Beliefs about Ethnicity: Reflective Essay The Wedding by Dorothy West

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Beliefs about Ethnicity
In The Wedding, Dorothy West narrates the story of a young girl named Shelby. The novel is set on Martha’s Vineyard, about a well to do African American family. The novel explores blacks and related social and racial status that affect them. It takes place within a single day; it starts and ends in the morning before the wedding. In The Wedding, Dorothy West seeks to demonstrate that ethnicity is a barrier towards a prosperous America.
In the novel, Dorothy West demonstrates that unresolved ethnic issues exist between the blacks and the whites. These issues exist despite the progress the Americans have made towards eliminating negative ethnicity. One would imagine that at such a time, negative ethnicity is a thing of the past. However, West indicates that divisions between the blacks and whites are still alive. In the novel, Shelby is the protagonist whose family lives in the Oval society, which is a community comprising of blacks. She is the daughter of Clark Coles, whose entire family is made up of medical professionals. The father strongly believes in ethnicity and class. Despite the beliefs of the father, Shelby falls in love with Meade and wants to marry him. Unfortunately, Meade is a white Jazz musician from a lower social class. Hence, Shelby is facing two challenges. Firstly, she wants to marry Meade, who is from a lower class than her. Shelby wants to marry someone whose finances are unsure. Her father, Clark, does not entertain the idea of his family members marrying outside their class. Secondly, Shelby wants to marry Meade who is white. Her family cannot accept their daughter to get married to a white man. To make things worse, Meade’s parents are annoyed with their son for marrying a woman of color. While Shelby is light-skinned, Meade’s parents do not consider Shelby “white” enough to get marry their son (West 28). While Shelby loves Meade, their families cannot allow them to be together.
West alludes that the hatred exists between blacks and whites and demonstrates itself when the two races need to need to engage in serious matters. The inability of Shelby’s family to accept Meade because of his ethnicity and class demonstrates that sharp divisions have remained between the blacks and the whites. The issue of ethnicity which appears to be a non-issue on the outside, unfortunately, remains a major challenge when it comes to issues of marriage. Both families know that Shelby and Meade are in love but race presents a barrier that these families are not willing to break. The deep roots of hatred of the blacks towards the whites and vice versa manifests itself when Shelby and Meade declare their love to each other. Their families are not willing to abandon their ethnic inclinations. Instead, they want to ensure that the wedding does not succeed on the grounds of ethnicity. At one point, Liz, Shelby’s sister joins the family members in discouraging her from marrying Meade. Liz implies that by marrying Meade, who is white, she is “turning her back on her race” (West 101). Instead, marring a white man is a p...