Character Analysis Of Strong Horse Tea By Alice Walker

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In short stories, characters play a primary role in the development of the storyline. Especially in “Strong Horse Tea”, Alice Walker focuses on telling her story through the emotions and evolution of the characters. It focuses on Rannie Toomer’s desperate efforts to save her son, Snooks, with her neighbor, Sarah. Rannie and Sarah are representations of dynamic and static characters, respectively. With assistance of the antiheroes, the mailman and an alleged doctor, Rannie encounters a rough realization that causes a shift in the story. Rannie’s son suffers with double pneumonia and whooping cough. Walker describes Rannie as an unattractive black woman, who is very poor, filthy, and lives far from the city. Since she is poor and disconnected …show more content…

Unlike Rannie, Sarah illustrates a fixed character, which is one who remains constant in their beliefs (K&G 78). Sarah, “skeptically, under her breath” chants “‘white mailman, white doctor”’, “as if to banish spirits” (Walker 2). Walker intentionally makes it clear that Sarah is not confident in the competence of white people’s assistance. Rannie told a white mailman about her son’s health, who is supposed to relay the message to another white doctor. Sarah does not believe the white men to be useful to black women like themselves. To add to the severity of Sarah’s animosity, she “banishes” them, as in forbidding them to come assist Rannie. She encourages Rannie to instead rely on her home methods, but Rannie rejects her offer. Nonetheless, Sarah is consistent in her feelings. Throughout the story, she repeatedly suggests that Rannie uses home remedies regardless of Sarah’s …show more content…

Together they play the role of the “white man”, whom Rannie is reliant upon and Sarah detests. In the stormy weather, the mailman is expected to go out of his way to retrieve a medic for a poor black woman. It is he that Rannie places all of her faith into; he falsifies her hope. She is indeed idealistic in the start of the story, but by the end, her idealism drains when he does not show up. From Rannie’s perspective, they both assume the portrayal of antiheroes. An antihero is “a protagonist conspicuously lacking in one or more of the usual attributes of a traditional hero, bravery, skill, idealism, sense of purpose” (K&G). Neither the mailman nor the doctor demonstrate characteristics of a hero. The mailman claims they will “‘do what [they] can,”’ but when Rannie touches him he “[cringes] from the thought that she had put her hands on him” (Walker 4). His cringing demonstrates his malicious regards towards Rannie. He tells her that he is going to try to help, but his actions prove otherwise. While Rannie is pleading and begging for aid, he “hurriedly rolled up the window and sped down the road” (Walker 4). It is clear that he has no intentions of hearing what Rannie has to say. His hasty departure is not depicted in an eager-to-help manner, but rather a vicious way. He makes an effort to remove himself from the situation as quickly as possible. Regardless of their possible feelings

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