Welcome Table Analysis

The theme in the Welcome Table by Clara Walker is a story that tells how after a lifetime of working as a slave she was alone no longer had a purpose or use. No one appreciated or respected the old lady in the story. The blacks did nothing to help her, and the whites would not even tolerate her in their church. This story took place shortly after slavery ended and during segregated America. I know this because the pastor of the church implied that she was in the white church and needed to go to the black church. I know that the church was for whites because the usher whom first asked her to leave was described as a blond, and the emphasis on “your church” when the pastor emplied she was in the wrong church . The author further set the story up by naming all the roles the lady played as a house slave by telling us the way the whites in the church viewed her. The Pastor of the church called her aunt, so she had raised him, the usher in the church called her grandma, indicating that she had raised him as well. The old lady in the story was high. She imagined a religious experience with Jesus. Walking and talking with Jesus, a white God who she did not identify with the white people who had mistreated her throughout her life and shortly before she died. This is apparent because she doesn’t have any negative feelings towards Jesus as she did towards the church members. In this way the author made the delusional woman in the story appear to have a love for the white race because she idolized a white Jesus and imagined that he came to save her. This is all implicid and deeply tied to the author and the nature of her writings The Narrator was sure to explain details about the old ladies appearance that showed that this old lady was living a poor lifestyle and didn’t care for appearance or hygiene. All the detail about the old lady was done selectively, and not in a condescending manner, but more like pitty. The Narrator also made it clear that she was a former slave