To Hell With Dying By Alice Walker

The Importance of Love in Alice Walker’s “To Hell with Dying”

The definition of the word love is vast, but the impact it brings to life is joy, pain, and sorrow. These emotions that connect with love is shown in the short story written in 1968 by Alice Walker, “To Hell with Dying” (“To Hell with Dying: Characters & Central Idea”). This short story is written from the perspective of a young girl and how she views her neighbor and family friend, Mr. Sweet Little. Mr. Sweet is an old man who suffers mentally and physically who tries to cure his pain with alcohol. Mr. Sweet’s sickness is brought about by love and this type of love not only affects Mr. Sweet, but also the young girl and Mr. Sweet’s wife, Miss Mary.

Love affects Mr. Sweet deeply

Sweet. Her revival is through her own actions towards the older man. Her actions towards him began at a young age, when she “...had been the one chosen to kiss him and tickle him” (Walker). Before her actions at the revivals, her affection for Mr. Sweet began before because she states, “He made me feel pretty at five and six, and simply outrageously devastating at the blazing age of eight and a half” (Walker). Her affection towards Mr. Sweet grows deeper each moment she spends with him. She feels as if her presence and love for him is what brings life back into him when he has near-death experiences. It was not until the very moment Mr. Sweet arrives at the young girl’s house after his wife passes away, that she discovers she is deeply in love with the older man. She sees the somber soul of Mr. Sweet during this time and comforts him with her presence as he cries. In this moment, the young girl narrates, “I held his woolly head in my arms and wished I could have been old enough to have been the woman he loved so much and that I had not been lost years and years ago.” (Walker). Her deep love for him brings great pain when she realizes that her presence is not what heals Mr. Sweet’s sickness. The young girl states that she fails when Mr. Sweet passes away, because she had not reached him in

Miss Mary was Mr. Sweet’s wife, but not true love and they married each other because of her beliefs of her pregnancy being from Mr. Sweet. The marriage was full of somber and pain because of the life of drunkenness Mr. Sweet lives. As a result, Miss Mary has no one to show love to except for her son who does not show love in return. Miss Mary continuously pours out her love to her son through working hard to get him the ““li’l necessaries” of life,” but Joe Lee shows no regard and wastes what his mother gives him to other women (Walker). Miss Mary receives the raw end of the deal in her family life; the lady gives love out greatly but never receives it.

The importance of love is shown greatly in the short story, “To Hell with Dying,” not only is the importance shown but the effect it has on others. Love brings Mr. Sweet pain, the young girl life and beauty, while love brings Miss Mary nothing. The emotions each character experiences from love shows the significant importance and the impact it has in the short