“Arrangement in Black and White” is a short ironic story written by
Dorothy Parker. Dorothy Parker was an American short story writer, poet, satirist, and critic. In her style, she used themes of middle-class complacency and unrequited love. She expressed insightful humor, a sense of sadness, and serious attempts through satire. Her romantic lyrical ballads are rich with imagery and symbolism. Critics often described her poetry as sentimental, trivial, and melodramatic because of its sharp humor. Her successes there, including two Academy Award nominations, were curtailed when her involvement in left-wing politics resulted in her being placed on the Hollywood blacklist. Dismissive of her own talents, she deplored her reputation as a "wisecracker." Nevertheless, both her literary output and reputation for sharp wit have endured. Some of her works have been set to music. Speaking about “Arrangement in Black and White”, we should say that this is the short story in which a wealthy white woman with the pink velvet poppies, which is supposed to be the main character, tries to convince the host of a party that she is free of prejudice and most eager to meet the party’s guest of honour, an African-American musician. The story begins with a brief exposition (characters and the backgrounds are not special here) which introduces the reader to the main character and the setting. The story is set during a dinner party held in honour of the African- American musician, somewhere in the United States, in a time contemporary to its publishing (1927). In the late 1920s US was still biased and divided despite the fact that slavery had been abolished in 1865. Therefore, segregation was still practiced on a national scale. The title, “Arrangement in Black and White”, is symbolic and reflects both the context of the story and its underlying themes. Also it’s worth to say that the story is presented in dramatic form — which is obviously effective — this evoces the reader’s own thoughts and feelings. The action is constructed through dialogue and exposes the protagonist’s attitude towards African-Americans (the dialogue between the protagonist, white woman, and the host and the musician, who are secondary characters. They do not say much, but this helps to reveal the woman’s personality). In the complications the woman wants to show her host that she is accepting, progressive and tolerant, and that, unlike her husband or others, she has no issues with coloured people: “I don’t see why on earth it isn’t perfectly all right to meet colored people. I haven’t any feeling at all about it not one single bit. Burton oh, he’s just the other way. Well, you know, he comes from Virginia, and you know how they are”. Yet, her exaggerated efforts to appear tolerant have the opposite result and reveal the conflict between what she claims and how she acts and feels, exposing her racial prejudices: “I have my husband nearly crazy, the way I go around humming it all the time. Oh, he looks just as black as the ace of. . . Well. // Is that Katherine Burke? Why, she looks entirely different off the stage. I thought she was much better-looking. I had no idea she was so terribly dark. Why, she looks almost like . . . Oh, I think she’s a wonderful actress!”. One more fact is, that the author uses in her speech the simile (a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid) “they’re just like children”, which helps us to understand that she doesn’t see in those people any personality. When talking about her attitude towards African-Americans she wants to emphasize her open-mindedness — here we can speak about her internal conflict, which doesn’t reveal till the end. But, although she maintains she likes the musician and his art, she seems unable to see beyond the fact that he is dark-skinned, which she keeps underlining, and she even states that he should be “grateful” for that party arranged in his honour, which will offer him the opportunity to meet white people. The more she talks, the more it becomes obvious that she considers herself superior to coloured people — her speech (one of the best means of indirect characterization). This feature may show the reader that she is a simple character because she is constructed round a single trait. In this story, there is no denouement because we don’t know anything about the future of the characters: if the woman with the pink velvet poppies becomes more wide-minded or not — we don’t know. The narrator is the observer-author (when the story is a scene or a series of scenes, narrated by an onlooker who does not interfere for any comments or reflections of these events. This kind of method stimulates the reader to form their own impression and make their own judgements). The message of this story lies in the narrow-minded views that still exist today in the minds of many individuals. In this way, the woman with the pink velvet poppies is simply a caricature of people that share her similar views; making the story's conflict one that the humans of the 21st century continue to battle. Dorothy Parker uses a dramatic narrative voice to present her "Arrangement in Black and White." She uses an objective point of view as it creates a sense of realism; matching the realistic problem that her story exposes.