Four: 'The Richer the Poorer' by Dorothy West

Dorothy West

(1907 –1998)

U.S.A

Dorothy West was a novelist and short story writer who was part of the Harlem Renaissance. She is best known for her novel The Living Is Easy, about the life of an upper class black family. The Wedding Published in 1995 was a best-seller and resulted in the publication of a collection of West's short stories and reminiscences called The Richer, the Poorer.

After a period of critical neglect in the 1960s, in the 1970s more attention was paid to the ways in which West's stories about middle-class blacks differed from the protest fiction of other black writers. A 1982 reprint of The Living Is Easy increased interest in West. Feminist critics called attention to Cleo's unique position as a black woman unable to escape from her circumstances and pointed out how West's writing was influenced by her female relatives, and other critics questioned old assumptions about West's supposed distance from the traditional black community. West's second and final novel, The Wedding, was well received by readers and critics increasingly concerned with diversity and multiculturalism in literature.

The Richer The Poorer

Over the years Lottie had urged Bess to prepare for her old age. Over the years Bess had lived each day as if there were no other. Now they were both past sixty, the time for summing up. Lottie had a bank account that had never grown lean. Bess had the clothes on her back, and the rest of her worldly possessions in a battered suitcase. 

Lottie had hated being a child, hearing her parents skimping and scraping. Bess had never seemed to notice. All she ever wanted was to go outside and play. She learned to skate on borrowed skates. She rode a borrowed bicycle. Lottie couldn't wait to grow up and buy herself the best of everything. 

As soon as anyone would hire her, Lottie put herself to work. She minded babies, she ran errands for the old. 

She never touched a penny of her money, though her child's mouth watered for ice cream and candy. But she could not bear to share with Bess, who never had anything to share with her. When the dimes began to add up to dollars, she lost her taste for sweets. 

By the time she was twelve, she was clerking after school in a small variety store. Saturdays she worked as long as she was wanted. She decided to keep her money for clothes. When she entered high school, she would wear a wardrobe that neither she nor anyone else would be able to match. 

But her freshman year found her unable to indulge so frivolous a whim, particularly when her admiring instructors advised her to think seriously of college. No one in her family had ever gone to college, and certainly Bess would never get there. She would show them all what she could do, if she put her mind to it. 

She began to bank her money, and her bankbook became her most private and precious possession. 
In her third year high she found a job in a small but expanding restaurant, where she cashiered from the busy hour until closing. In her last year high the business increased so rapidly that Lottie was faced with the choice of staying in school or working fulltime. She made her choice easily. A job in hand was worth two in the future. 

Bess had a beau in the school band, who had no other ambition except to play a horn. Lottie expected to be settled with a home and family while Bess was still waiting for Harry to earn enough to buy a marriage license. 

That Bess married Harry straight out of high school was not surprising. That Lottie never married at all was not really surprising either. Two or three times she was halfway persuaded, but to give up a job that paid well for a homemaking job that paid nothing was a risk she was incapable of taking. 

Bess's married life was nothing for Lottie to envy. She and Harry lived like gypsies. Harry playing in second-rate bands all over the country, even getting himself and Bess stranded in Europe. They were often in rags and never in riches. 

Bess grieved because she had no child, not having sense enough to know she was better off without one. Lottie was certainly better off without nieces and nephews to feel sorry for. Very likely Bess would have dumped them on her doorstep. 

That Lottie had a doorstep they might have been left on was only because her boss, having bought a second house, offered Lottie his first house at a price so low and terms so reasonable that it would have been like losing money to refuse. 

She shut off the rooms she didn't use, letting them go to rack and ruin. Since she ate her meals out, she had no food at home, and did not encourage callers, who always expected a cup of tea. 

Her way of life was mean and miserly, but she did not know it. She thought she lived frugally in her middle years so that she could live in comfort and ease when she most needed peace of mind. 

The years, after forty, began to race. Suddenly Lottie was sixty, and retired from her job by her boss's son, who had no sentimental dealing about keeping her on until she was ready to quit. 
She made several attempts to find other employment, but her dowdy appearance made her look old and inefficient. For the first time in her life Lottie would gladly have worked for nothing to have some place to go, something to do with her day. 

