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Racism has been an issue addressed for thousands of years and it continues to be prevalent today. Unfortunately, in many cases, racism affects the way people live on a day-to-day basis. Gwendolyn Bennett, in Wedding Day, creates a short story that addresses racism through the eyes of Paul Watson. Bennett, through the use of imagery, reveals how racism dictates the way Paul Watson lives his life. Paul Watson flees the United States in refuge from racism.
He went to Paris where he worked as a prizefighter for some time before pursuing a career in music, as so many African Americans did then. Through the course of the next few years, he became noted as a man who openly hated white Americans. It is never mentioned why he hates white Americans so much but it was well known that the last syllable of the word, nigger, never passed the lips of a white man without the quick reflex action of Pauls arm and fist to the speakers jaw. (364) Montmartre, the area in Paris where African American life was centered, was fast becoming a popular hangout for white American tourists. After Paul begins playing in one of the clubs frequented by these whites, he gets into several fights, one leading to him shooting two men. He went to prison where he stayed in a type of depression.
The only time he spoke, it was negatively about the crackers. (365) He remained in prison until he joined the French Army during the World War. He fought in the war where equality was prevalent but his feelings towards whites changed little. He returned to Montmartre after the war a hero. Upon this return, he rejoined the boys in the clubs and cafes. Paul was known as one that never bothered with the girls. He just didnt see the point in getting involved with someone for fear that she would eventually call him a nigger and hed have to kill her.
That is until the day he was walking along a street and a dirty, hungry, white American hooker walked up to him. He let her know right away that he wanted nothing to do with her because she was a white American but she was persistent. She asked for food, which he decided to give her. They are then seen together every night for dinner and this becomes the talk of Montmartre. Not only has Paul, the woman-hater, been spending time with a woman, but a white American woman, named Mary.
Paul decides that he and Mary are going to marry. He has fallen in love and his prejudices have gone by the wayside. They are staying in separate hotels up until the night before the wedding. Paul goes to Marys hotel to wish her a happy wedding day when he finds a note she left him saying that she just couldnt go through with it. Paul realizes that he cannot escape his prejudices and that racism follows him wherever he is.
Mary, he realizes, was just using him until she could get back on her feet. Bennett tells the tale of a man who eventually gives way to his racist feelings when he falls in love with a white American woman. Mary represents all the reasons he despises white Americans. Bennett uses imagery to show us how Paul lets racism dictate how he will live his life. Bibliography: Bennett, Gwendolyn. Wedding Day. 1926.
Ed. David L. Lewis. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc. , 1994. Stovall, Tyler. Harlem-Sur-Seine: Building an African American Diasporic Community in Paris.
Stanford electronic Humanities Review 5. 2 (1997).
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