After You, My Dear Alphonse Analysis

5/1/13

Write an analysis of how this story relates to the topics of naive and reverse racism. How does it compare and contrast our society in Pewaukee? Other areas of the country/world? What lesson do you think Shirley Jackson is trying to teach us? 

In the story After You, My Dear Alphonse Mrs. Wilson is a very judgmental person, she makes a lot of assumptions that are not true. Just saying these few words gave me an idea that she is reverse racism. "Boyd, Johnny has some suits that are a little too small for him, and a winter coat," In another line Mrs. Wilson is trying to force Boyd to eat stewed tomatoes because she thinks that he is so poor that he will eat anything that he can get. This doesn't just happen in stories or novels, it happens here in Pewaukee, it happens in Waukesha, it happens everywhere in the world. 

There are many lessons that can be learned from this story. Overall I think that the main lesson here is to try to teach not only kids but also adults to not judge other people by what they look like. You always want to get to know someone before you give them a "name".