Analysis: The Eye On The Sparrow

Ethel Waters overcame a very tough childhood to become one of the most well known African American entertainers of her time. Her story, The Eye on the Sparrow, goes into great detail about her life and how she evolved from taking care of addicts to becoming the star of her own show. Ethel was born by her mother being raped at a young age. Her father, John Waters, was a pianist who played no role in Ethel’s life. She was raised in poverty and it was rare for her to live in the same place for over a year. Ethel never fit in with the rest of the crowd; she was a big girl, about five nine when she was a teenager, and was exposed to mature things early in her life. This is what helped shape Ethel to be the strong, independent woman she is. Waters
Being chauffeured around in a white person’s car and being a Negro did not mix well. When the car took a bad turn and crashed, Ethel and one other girl were pinned inside the crashed car. Ethel had hoped that someone would stop, and she prayed and prayed, but deep down she knew what happened to Negros who was in a white man’s car – they wouldn’t make it. When two white folks walked passed and saw Ethel they laughed and called them “Nigger bitches”. Ethel defended herself, “I’m suffering. I am a human being, and so are you. You know that if two colored men came along and found two white women pinned under a car they’d help them. How can you be so inhuman?” (97). This passage practically shows the meaning behind His Eye is on the Sparrow. It shows that there is no difference between white and colored people, but it’s so hard for people to get past the physical features to realize inside we are all equal. Ethel was right when she said two colored men would help two white women, and those white men knew she was right. Those men knew Ethel had a point and now they had no choice but to help her and her friend. When Ethel was in the hospital, she had two doctors who mistreated her horrible leg injury. Her wound was severely infected because the two doctors never helped her, and her leg could have been amputated. Soon, an African American doctor met with Ethel and helped treat her
When Ethel was asked to play there, she was excited until she got there. Charles was a rude white man who did not care or want to help colored people. Ethel requested to have her piano tuned, but Charles would refuse to fix it because she was not white. Ethel responded by telling Mr. Bailey, “And no Georgia cracker is telling me how to run my act… and I’m standing on my grounds. And you or no other cracker sonofabitch can tell me what to do” (166). This phrase is monumental. Not only because Ethel is such a young brave girl, but also because she knows she is not supposed to talk back to white folks but she does it anyway. Ethel believes in sticking up for herself and she thinks she deserves just as good treatment as a white performer would. This shows the business side of the entertainment world and how it is not always pretty. Many people claim that entertainers live in a lavish world like ”Hollywood people” do, but in Ethel’s case it’s the farthest thing from quality treatment. Ethel has a lot of courage to stick up for herself to Bailey. She doesn’t want Africans Americans to accept their placement in their world; she wants people to treat her how whites are treated. Ethel demands respect by Charles because she does not want to rip her audience off. An untuned piano could throw off the entire show and she wants the audience to like her, and she wants to perform as best as she can. Even though Charles