30 pages • 1 hour read
Alice WalkerTo Hell with Dying
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Mr. Sweet Little
The narrator begins the story by delving into a multifaceted description of Mr. Sweet, establishing both his general characteristics and some of his emotional issues before moving into the main recount of the “revival.” The narrator starts by noting his ailments as a diabetic, suggesting a physical internal conflict that ironically juxtaposes his name, then mentions his alcoholism, suggesting a tortured mind. Lastly, he’s a guitar player housed in a “neglected cotton farm” (Paragraph 1), a figurative acknowledgement of the lingering impact of slavery in America at the time. His emotional struggles, location, and status as a member of the local community alludes to the struggles of existing in segregated culture. His deep psychological burdens represent the ways in which the memory of slavery clings to the community, but the grief and limitations that he experiences in his life are improved upon by the narrator, who is happier, more innocent, and academically successful. This implies that the cultural ailments of the past, while carried in the form of intergenerational trauma, are alleviated over time.
His diabetes is never mentioned again in the story, but alongside the limitations on professions available to Black people at the time and the unexplained reasons that forced him to leave his true love, it’s clear that he is stuck in his shack on the cotton farm for a myriad of reasons. As a result, he expresses his creativeness through his guitar, notably his “only claim to doing anything extraordinarily well” (Paragraph 1). These facts about his life provide context for his alcoholism, as well as the more general grief and depression that led to his “deaths.”
Mr. Sweet’s drinking and lack of professional accomplishments are never brought up in a negative light; instead, his alcoholism and time spent at home refining his musical gifts act as opportunities for his relationship with the children. The former is noted as making him weak enough to wrestle with the kids, which is an innocent and earnest approach to the negative impacts of alcohol on him, and the latter offers occasions wherein Mr. Sweet can express vulnerability through his music to strengthen their bond. The narrator recounts instances of Mr. Sweet’s desire to comfort her and make her comfortable, despite his own discomfort. She remarks that she and her brother would often jump on his bed to give him kisses or lay against his chest, and “[e]ven when he had trouble breathing, he would not ask [her] to get down” (Paragraph 12).
The narrator’s sympathy for Mr. Sweet’s desire for legacy and admiration is ironic, as he initially looked to her brother, who liked to play his guitar and exhibited a respect that Mr. Sweet’s son lacked. However, upon his death, the guitar is passed to the narrator, and it acts as a symbol of his soul. Mr. Sweet did not feel close enough to his own son to pass on this gift, and the narrator’s brother was away, which leaves this symbol of love and “magic” to the narrator. This transference of items from a dying man to a woman contrasts the common practice of patrilineality of inheritance as well as stressing the bond between the two.
Mr. Sweet’s constant flirtation with death, “leas” 10 times, shows a constant state of depression, which is not treated as a serious condition by the narrator due to her faith in him. Though this alludes to a more mature and depressing side to his life, it is not explored, preserving the childlike tone of the story. Walker’s choice to operate in a nearly singular tone like this, instead of allowing the narrator to express a more mature or negative view of things, implies an admiration for youthful innocence. It is this ability to see Mr. Sweet without judgement or an understanding of the woes of adulthood that allows the narrator to emotionally support him and save him from death so many times.
The Narrator
The narrator is the second central character, who writes in childish admiration of Mr. Sweet despite telling the story in past-tense as an adult. In her memory, Mr. Sweet is the pinnacle of her childhood, and other characters, including her own character development, are secondary. The trajectory of her storyline as a character is antithetical to that of Mr. Sweet. Her character is developed as she grows up and matures, whereas Mr. Sweet is developed as he ages and eventually passes away.
Her love for Mr. Sweet is layered; she confesses as a child to the jealousy she feels at being too young to “have been the woman he loved so much” (Paragraph 7), and realizing later at age 24 that the old man had been her “first love” (Paragraph 21). The narrator conflates stereotypical conceptions of romantic love with love in kinship, community, and family, showing Mr. Sweet’s impact on every facet of her development. The narrator admits to realizing that Mr. Sweet’s “deaths” were episodes of depression, suggesting an innocent faith in childhood that is not seen in adulthood, but she continues to romanticize him by intentionally continuing to view these experiences in a positive light despite their emotionally fraught undertones.
The narrator reflects her revival of Mr. Sweet as a weighty responsibility. She is forgiving and childishly oblivious to the pressure put on her by her brother, who “let me do all the revivaling” (Paragraph 13), her father’s call upon her and her brother to take on the responsibility of saving Mr. Sweet’s life, and Mr. Sweet’s desire to be revived. After all, she believed that he would not be on his true death bed “unless Mr. Sweet really wanted to be” (Paragraph 1) and so she naturally accepted the responsibility of saving him as her own.
