The South and Generation Conflicts in Alice Walker's Strong Horse Tea

1. Introduction

The 1900s were the period of the Great Migration, a great movement of African -Americans from rural communities in the South to urban areas in the North. There were different reasons for this migration, for example the hope for better living condi-tions and to escape racism. In particular, many young African - Americans went north, propelled by the allurement of the consumer culture in bigger cities.

The result was that many African - Americans assimilated into the white culture and in some cases totally forgot about their ancestors and folk traditions. This gave rise to a generation conflict between the young and the traditional older generation.

During this period many migration narratives emerged. On the one hand these narratives were marked by an exploration of modern white urbanism. On the other hand, the works of Toni Morrison, one of the most famous migration narrators, be-sides Alice Walker, Richard Wright and some other authors, describe the South not only "as a site of racial redemption and identity, but also as the place where Africa is most present". Therefore, the South can also be seen "as a burial ground, a place of cultural origins, home of the ancestors, as a place to be redeemed" (Griffin 11).

One could assume that for all young people who did not go north during the Great Migration, this generation conflict never appeared and that the harmonious rural life with its folk traditions continued.

The story "Strong Horse Tea" by Alice Walker might show something different.

In the story a poor young African-American woman worries about her little baby boy, who suffers from an intense disease. The dilemma the woman, Rannie Toomer has, is that she is awaiting a white doctor and therefore does not want to make use of the traditional home remedies suggested by the old neighboring woman Sara. In the end, it turns out that her time of waiting is in vain. The doctor, who was supposedly called by the white mailman, does not arrive and when she obtains the remedy, which the old woman has recommended, her little boy is already dead.

In my following paper I am going to focus on the relationship of the two main charac-ters and arrive at a conclusion regarding the potential generation conflict.

2. Main part

2.1 Rannie and the intangible consumer culture

Rannie, the main character of the story representing the younger generation acts ignorantly towards her roots and traditions.

As we can see at the beginning of the story, Rannie never considered using home remedies to heal her son, because she is already waiting for the white doctor. She "puts her trust in the white medical world with its new miracle drugs to cure her little baby boy, Snooks" (Winchell 38).

Rannie's isolation from her home community before Sarah appears, suggests that she is secluding herself from the black community.

When Sarah, instead of the white doctor, having been called by the white mail-man, appears at her doorstep and offers her help, Rannie disposes her skills as "swamp magic" and "witch remedies". Rannie does not believe in any of the old home remedies she had taken when she was a child and which came "just short of killing her".

Even though every passing minute reduces the chance of her son getting well again, Rannie insists on waiting for the white doctor. She cannot believe that some-one "would go and ignore a little sick baby".

Rannie's misplaced trust in the white community, which she in fact had never be-ing part of, derive from the circulars that appear again and again, delivered by the white mailman. Because of these continuing circulars and the appearance of the mailman, Rannie consequently thinks that the doctor will eventually appear. The cir-culars stand for the admirable, modern and technically advanced white world by which Rannie is permanently overwhelmed. Paradoxically she cannot afford any of the pictured items and hence puts trust in something that is intangible to her.

Rannie's rejection of her old traditions can be described as a triumph of the ab-stract over the concrete. As Hooker notes, Rannie places her belief in the invisible white doctor who is an abstraction and who exists in her mind as a perfection and authority, instead of trusting Sarah who is reachable (92).

In contrast to the white medicine from town of which "some of the shots that make people well, cures 'em of all the ails, cleans 'em out and makes 'em strong all at the same time", Sarah's "nigger magic" and "strong horse tea" are "imperfect repli-cations of that ideal form" for Rannie (Hooker 92).

As Hooker also notes: "Rannie identifies with an abstraction instead of with the con-crete resources of her community and suffers for it" (91). Her misplaced faith in the literate, modern, developed world and distrust towards her roots and her traditions, somehow lead to the death of her son. Her reconsideration after realizing that the white doctor will not come cannot change anything about this fact anymore. It is al-ready too late.

All in all one can recapitulate that Rannie abandons the black community which is at present tangible to her and turns towards a promising but unknown white world.

2.2 Sarah and the tangible folk tradition

Sarah, who is described in the story