11-2 Welty

        

Eudora Welty was born in 1909 and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin. She studied advertising at Columbia University before returning to Mississippi, where she had various writing jobs.

 “Powerhouse” is a story that really demonstrates the different idea's between black and white societies.  How each group cooperates with one another and the values that each community sees as important.  Powerhouse is a black band playing at an all-white dance hall. The story is during the time of segregation.  Although the band is playing their hearts out, the audience is not really dancing.  Music is everything to Powerhouse, and no matter where they are playing.  They have left their family at home to play in different places. The only communication they have is through the phone. This band wasn't exactly in their comfort zone.  The white community simply viewed them as entertainment for them even though it meant so much more to the band.  The people at the dance seemed like it was almost an embarrassment to have some black guy playing his heart out. The white people were so wrapped up in segregation they couldn't just see them as people and appreciate what they were doing.  People had their song request, but he only referred to them as numbers, which makes them feel like just another number.  They were being treated as "blacks" not humans.  The songs were announced by number and not their real names.  When they took a break and went to the all-black cafe, you could really see the difference in the two cultures and how they were treated. This story brought the concerns of segregation and how bad it really was especially to the black people. People are the same we are all human the only difference is the skin color, but we all are human’s with a heart. No one is better than any body else. As we see here people couldn’t see beyond the color if their skin.