The demands of the men in her life to take on a caretaking role, such as the of reviver for Mr. Sweet, were not acknowledged by the narrator as a burden, but as a blessing. Still, despite her fond memories of Mr. Sweet and the revivals, these experiences clearly impacted her in a negative way, as she feels a sense of responsibility for his eventual literal death. It’s a burden that the men around her, such as her brother who is away in the military, don’t appear to share. From a negative angle, this points to the ways in which women may bear undue responsibility and emotional labor in supporting men. From a positive angle, which the narrator holds to, this demonstrates a relationship between a man and woman where mutual love improves both of their lives.
Her completed transition into adulthood occurs when she returns home at the end, where she notes that her parents “also looked old and frail” (Paragraph 19). Mr. Sweet, too, looks even more delicate than she remembers, and this suggests a realization of life as finite and the passing of childhood innocence.
The Narrator’s Father
The narrator’s father is a static character whose primary function is to instigate the closeness between Mr. Sweet and the narrator in both childhood and adulthood. The father remains nameless and is largely absent in the story. Unlike the detail dedicated to describing Mr. Sweet, he is given little, which speaks to the narrator’s distant relationship with her father. The distance is shown specifically when she acknowledges that she would be unable to bring the joy she brings to Mr. Sweet to her father if he needed a revival.
Amidst his minimal description, he is shown as abrupt in his demeaner with the doctor, as he “pushed [him] rather abruptly out the way” (Paragraph 9) to begin a revival. This contrasts the extreme gentleness of Mr. Sweet, even though the father is acting with positive intentions. The father’s role is ultimately more symbolic, wherein he acts as a medium between Mr. Sweet and his children.
The brother’s mimicking of Mr. Sweet playing the guitar further suggests the distance between the father and his children, as they idolize Mr. Sweet over him. Alluding to common ideas of paternal inheritance, the narrator receives Mr. Sweet’s only significant possession, his guitar. The solidifies the familial connection between the two that seems to overshadow the dynamic between her and her own father. Her father’s paternalism is still present, though, as he knows his daughter well enough to call her to return when Mr. Sweet is dying and to hand her the guitar upon his death.
Despite it not being explicitly stated, the father holds clear trust in his children to help Mr. Sweet and makes an effort to foster their relationship. This suggests his interest in the family and community is not absent of love or care; he simply behaves in more stereotypically masculine manner.
The Narrator’s Brother
The narrator’s older brother functions as a flat character who, like the mother, does not develop or speak, but his character allows further examination of the central themes in the story, mainly gender and age. The narrator portrays his relationship to Mr. Sweet as similar to her own, as he also enjoyed playing with Mr. Sweet and hearing him play the guitar.
The narrator rarely describes the way in which her brother and Mr. Sweet interacted with each other, but she notes that he was “glad to be able to pass” the task of kissing and tickling Mr. Sweet back to life “on to someone new” (Paragraph 13). Prior to this detail, the narrator discusses the pressure of being tasked with reviving Mr. Sweet, yet unlike the brother, she does not express a desire to pass on the task. The bravery and steadfastness in carrying this pressure challenges the archetype of the older brother, who may as a man of the family be considered responsible for the younger sister. In addition to gender, age-based roles would commonly state that the older sibling would carry emotional burdens, particularly the ones that cause harm. Yet, the caretaking role falls to the narrator when she eagerly accepts the role of reviver and physically comforts Mr. Sweet when he cries while her brother plays with the guitar.
Upon Mr. Sweet’s final death, the brother cannot attend because he is “in the war in Asia” (Paragraph 19). Considering the political context at the time of writing, wherein the Vietnam War was heavily protested in America, the narrator’s brother serving on behalf of the nation that inflicted segregation upon the narrator’s community suggests a suffering comparable to what Mr. Sweet endured in his life as a Black man. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to the Vietnam War as a “white man’s war but a black man’s fight” (Elsbury, Will. “Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Minorities in the Vietnam War: A Resource Guide.” Library of Congress, 2022) due to the discriminate number of African Americans who died in the Vietnam War. This creates an intergenerational cycle of racism limiting the paths available to Black people. Gender roles also influence that scenario as the narrator’s brother was likely drafted into the war, a common occurrence for men of the era, leaving the narrator to fulfil his role and inherit the last belonging of Mr. Sweet.
Related Titles
By Alice Walker