Harry died abroad, in a third-rate hotel, with Bess weeping as hard as if he had left her a fortune.

He had left her nothing but his horn. There wasn't even money for her passage home. 
Lottie, trapped by the blood tie, knew she would not only have to send for her sister, but take her in when she returned. It didn't seem fair that Bess should reap the harvest of Lottie's lifetime of self-denial. 

It took Lottie a week to get a bedroom ready, a week of hard work and hard cash. There was everything to do, everything to replace or paint. When she was through the room looked so fresh and new that Lottie felt she deserved it more than Bess. 

She would let Bess have her room, but the mattress was so lumpy, the carpet so worn, the curtains so threadbare that Lottie's conscience pricked her. She supposed she would have to redo that room, too, and went about doing it with an eagerness that she mistook for haste. 

When she was through upstairs, she was shocked to see how dismal downstairs looked by comparison tried to ignore it, but with nowhere to go to escape it, the contrast grew more intolerable. 

She worked her way from kitchen to parlor, persuading herself she was only putting the rooms to right to give herself something to do. At night she slept like a child after a long and happy day of playing house. She was having more fun than she had ever had in her life. She was living each hour for itself. 

There was only a day now before Bess would arrive. Passing her gleaming mirrors, at first with vague awareness, then with painful clarity, Lottie saw herself as others saw her, and could not stand the sight. 

She went on a spending spree from specialty shops to beauty salon, emerging transformed into a woman who believed in miracles. 

She was in the kitchen basting a turkey when Bess rang the bell. Her heart raced, and she wondered if the heat from the oven was responsible. She went to the door, and Bess stood before her. Stiffly she suffered Bess's embrace, her heart racing harder, her eyes sudden, smarting from the onrush of cold air. 

"Oh, Lottie, it's good to see you," Bess said, but saying nothing about Lottie's splendid appearance. Upstairs Bess, putting down her shabby suitcase, said, "I'll sleep like a rock tonight," without a word of praise for her lovely room. At the lavish table, top-heavy with turkey, Bess said, "I'll take light and dark both", with no marveling at the size of the bird, or that there was turkey for two elderly women, one of them too poor to buy her own bread. 

With the glow of good in her stomach, Bess began to spin stories. They were rich with places and people, most of them lowly, all of them magnificent. Her face reflected her telling, the joys and sorrows of her remembering, and above all, the love she lived by that enhanced the poorest place, the humblest person. 

Then it was that Lottie knew why Bess had made no mention of her finery, or the shining room, or the twelve-pound turkey. She had not even seen them. Tomorrow she would see the room as it really looked, and Lottie as she really looked, and the warmed-over turkey in its second-day glory. Tonight she saw only what she had come seeking, a place in her sister's home and heart. 
She said, "That's enough about me. How have the years used you?" 

"It was me who didn't use them," said Lottie wistfully. "I saved for them. I forgot the best of them would go without my ever spending a day or a dollar enjoying them. That's my life story in those few words, a life never lived." 

"Now it's too near the end to try." 

Bess said, "To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live. Don't count the years that are left us. At our time of life it's the days that count. You've too much catching up to do to waste a minute of a waking hour feeling sorry for yourself."

Lottie grinned, a real wide open grin, "Well, to tell the truth I felt sorry for you. Maybe if I had any sense I'd feel sorry for myself, after all. I know I'm too old to kick up my heels, but I'm going to let you show me how. If I land on my head, I guess it won't matter. I feel giddy already, and I like it.”

NOTES

Meanings of Difficult Words:

1. Lean: thin, bare.
2. Frivolous: trivial.
3. Whim: sudden idea.
4. Frugal: economical.
5. Dowdy: poorly-dressed, old-fashioned.

