Essay on "Smith & Walker"

Essay 9 pages (2888 words) Sources: 7

[EXCERPT] . . . .

The theme of alienation extends to everyone in Walker's story including the whites who are alienated and disconnected from the political events surrounding them. Walker discusses the myriad of reasons that they may be afraid of the old black woman, they run the gamut from political to unfamiliarity with her as the type of individual they would see at church since they associate her with domestic servants (Walker, 82). The disconnection both the old woman and the others feel from their own selves is evident in the narrator's inability to recall what the individual characters are saying. Both the usher and the reverend find themselves tentatively remembering what they said to her as if it were happening to someone else.

The surreal nature of the interaction is something we also see in Smith's poem with respect to the disconnect between the reflection in the mirror, the young woman's actual self, and the young woman's imagined self- this is the image we suspect is rejected by the mirror. Smith's poem is heartbreaking, especially because it showcases the effects of race on a young woman's psychological make-up. The way which she describes the turmoil of looking in to a mirror and seeing a black woman return your stare when you are wishing for something else is heart breaking. In Smith's poem, the circumstance which has created a disconnect in the young woman's mind is a phenomena not actually physically present in the story. The young woman in Smith's poem, even at the early age of 9, is trying very hard to change herself, including the color of her eyes, the color of her hair, the contours of her body, her mannerisms, and her beliefs about herself. But the reason she is doing all of this is clear to the readers but not to the young child. We recognize that she is the product of a society where she has been conditioned to find her features undesirable and unattractive. We are also aware that though she may try she won't succeed in altering anything in the mirror if she does not first alter her perception. The racism which has led to the self-hatred is buried behind the mirror: it is surrounding the story without being a part of it. The surreal thread connecting the two pieces of literature is the visibility the people's reaction to racism without the structure itself being visible. Even in the Walker peace we are left to speculate as to the actual thoughts of the other church members. Although we sometimes hear their voices, we are unsure if they are trustworthy or whether the narrator he or she is reliable (Walker, 83-85).

The role of gender and race and the lace at which they intersect is also clearly visible in both pieces of literature. The alienation is worse because there is a degree of frailty associated with women, be they elderly or relatively young. In Smith, the young woman ages from a child who is tormented but who sometimes enjoys life to a woman who is on the verge of being destroyed by a man. She allows the man to catch her, presumably because she does not know her own worth. We can surmise this because of how she spent the first part of the poem trying to destroy and recreate herself. As for the woman, the image of her alone in the world being attacked and kicked out churches is tempered by the religious overtones of the short story, in the end Smith's woman is destroyed by a man but we don't know whether she is dead or alive, and Walker's woman is saved by a Jesus, a man, and we believe she is dead. Whether one mourns her death or celebrates it depends on the interpretation of Jesus' presence on her last walk. If one characterizes that interaction as the hallucinations of a hypothermic old woman than there is far more to mourn, than if she was truly given a divine reprieve.

The indifference is both internal and external, the old woman disregards her own health in the cold by attending church and the outside world disregards the old woman's health and very existence. Likewise, in Smith's poem the young girl treats her body and her skin with indifference she is disconnected from her hair and skin and eyes. She does not see her attempts at 'beauty' as actual acts of violence and she is distanced from the very pain she is causing her own body. This is evident in Smith's line "suffering their burn in silence" (Smith, line, 5-6), as if pain is the expectation for achieving blue eyes. Additionally, when the young girl becomes a woman, the world which already showed its indifference by surrounding her in a veil of racism that led her to question her own worth, gives her a man who then disregards her. The Smith and Walker women's challenges are therefore, both internal and external. But even their internal problems were shaped by their external environments.

The old woman in Walker's story is reacting to decades of marginalization and oppression, the story suggests that maybe, just maybe, being on the verge of death gave her the strength to walk a mile in such desolate weather into an all-white church. The external circumstances which would normally restrict her ability to attend the church, namely, societal norms and expectations, give way in the face of a stronger external event: death. Though the young woman in the urban setting did not experience the same subjugation as Walker's elderly woman, the young woman's experiences are shaped instead by the advertisements and pop culture references have left her feeling alien her own skin. Returning to the reference of the mirror in the poem, it is clear that the alienation is based on a belief that things should be otherwise and that the reflections failure to look like the acceptable image in the minds of the young women is seen as a betrayal. Whereas Walker's woman is triumphant in the end, even in death, Smith's woman, who may also be dead, is consumed by far more pedestrian matters of the heart.

In both pieces the very last image is one of death. Smith's death imagery manifests itself in the form of a male grabbing a woman and collapsing her into his fingers (Smith, line 20). On the other hand, the death of old woman in Walker's short story is far from metaphorical; her death is quite literal and very visceral. While there is room to interpret the story ending in the Smith poem as an ending which is related to heartbreak or the end of a relationship or the loss of a woman's identity in the context of the relationship, there is no alternative interpretation of the old woman's passing (Walker, 87). Her animation at getting to see Jesus even as she has been evicted from the lord's house as it would be called is metaphorical and literal at the same time. Her death, on the other hand, the one where there is a dead old woman's body on the side of the highway where she had been spotted walking is quite literal. In the end the similarities of both the authors and the characters outweigh the differences. Although, it must be said that one has a triumphant ending and the other one is darker.

Reference

Byrd, R.P. & Gates R., H. (2011) Jean Toomer's Conflicted Racial Identity. Chronicle of Higher Education, 57(23), B5-B8(3), pp. 31-46.

Macdonald, G. (2010) Scottish Extractions: Race and Racism in Devolutionary Fiction. Orbis Litteraium, 65(2), pp. 79-107.

Precoda, K., & Polanah, P. (2011). In the vortex of modernity: Writing blackness, blindness and insight. Journal of Modern Literature,

Smedley, A. (1998). Race and the construction of human identity. American Anthropologist, 100(3), pp. 690-702.

Smith, P. (2000) ed. Cary Nelson. What It's Like to Be a Black Girl (For Those… READ MORE

How to Reference "Smith and Walker" Essay in a Bibliography

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