At the start of the story when the family buy the Gold Cadillac the mother is against the new car because they are meant to be saving money. The fact that black people could afford such an expensive car could spark of jealously, envy and annoyance in the whites causing even more conflict between whites and blacks.
One day the father decides he is going to travel down to South America to Mississippi with his family. The mother disagrees because the new car symbolises wealth and with it being gold it symbolises wealth for black’s even more. Down South the white people hate the black people, ‘those white folks down south’ll lynch you soon’s look at you’. The white people would hate the family as they are driving such an expensive car, ‘Not much those folks hate more’n to see a northern Negro coming down there in a fine car’. As the family drive down south they see signs saying ‘White only, coloured not allowed’. As they are travelling the police pull them over their attitude towards them is dreadfully. They think they are better than the blacks and can do what they want.
The writer expresses her ideas and views by the things that the blacks say about the whites, the way the police talk to them, ‘Whose car is this boy?’. The word ‘boy’ used to describe the black father shows that whites had no respect for the blacks and liked to make them feel small and the fact that Lois wrote the story about her childhood shows that she still remembers and thinks about her experience. The story is written from Lois’s point of view, she is totally unaware of the racist attitudes which make the story affective. We see her fear, shock and other feelings; this stresses how wrong the culture was.
The moral of the story is racist awareness; it makes people aware of what used to happen to black people and how they were treated. The setting of the story is setting a scene and the ending is an anticlimax when the family get home safe. In the story there is a lot of conversation to express excitement, worry, angry and to add affect. Louis wrote the story from years ago but can still remember what was said.
The Stench of Kerosene is set in India. The marriage and family culture in the story is that the man has to ask the brides Father for permission and the mother of the husband arranges the marriage. The bride’s family is given money, the marriage is not based on love but the families’ name, position and wealth of the family the bride is marrying into. In their case no money was arranged and they did marry for love. The bride can make her own choice it is seen as a business arrangement. The wife moves to her husband’s village and only gets to see her own family once a year. The wife was expected to stay at home and do all the housework and have children. If after seven years there are no children the husband can remarry. The first wife has to move out. The man was dominant over his wife but his mother was in control. The husband and mother would communicate but the husband and wife would not communicate, there was no talk of sex, feelings or love.
The village culture was that the wives stayed at home and the husbands went out to work, there were no activities or entertainment, no one visited the village and marriage was the only important thing to them. In this story the husband (Manak) and wife (Guleri) have been married for seven years and love each other very much. They have had no children, so as it is custom the mother arranges a new wife for her son. When Guleri finds out the rejection is too much to take but as Manak was obedient to his Mother and custom he accepts his new wife on the outside but as he is so cut up inside about the death of his wife he never fully accepts her. He never gets over the death of Guleri even though he does not show his emotions. We can tell he still thinks of her because of the way he rejects the baby and screams, ‘Take him away! He stinks of kerosene’.
The opening of the story sets the scene, the ending of the story is a climax. The language in the story is emotive. The lengths of the sentences are long and at the end of the story as it builds up to the climax comers are used to build up tension. The story is told in the third person. The writer gets her views and ideas across by the way Manak acts towards his mother and his wife. He is very quiet, never says much and he accepts his customs.
The moral of the story is that true love is more important than having children and that marriage should be based on love rather than position and wealth.
In conclusion my favourite story was The Gold Cadillac. It was my favourite story because of the distinctive features like the fact it was written from Lois’s point of view as a child, the disturbing prejudice that came in the form of physical and emotional prejudice and the way the police, who are meant to be respectful citizens, where with the black people and how they treated them so unfairly. In the story the writer achieves lots of things in her story like raising awareness of how blacks were discriminated against, how racist whites were, how black and white people had there own territory and how people’s ideas can change from one city to the next. I also liked the story because it was true to life from years ago.
The societies in both stories are very different but I fell both societies are wrong. Firstly the society in The Gold Cadillac is racist and there is too much discrimination. Everybody should be allowed to go where ever they want and ever should be treated the same and have equal status. Secondly, the society in The Stench of Kerosene is not based on love enough and has too many customs to follow. The mothers should not interfere with their sons lives and marriage they should be left to make their decisions and be happy.
By Luisa Demarco
