#158 Entertaining God- Alice Walker
Entertaining God encapsulates many of the themes found in
Walker’s collection In Love & Trouble. Mostly it talks about identity;
finding it, keeping it, understanding it, and mostly falling to false truths.
This falseness is found on the deepest levels and in the most shallow of
places:
“He has married his first wife in a gigantic two-ring
ceremony, in a church, and his wife had had the wedding pictures touched up so
that he did not resemble himself. In the pictures his skin was black and olive
brown and smooth when in fact it was black and stubbly and rough. He had
married his wife because she was light and loose and fun and because she had
long red hair. After they were married she stopped dyeing it and let it grow out
black…well, she was just no longer anyone he recognized.”
Like many characters that Walker writes about, finding
identity often leads them to radical politics and the Nation of Islam:
“He too changed his name and took an X. He was not
comfortable with the X, however, because he began to feel each morning that the
day before he had not existed. He knew what it was, of course; without a last
name John would never be able to find him.”
Religion permeates the search for identity, truth, and self,
but as expected, finding these things are hard battles ending in false shadows or
at best small fleeting victories.
“…one of the millions who needed the truth their religion
could bring. He had finally accepted himself, but it seemed that in the moment
the beauty of this acceptance was most clear he must say goodbye to it.”
This search is a lonely crusade, a singular path. To go this
route one must leave the past where it is, and go through that door alone:
“Softly, she would call to him…and through he never answered
her, he would amble down…and stand waiting…He would wait for her to wipe her
eyes. Then he would go with her as far as the door.”
Notable Passage: “The very air seemed alive. It was like
singing or flying and the boy felt exhilarated. He stretched his hands above
his head as high as they would go as he greeted the sun, which rose in slow
distant majesty across a misty sky, nudging clouds gently as it made its way.”
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