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Dorothy West's The Wedding

Exposing Themes of Class and Color

Opening of The Wedding

“Once every neighbor had been white, and Gram herself as true white as they were, as all Gram’s kin had been since the South’s beginning, until Gram’s own daughter, Josephine, crossed her true white blood, her blue blood, with colored, and broke Gram’s heart” (West 28).

Gram’s extreme prejudice of intermarriage and mixed children shows the irrationality behind preventing relationships of differing races.

West embodies larger and flawed ideas that can be found in society, such as racial discrimination, unsupported intermarriage, maintaining family blood lines, and the idea of marrying for reasons other than love, and focuses in on a specific family, the Coles and their lack of emotional concern.

Questions raised through The Wedding such as

“What is race?” and “What are the boundaries that prevent intermarriage?” allow growth and a deeper understanding of the complexities of race in America.

West’s novel allows readers to see the power of questioning assumptions about race, racial identity, and social boundaries.

To the Coles, and the Oval, appearance is of top priority. To those that live in the world of the Coles and the Oval, one must always remember their societal reputation and live up to expectations placed on them.

West’s motivations are to reclaim the past while telling the experience of African Americans’ history.

“Lute nonetheless embodies the falsity of striving for love, or rather for sexual conquest and material acquisition, on the grounds of color and class” (199). Lute symbolizes the blind choices made when strictly following boundaries of color.

Clark (Shelby's father) reflects, “He had not had time for love before, and until he met Sabrina he had never experienced the emotion that is blind to color lines and racial bars and class divisions and religious prejudices and all the other imposed criteria that have nothing to do with love but have so much to do with marriage” (105).

West shows through Clark and Corrine’s example of a faulty marriage, the pain caused by following strict social order. Placing barriers on love because of race creates deeper wounds.

Chapter seven deals with the argument, "What is race?"

Shelby, dressed in red and yellow, with golden curls, blue eyes, and light skin, does not meet the expectations of a colored child, and therefore, is overlooked by all she comes in contact with.

The town dismisses Shelby as the “lost colored girl” because she does not meet their expectations of a colored child.

A neighbor of Shelby’s explains the frustrations, “They couldn’t find a lost colored child, so they had to settle for any child that was lost. They had the whole town keeping an eye out—everybody put on dark glasses. Those of us with light-skinned children should put a tag on them, ‘Please return to the colored race’” (West 75).

Shelby's Family Tree

West's Writing

The beginning line of The Wedding describes the Oval’s awakening:

“On a morning in late August, the morning before the wedding, the sun rising out of the quiet sea stirred the Oval from its shapeless sleep and gave dimension and design to the ring of summer cottages” (West 1).

Instead of worrying about typical problems associated with living, members of the Oval focus on social status and critiquing other people’s choices, leading to their acceptance of discrimination.

Nate explains, “She uses subtlety to create the underlying messages that race, class, and gender play a part shaping the world in which her characters live.”

West’s writing shows the barriers people place on love, due to disapproval of interracial relationships.

Dorothy West

Born in Boston in 1907 to an emancipated slave

Dedicated life to political activism and seeking justice

Moved to Harlem, Harlem Renaissance

Jenny Lee Nate, author and researcher of West, states, "Her talent, vivacious personality, and confidence in her ability to write made her a valuable member of this group, which became a driving force in establishing what is now known as the Harlem Renaissance.”

Dorothy West's

The Wedding

West's second novel

Takes place in 1950s, a crucial time in American history for racial changes:

Brown vs Board of Education, 1954

Rosa Parks Bus Boycott, 1955

Tamera Williamson, author of “Renaissance Woman: The Works and Critical Reception of Dorothy West,” believes that West’s selection of her novel’s decade was purposeful and with reflection on the changes in the time period and years past.

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