Sister Josepha by Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Sister Josepha Reviews

• 
  Harpersomah

  Short story. It's about a girl who doesn't belong, and so is, in a way, buried alive.
• 
  Tamara Collins

  “Sister Josepha” by Alice Dunbar
  
  The lead into the story sets a tone of boredom of a routine life. The author begins the story by showing us Sister Josepha in church doing what must have been part of her daily routine. This dullness is well represented in the text by using such verbs and adjectives as in this sentence “…hold her beads mechanically, her fingers numb with the accustomed exercise,” (407). Again, the author sets the tone of monotony with “always the same old work…” and “filling the same old lamps,” (407). The reader instantly notices how dull Sister Josepha feels that life in a convent is.
  
  But Sister Josepha, the reader learns, is battling herself in her search for identity. She faces the decision of either living a mundane life as a nun or escaping into the world outside of the church that she knows hardly anything about. She finds herself torn between wanting excitement and freedom and wanting safety and security. The first glimpse of this we see is when a couple comes to the convent and wants to adopt her. Sister Josepha refuses to go with them because she thinks that the man looks at her in a vulgar way. “Untutored in worldly knowledge, she could not divine the meaning of the pronounced leers and admiration of her physical charms which gleamed in the man’s face, but she knew that it made her feel creepy, and stoutly refused to go,” (408). I took this to mean that although she is not highly educated she is smart enough to reject this couples’ offer because of the way the man looks at her. He looked at her in a sexual way. Why else would it make her feel creepy?
  
  
  
  The author’s focus is on Sister Josepha’s identity. All she knows about herself is that her name is Camille and she is beautiful, but outside of that, she knows not much. That is why she stays at the convent after thinking about running away. At least at the convent she has an identity as “Sister Josepha” she is a nun. In the world outside, she would be nothing but a beautiful nameless object. She realizes this after overhearing Sister Francesca talking about her: “…how hard it would be for her in the world, with no name but Camille, no friends, and her beauty…” (411). I think Sister Josepha, as a character, was quite wise to chose staying with the mundane life where she knew what she could expect over the life beyond the convent’s walls. I expected her to runaway from the convent after she spotted the young military man and their eyes met. But found myself glad that she didn’t. After all routine and mundane can be a good thing.