Why+the+Sister+in+Black+Works+Hardest



 The picture I chose is a black and white sketch by Mayer Wolfe which I believe is entitled Tuesday-Othelia. When I saw the picture for the first time I very quickly related it to a particular story in the book __Mules and Men__ by Zora Neate Hurston. The picture portrays I large, older Negro woman wearing a white apron leaning over an ironing board ironing a white shirt. The woman's face looks a bit haggard and tired. One of the things that stood out to me was that she is hunched. She is leaning over as is there is a heavy weight on her back, or as if she were exhausted from hard tiring work. Behind her there is a rack holding shirts that she has either finished ironing, or that she has yet still to iron. On the table next to her is a cooking pot, as if a reminder of other work she has to do. Another interesting part is that the shirts are men's shirts.

If I were illustrating Hurston's book, I would put this picture by the story found in chapter 4 which is called "Why the Sister in Black Works Hardest" found on page 74. The story gives an account explaining why the negro women work the hardest. They are, as the story describes below all the others, even the negro men. In the story the negro women is the one of all the others who opens a box that "was full of hard work" (74). The end of the story explains, "Dat's de reason de sister in black works harder than anybody else in de world. De White man tells de nigger to work and he takes and tells his wife" (74). I would place this picture in that particular story, because it portrays exactly the essence of what the story is saying. Not only does it portray a hard working woman, but it sends a message. The woman is ironing men's shirts, which seems to hint to her place being below men. Furthermore, the shirts she is ironing are white, which seems to pick up on the color difference. She is a slave for the white powers that are so much above her. Also, the pot setting on the table seems to add an element of the kitchen, bringing up the idea that "the woman's place is in the kitchen. The image would ad new meanings to the text, by helping us see the physical toll such hard work takes on women. Her hunched back shows us the years of work, as well as her submissive position in the structure of her life. Furthermore it emphasizes by the shirts that not only is the negro woman below whites, but she is below men as well.

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/goldstein/59.jpg