Vivian Beattie
Paper 2
English 101-Friday
April 13, 2012
Strangers
Toni Morrison discusses an encounter she has with a woman she discovered on a “seawall at the
edge of a neighbor's garden” in her short story Strangers. Her attire consisited of; “men's shoes, a
man's hat, a well-worn colorless sweater over a long black dress”. Toni Morrison, the writer described
what she was doing with a clear description; “a homemade fishing pole arcs into the water some twenty
feet from her hand”. The woman had turned & stated her name (“Mother Something”) & they began to
speak for approximately fifteen minutes. They spoke of fish recipes, about the weather & children.
Toni Morrison asks the woman if she lived in the house & in turn discovers she doesn't. The woman,
now known as Mother Something, stated she lives in a nearby village & the owner of the house allows
her to come to this “spot anytime she wants to fish”.
An encounter with stranger is always different for each person involved and each encounter we
have. It begins with a first impression & carries onto a greeting & at times continues with a
conversation. Conversations with a stranger can be good, bad, a pleasure or sad, entertaining & even
educational. But we don't always have an encounter that we take something with us. For instance,
when we go to a store we may be greeted by the cashier. This type of encounter may or may not
contain such a memorable experience for us to store in our memory & hold onto. We may not recall the
the cashiers image the next time we see hm/her. Each day of our lives we have an encounter with a
stranger. Although we may not think much of it or let it phase us for long, our surroundings a filled
with strangers day in & day out. Toni Morrison captured the encounter she had with Mother
Something & carried it with her for several months. She spoke of how she looked for her day after day,
week after week until the summer had passed & she never again saw Mother Something, the woman on
the seawall. The day they met, Toni visioned future encounters & looked forward to future
conversations. She had intended on inviting her into her home for coffee & additional conversations &
was looking forward to laughter together. After the summer had passed, Toni approached the neighbor
& inquired about the whereabouts of Mother Something, only to find the neighbor was unfamiliar with
said woman. And no old woman was ever granted permission to fish from the neighbors wall. But
Toni didn't stop looking there, she continued asking people if they knew Mother Something. She
couldn't absorb the fact that she had such a pleasant encounter with a woman who has not ever been
seen before & not seen since. “No one, not even people who have lived in nearby villages for seventy
years, has ever heard of her”.
More often then not, I don't initiate conversation with strangers. However, if they do I'm
willing to carry on the conversation with them. Personally, I often find encounters & conversations
with a stranger to be awkward. I suppose it can be a bit of shyness, some may even say fear of
rejection:
I feel cheated, puzzled, but also amused, and wonder off and on if I have dreamed her.
In any case, I tell myself, it was an encounter of no value other than anecdotal. Still.
Little by little, annoyance then bitterness takes the place of my original bewilderment. A
certain view from my windows is now devoid of her, reminding me every morning of
her deceit & my disappointment.
In my case I find it is more that I don't know them, their schedule, their language & if they want
to talk. Not knowing someone makes getting to know them a challenge. For some, this challenge can
be intriguing. Getting to know someone can include getting to learn what experiences they have had on
their journey in life. But not knowing them & not attempting to allows for me to not have to cross
their paths & find out they aren't interested in discussing various topics with me:
Isn't that the kind of thing that we fear strangers will do? Disturb. Betray. Prove they
are not like us. That is why it is so hard to know what to do with them. The love that
prophets have urged us to offer the stranger is the same love that Jean-Paul Sartre could
reveal as the very mendacity of Hell.
We tend to categorize one another or label each other based on first image, thoughts, opinion,
something one may say that strikes us different than someone we already know. For those we are
already familiar with, we often have expectations of. At times we can predict the reactions of those we
know. When there is a stranger, in our presence we are uncertain how they may take us or how we
should take something they may say. “Why wold we want to know a stranger when it is easier to
estrange another? Why would we want to close the distance when we can close the gate?” Short
encounters don't allow enough time to understand or accept a person for who they truly are. Since it is
in fact a limited time spent with another, the knowledge of the other is never obtained. They may come
off as someone other than who they really are:
There are only versions of ourselves, many of which we have not embraced, most of
which we wish to protect ourselves from. For the stranger is not foreign, she is random,
not alien but remembered; and it is the randomness of the encounter with our already
known-although unacknowledged–selves that summons a ripple of alarm.
Society tends to allow for strangers to be accepted. We have public places we share with
strangers intentionally such as playgrounds, fields, beaches, & parks, restaurants & supermarkets. And
places we much rather not have to share but we often are forced to such as bathrooms, buses &trains,
hospitals or doctors offices. While we are strangers to one another, these places are familiar & we find
a way within our lifestyles to just accept sharing these spaces with a stranger. As alike as we are made,
often I'm amazed how different people really are.