The D.P. has made me worry

This is I guess less about the literary aspects of The Displaced Person but rather my initial reactions to it while and after reading it. First of all, I felt very tense the entire time reading the story. I cannot remember feeling that way about reading her other stories. Perhaps it was because she spent SO much time leading up to every incident that happened, it seemed more suspenseful. The constant griping about the immigrant from Poland made me uneasy. It also made me feel incredibly sad that almost nothing has changed as time has gone passed. No, we aren't really complaining about the Poles taking our jobs, but we have been complaining. Especially the language issue. I cannot help but remember all the times I've heard in conversation that people get irritated because an immigrant will not learn the English language. Honestly, I see both sides, and I've decided to remain completely neutral about this issue until absolutely forced to make a decision.

This fear of the unknown and "exotic" has pretty much been a constant theme in all our history. I feel like the peacock in the story kind of represented the Guizac family. They are such beautiful creatures, but all except for the priest, everyone seems annoyed by them and just put up with them (another mouth to feed). A part of me feels really guilty for not knowing. Why? It's part of tolerance. I feel like I'm a pretty accepting person when it comes to other people's ways of life... but I worry that there is some polite immigrant out there who sees me as a Mrs. Shortley.

I think I'm getting off track... My initial reaction I guess was just uneasiness. And not the same uneasiness that Mrs. Shortley felt in the beginning. It was the tension between the two sides. The two "white" sides anyway. I honestly do not know how I feel about the black servant representation in this story. I KNOW they have an integral part in it, but I think I'm too clouded right now about the immigrant/worker tensions that I've actually failed to think about the black workers. How should I feel about the put downs, but then when push comes to shove, it's the Shortleys that are fired? Obvious racism, but there is also obvious comfort in knowing them, making them less of the unknown. But the Shortleys were a comfort to Mrs. McIntyre too. I'm confused about this so I welcome any comments.