Less Than Others Country Lovers by Nadine Gordimers, begins with the main character, an innocent young boy with bright eyes named Paulus Eysendyck, and an innocent young girl with hopeful dreams named Thebedi. As this story is presented through the evolution and transformations of the characters, it is the dialogue that allows the reader to realize that it takes place during a troubling time in South Africa, when apartheid; a system of racial segregation enforced by legislation was a matter of common law. From the beginning of the story, they are both shown as having a childhood relationship playing together in the fields with all the children on the farm. As the story develops and the plot is established, Paulus is sent to school and upon his return, Thebedi, his childhood friend, is now portrayed as a member of the mob rather than like a friend. The tone is set and the story begins because Paulus no longer seems to realize that Thebedi is “just one of the children of the kraal farm” (Gordimer, 2010), which means that she is no longer his equal. was part of the farm help. In The Welcome Table written by Alice Walker, he immediately begins to describe an older woman going to church in Sunday best. The use of Alice Walker's descriptions suggests that this story takes place in the southern region of the United States, during the post-segregation era, when the southern part of the United States separated blacks and whites into racial groups. As the plot is established and the woman arrives on the steps of the church, the people of the church considered her an outsider not accepting her as one of God's children: "Some of those who seen there on the steps of the church spoke of her. who were hardly worthy of being heard” (Walker, 2010). middle of paper......di created a family with her husband, Thebedi has to go to court and testify against Paulus and doesn't, suggesting she has moved on in life.Race and gender are told from a sociological and psychological perspective, each of which inspires you to see each story as it happened in its place in story time. The race and gender in both stories are those of black women. The perspective comes from what they both grew up with and how they viewed society. The tone of each story reflects their individual conflict in their region of the world, allowing you to get a sense of what each person saw growing up in their perspective of the world. The constant that remains in each of these stories is that the main characters of the stories are discovered in tragedy, and this tragedy in each of the stories creates that turning point that draws the reader in..