Drenched in Light

In the story, race and economic class play an important role because they provide context for the social paradigms in which these characters exist. Grandma Potts, as an elder in her community, would have been exposed to the harsh realities of racism, poverty, and the prejudices African Americans experience on a daily basis. As such, Grandma Potts fixates on appearances, and she wants to appear put together and proper to keep prejudice and violence at bay. When Isis goes missing at the carnival, Grandma Potts is concerned that she will “find her in her soiled dress, shoeless, gaping at the crowd,” which would violate the image she is trying to project about her family (51). Overt racial prejudice is not present in the text, but the story takes place in Florida during the Jim Crow era. This implies that Grandma Potts is familiar with segregation and anti-Black violence. Unlike Grandma Potts, Isis’s experience of the outside world is limited, and Isis appears sheltered from these realities because of her confinement within her home. Although Hurston does not explicitly state Grandma Potts’s background, her actions and expectations imply that she is looking to help her granddaughter go through life as easily as possible due to the discrimination against African Americans.

With this, the white shell road represents two conflicting viewpoints. Isis views it as her way to experience and explore the world, while Grandma Potts does not have the same fascination with it because of her knowledge of racial and class discrimination. The narrator claims that Isis’s love for sitting on the gate post to watch the road “[heaps] kindling on Grandma Potts’ already burning ire” (45). Grandma Potts understands the threats that go along with being out in the world, whereas Isis has yet to develop or experience racism. Her innocence in that regard is embodied in her childlike spirit; she approaches the world with wonder and trust. Grandma Potts’s practical nature cannot accept Isis’s obsession with leaving home, as she seems to be content existing within the boundaries of their property. This reflects Black feminist thoughts on the value of a safe home for Black people in a racist world; on this subject, bell hooks reflected that “Black women resisted by making homes where all black people could strive to be subjects, not objects” (“Homeplace (a site of resistance)” Yearning: Race, gender, and cultural politics. South End Press, 1990, pp. 41-49).

Helen, a rich, white woman, leads a different existence from Isis and her family. She has the ability to spend five dollars replacing Grandma Potts’s tablecloth and taking Isis along with her to Maitland. Once she offers her the money, Grandma Potts quickly accepts, “Oh, yessum, yessum […] Everything’s alright, sho’ she kin go, yessum” (54). Despite her wish to control Isis and her behaviors, Grandma Potts easily accepts this trade. Not only does the five dollars cover the price of the tablecloth, but it also provides her with extra funds that benefit the family. With this, Hurston strikes an uneasy balance between Grandma Potts’s desire to protect her granddaughter and provide for her more literally. The presentation of race and class in the story enables Hurston to give context to her characters’ decisions, as their social status affects every aspect of their daily lives.