 1960s. During these times blacks were discriminated against and the cruel treatment that they endured as human beings was unnatural and unheard of to us in this day and time. In this short story by Walker, it portrays to the readers how during this time period the African Americans were treated. The reason that this story caught my attention was due to the fact that the elderly lady that is portrayed in the story was so cruelly discriminated against for entering a white church.
In the first part of the paper we discuss “The WelcomeTable” by Alice Walker and further on in the paper we will compare this short story with Country Lovers written by Nadine Gordimer. In this short story, we will learn about how two people who loved each other were forbidden to be with each other because they were of a different race. We see how huge of issue racism was and still is in modern...

...her. The beginning of the story is told from the white people's perspectives as they see an old black woman come to their church and go inside. Inside the church, the point of view switches to the usher who tells the old black lady to leave. The point of view then switches back to the white women inside the church, who take it as a personal insult and feel the most threatened about the old black lady being at their church. They rouse their husbands to throw the old lady out. The perspective then changes to the old black lady. This constant changing of point of view is useful in that it portrays the fears, thoughts, and feelings of almost everyone in the story. Firsthand, the reader is able to know what the people are thinking and why. In the end, the point of view briefly returns to the white people who were at church that day. The story ends with the perspective of some black families wher. The beginning of the story is told from the white people's perspectives as they see an old black woman come to their church and go inside. Inside the church, the point of view switches to the usher who tells the old black lady to leave. The point of view then switches back to the white women inside the church, who take it as a personal insult and feel the most threatened about the old black lady being at their church. They rouse their husbands to throw the old lady out. The perspective then changes to the old black lady. This constant changing of point of view is useful in that it...

...The WelcomeTable by Alice Walker
Melissa English
ENG125
Instructor Abby Forster
January 14, 2013
The WelcomeTable
The WelcomeTable is a short story written by Alice Walker. It is written in third person point of view. “The omniscient technique is used in this story and is particularly effective in allowing the reader to understand the old woman’s predicament and how she, and others, dealt with it” (Clugston, 2010). In this essay, I will explain the meaning of this story as well as the realities to racism and hate.
The story begins by describing the elderly African-American woman. She was dressed in her Sunday church clothes that was old and falling apart. She had an old corsage pinned to her dress. The shoes she wore were high-heeled and polished. A silk scarf was used as a hair-band which was greasy from her oily pig-tails. Her aged eyes were blue-brown in color and were nearly blind. She was lean but old and wrinkled. Her skin was ashy.
After walking many miles, she came upon a church. It was a white people’s church. She had walked alone to the big church. After walking a half a mile to the church, she was sweaty and clammy. She stopped on the steps of the church to rest before going inside.
When she went into the church, the reverend stopped her. She brushed passed him and sat on the back bench. It was cold outside and near about just as cold inside...

...The WelcomeTable
Tawanda Richardson
English 125: Introduction to Literature
Amber Anaya
July 15, 2012
The short story I decided to write about was, “The WelcomeTable” by Alice Walker. As I was reading this story, the theme I decided on was Religion. The WelcomeTable is a wonderful story that is filled with several symbolisms, such as religion, racism and finally the reward of getting to meet her Jesus, so she can tell him all about her struggles. Throughout the story one can tell that the little old lady is slightly fazed by the uppity and conceited congregation that is turning their noses up at her as they are penetrating her with ridiculing looks of detestation. The ladies of the church are sitting there looking at their husbands as to say, “Get her out of Here!” and then it is only by force that the men felt that it was their duty to pick her up and throw her out the church.
This story tugged at my heart and captured my attention because it reminds me of the stories my family told me when I was a little girl. When they told me those kinds of stories, they only gave me hope and inspired me. Anyone that has read or will read this story cannot help but to be uplifted by this story. In the beginning of the story you couldn’t help but to feel sorry for the old lady, because the author painted a picture of someone that was dirt poor and worn out. The little old lady...