Be Nobody's Darling VS No Name Women

In the poem Be Nobody's Darling we discussed how the author Alice Walker thought of someone being an outcast as a good thing. I think that the author of No Name Women would disagree. Yes Walker does make a point in saying that in order to be really living you need to be an outcast to have your own identity. The poem in my opinion shows this perfect scenario of being an outcast. By saying things like Take the contradictions of your life And wrap around You like a shawl, To parry stones To keep you warm. The majority of human beings like to feel a sense of security and not to stick out from the norm. Most people tend to cover up their problems in life and cover up anything that makes them different, in order for them to blend into society. Be an outcast;
Be pleased to walk alone. This quote I believe also is "sugar coating" the idea of an outcast and assuming that people would be happy walking alone. In my opinion I think this is false, especially when people enter a new school, or community, they try to conform to the norm in order to be accepted right away and not to become the outcast.
In the short story No Name Women, you can clearly see right away about the point I said earlier, that most families try to hide their "dirty laundry" by the mother telling the author not to tell anyone about the story of her aunt,and she was even a little hesitant at first to even tell the author the story. This is because the mother didn't want her family to stick out, she viewed being an outcast as a bad thing. In the story the author tells the story of her aunt, and all the tragedy that happens to her because of becoming an outcast. Things like the raid on her home, sitting at the outcast table, and being afraid that she had dishonored her family because of her affair and pregnancy. If the author of this story thought of being an outcast as a good thing she would have focused more on the positives of her aunts life rather than the negatives. The story really makes being an outcast look very unappealing. Throughout the story she describes her aunt as a ghost. Showing how she is an outcast, she really isnt living or dead, she now just drifts and her identity in way is lost. If being an outcast allows you to gain a true identity or freedom for yourself, why would this author then describe her aunt as a ghost while she was living and dead, ghosts don't have feelings, ideals, or an identity. They really are not free in a sense they will never be truly in peace and their past will always haunt them.

Kenny Liszewski Post #1