Playing in the Dark with Welty: The Symbolic Role of African Americans in Delta Wedding

Using theories of Toni Morrison and Ralph Ellison, this essay explores the symbolic role that African American characters play for white characters in Eudora Welty's early novel, Delta Wedding. Entzminger's main intent is not to explicate Welty's political message about southern racism but to uncover the black character's positions in the white characters' perceptions of their own identities. According to Ellison, "for the Southern artist, the Negro becomes a symbol of his personal rebellion, his guilt and his repression of it" (Ellison 1953, 42). By revisiting in Delta Wedding Welty's often explored theme of the individual versus the community, the reader will see that moments of conflict between what the individual wants and what the community expects are often accompanied by enigmatic black character, a character that embodies the white protagonist's, and perhaps indirectly the author's, personal feelings of rebellion.