Few Important Lines:

1. Lottie had hated being a child, hearing her parents skimping and scraping. Bess had never seemed to notice. All she ever wanted was to go outside and play.
2. Her way of life was mean and miserly, but she did not know it. She thought she lived frugally in her middle years so that she could live in comfort and ease when she most needed peace of mind. 
3. Tonight she saw only what she had come seeking, a place in her sister's home and heart. 
4. Bess said, "To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live. Don't count the years that are left us. At our time of life it's the days that count. You've too much catching up to do to waste a minute of a waking hour feeling sorry for yourself."

Important Points:

“The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.” - Walter Bagehot.

“Trust no future, however pleasant.” - Longfellow.

“A useless life is an early death.” - Goethe.

Lottie had a miserly nature, she always worried about the future, but Bess on the other hand, always gave value to her present. Lottie lived her whole life curbing her desire to save money for a rainy day. She wished to feel rich, contrary to her status. She wanted to become a part of the society that was never hers. Lottie was living in a fool's paradise, she was under the impression that her life is best and all the others are in misery. But the reality was that Bess was contented in her life, as opposed to what Lottie thought.

When Lottie spent money on herself for the first time it felt good. She realized what it meant to give something to someone. She gained a satisfaction in her life. Finally, she felt liberated from her cage. She developed a feeling of companionship when her sister arrived, and got rid of her loneliness.

Bess had no materialistic desires, she sought warmth, love and care of a close relative like Lottie. Bess had not come looking for a room in a luxurious house or a table set with warm expensive food. One of the most redundant expressions one hears almost everyday is that 'life is too short' so one should live it to the fullest while it lasts. This idea seems to be the motto of Bess, her crucial internal belief which shaped her whole life. The very second sentence of the story reads; 'Over the years Bess had lived each day as if there were no other'.

She was a carefree person right from the start, one who would not bother worrying if the toys or the bicycle she had were her own property or not. The parents of Bess and Lottie were very poor and unable to buy things for their daughters; while Lottie aspired to live her life in full voluptuousness, Bess simply wanted to have a good time.

As the girls started going to High School, there too, Bess seemed to be adamant about her humble and optimistic ideals. She did not want to wear pretty outfits everyday to school, she did not fret about not having enough money, rather she gave importance to happiness and love. Bess's most flexible and compromising nature brought to her the love of Harry, a High School lad who had nothing but a horn which he played in the school band. Bess rejected the idea of hunting for a handsome, rich fellow who had his own car and was ready to land straight into a prestigious college as soon as he graduated. She did not go for a guy with big plans for the future, rather she chose someone like herself. Someone who did not have much to call as his own, someone who did not care about that either. Harry did not have enough money to even buy a marriage license, but Bess was very patient and did not seem to mind. Perhaps she believed in being humble in her choice of a husband as well, someone who would make her feel comfortable and at home, since Harry's status was pretty much the same as Bess's. But the real thing that Bess wanted was love and she was getting it from Harry, so nothing else mattered.

Bess's absolute isolation from materialistic desires made her a sharp contrast against her sister, Lottie. As the story comes to a close the readers come to realize that Bess's life was not such a mess after all. In fact, Bess turned out to be the 'richer' of the two sisters, in metaphorical terms. According to Lottie, Bess and Harry lived like gypsies, they had no place to call their home and Harry had no steady job. But it is soon revealed that Bess enjoyed her live to the uttermost. Bess lived her life to its fullest. She had a relaxed and fun loving personality. Moreover, money was not a concern for Bess. She had least of every thing but kept moving forward. She did not let anything to stop her from enjoying life. Bess did not seem compelling to live the life style that Lottie wanted her to live. Lottie saved all her money and never gave herself taste of life. In contrast Bess lived her life with fun and enjoyment. Bess is a laid back and a care free girl. She experiences life and makes out most of it. She is the happier one and also richer in life. All the time that Harry and Bess spent wandering here and there for jobs or for a place to live was the time of adventure for both of them. Bess and Harry were perfectly content about what they had. They were a couple always in rags but they learned how to have the best time of their lives and they savored every passing second with a thrill that Lottie could never imagine.

