As the boys are eating lunch, Mrs. Wilson starts making assumptions on Boyd. “There’s plenty of food here for you to have all you want...Boyd will eat anything” she said, assuming that Boyd’s family are poor and that they couldn’t afford to eat. So never stops to think that maybe Boyd’s family are different. Although this seems plain to the reader it leaves the two boys puzzled and confused.
Mrs. Wilson than goes on to question Boyd’s father’s profession. When Johnny responds and says that Boyd’s dad works as a foreman in a factory, it shuts Mrs. Wilson down as she assumed that he’d be a manual labourer or in some low paying job that would never amount to anything. Mrs. Wilson than questions why Boyd’s mother doesn’t work, only to be avenged by Johnny by saying “Why would she? You don’t work”, ultimately pointing out that she doesn’t work either. This positions the reader to think that Mrs. Wilson can’t comprehend that a Negro family is in fact just as socially and economically successful as her own, and it starts to show her predjudice.
Johnny shares information on Boyd’s sister, saying that she is becoming a teacher, “Boyd’s sister’s going to work though, and she’s going to be a teacher”. Immediately Mrs. Wilson displays extreme condescension. “Mrs. Wilson restrained the urge to pat Boyd on the head”. This gives the reader the feeling that Mrs. Wilson is a very jealous woman and that she thinks because Boyd is a Negro that his family were delinquents and never applied themselves to anything.
The two boys continue to talk and eventually Boyd teases Johnny that he can run faster than Johnny. “You’re not much bigger...I can run faster”. Mrs. Wilson annoyed that and frustrated that Boyd’s family are just as successful and respectable as her own family, tries to degrade Boyd and his family. She offers Boyd second-hand clothing. Mrs. Wilson gets angry after Boyd declines her offer saying “But I have plenty of clothes, thank you”. Mrs. Wilson denies Boyd of anymore gingerbread and chastises him for being ungrateful. The boys than leave to go outside to play but Boyd remains uneasy with the demeanour Mrs. Wilson has towards him. This positions the reader to make second thoughts on Mrs. Wilson. It makes the reader realise how immature and that she is in fact a racist. In displaying this act to a mere child the reader also realises how small and petty minded she is. In another stroke, it has a sense of irony as Mrs. Wilson foolishly overcompensates for her racism by attempting to appear more polite than necessary and then, Mrs. Wilson snatches the gingerbread from Boyd and offers him second-hand items; her efforts to be gracious and charitable only reveal her bigotry and bad manners.
“After you, me dear Alphonse” is mainly told in dialogue with the use of direct and indirect speech. The story hardly uses any figurative language although the rare use of alliteration with the characters repeats the sentence “After you, my dear Alphonse”.
The story’s setting is purely domestic and is a good example of how the subtle pervasiveness of racism may not result in outright violence and murder but can be equally harmful. During the story Mrs. Wilson cannot even understand the insinuation that she has on Boyd as he is young and has not yet come to realize these problems nor have they conformed to society’s biases and conventions. Mrs. Wilson assumed because Boyd was black that he was poor and would never be successful. In the end she insulted Boyd by being presumptuous and trying to give him handouts. The moral of the story: don’t judge and make assumptions by how somebody looks.
