Plot+-+The+Black+Madonna

// Writing Assignment: // // Summarize the main events in the story. Include any cultural background information you feel is relevant and necessary for the reader to fully understand the events. Be sure to use connectors to indicate sequence, contrast, cause, and result.


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"The Black Madonna (1958)" is the title of a short story by Muriel Spark. It discusses the topic of integration, racism and religious-conflicts in Liverpool in the early 50´s. The main characters are the childless Lou and Raymond Parker. Both are catholic, snobbish and prejudiced, although they pretend to be liberal minded and cosmopolitan in the society. Ray works together with two black Jamaicans, called Henry and Oxford, in a motors-factory. After praying to the "Black Madonna", the Jamaicans left the country very quickly just like Lou and Ray wished for. After visiting Elisabeth Parker, the poor but with a lot of children (eight heads) blessed sister of Lou, they decided to pray at the Black Madonna to get a child too. But after pregnancy, Lou carried a __black__ child to full term, so everyone was confused a lot. So the most readers think that Lou and Ray get punished for their evil deeds and wishes, and their prejudices. But instead of accept the honour of finally becoming parents, they decide to give it away and gloss the whole story over. ======

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To understand the subtext of the story, you have to know about the time, in which the story had been written and about the background. The time in which the story was published was a time of racism and racial frictions. Actually, Lou and Raymond are very tolerant and ahead of the time in which they’re living. The author Muriel Spark (who made very early experiences about racial conflicts as she lived in a British Colony in Africa.) was in advance of her time too as she published the novel, because nobody made efforts to strengthen the comprehension between the culture of immigrants and inhabitants at this time. ======