In the end the lesson that Bess teaches her sister is to not count the years to come and do not waste even a minute of life. By the time she reached her sixties, she had lost her husband and she had no children and she had nothing in the world she could call her own. But she had no regret about her life. Bess learned a lot from her life style with Harry as she traveled a lot along with harry. Bess needed warmth of relations and companion ship. She had a list of experiences, adaptations to new things and challenges in her life. She learned a lot from those challenges and adventures and ultimately this learning made her a good personality. Bess had only the clothes on her back and a suitcase in her possession. Having a fortune was not Bess main concern. She lived in the present and not the future. One more thing about Bess that the readers can relate to is the love for family. Bess loves her sister very much and finds her way back to her when Harry dies.

Being raised in a family having very less credit, girls can adjust themselves with ease in the environment that is provided to them. Often people learn to accept their fate as it is, and life teaches them, molds them into better people through harsh lessons. Poverty taught Bess to extract every drop of happiness that life could offer her. She filled all gaps in her life through these little pleasures and as a result she had no regrets, no broken dreams and no aspirations unfulfilled. By accepting and adjusting, Bess reduced the sorrows in life and became rich with memories of bliss at an old age. She became humble, and humbleness is the attribute of saints. It is the quality that brings heaven to people, and it seemed Bess had achieved her heaven on Earth.

From the very beginning we see Lottie struggling through different phases of her life. The phobia of poverty had distorted her nature so that her whole life she kept chasing money, leaving behind many forgotten dreams and desires. One can understand how living through a childhood in poverty can inflate the importance of money in life.

For a woman who has nobody but herself to depend on , it is hard to choose between dreams and reality. Lottie's reality was that if she did not keep enough money aside she will have to spend a very poor lifestyle at old age, just like her parents, this was unacceptable for her. As a result she had no choice but to sacrifice her desires. Lottie pushed experiences aside because she did not want to live her life “skimping and scraping”. Lottie wanted to be an independent adult. She was money minded and wanted to make something more out of life.

But, of course, in the process of feeding her bank account, Lottie loses more than she gains. We see that she has lost her feminine side, all she does is work day in and day out, without giving so much as a glance to herself as she leaves her house everyday. By the time she is old and finally has time for herself, her own reflection in the mirror shocks her. She never spent a single dime on her personal adoration, which is contrasting to a typical female instinct. It is almost innate for a woman to fret about her looks, trying to look pretty all the time, not for other people but for herself. But for Lottie to become completely unaware of her appearance and apparel seems almost unnatural, and alien. Then again, in the past when she was almost inclined to marry, once again her money-minded thoughts guided her, overpowered her, and she denied the one thing that every girl dreams of ever since she is little. Lottie denied the bliss of marriage, the desire of loving someone and being loved, and of making a home with a perfect life partner. Lottie alienated herself from all things feminine, in order to sate her materialistic greed.

Towards the end of the story, we see a change in the personality of Lottie. The Author has shown a dynamic nature of this particular character as once Lottie feels the thrill of spending money on herself, for herself, with nothing to stop her, it is almost like a rush. For the first time in her life Lottie starts to enjoy something to her core, she renovates her home, furnishes it, gives herself a makeover and finally her feminine instincts have returned. She buys and cooks food, sets the table and looks at herself in the mirror with a sigh of satisfaction. She realizes what she has been missing in life. She learns a valuable lesson at an age of sixty, that life is about living each moment while it lasts. Lottie realized she had gained nothing in her life, and turned out to be the poorer of the two sisters. Lottie represents the tragedy of many women today.

Main Themes:

• Value of relationships
• Learning through experiences/ Self-development
• Desires vs. Duty
• Appearance vs. Reality
• Money vs. Happiness
• Importance of inner satisfaction
• Gender Issues
• Personal freedom and liberty
• Future planning vs. importance of present

Questions:

1. Which one of the two sisters you associate with more? Give reasons.
2. State your reasons of feeling connected/ related to female characters in the story. You can also ponder upon issues of the story in local/Pakistani context.
3. What are the main issues of working women discussed in relation to Lottie?
   Credit-Muneeza Rafiq