Strong Horse Tea (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Alice Walker
- First Published: 1968
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The mid-twentieth century
- Setting: The rural American South
- Principal Characters: Rannie Mae Toomer, Snooks, “Aunt” Sarah, The mail carrier
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Mothers, Parents and children, Poverty or poor people, Death or dying, Naivete, Pneumonia
- Locales: South (U.S.)
The Story
Snooks, Rannie Mae Toomer's infant son, is dying of double pneumonia and whooping cough. Rannie has no one else in the world, is unmarried, and lives in an unheated, drafty shack somewhere in the South.
Sarah, a neighbor who is expert in country medicine and home remedies, suggests that one of these remedies might help Snooks, but Rannie will have none of it. She has supreme confidence in white medicine and wants a white doctor for her son. She is also certain that the white mail carrier whom she has begged to call for the doctor will send him as soon as...
[The entire page is 1254 words long]
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