Success and Failure in "To Hell with Death" by Alice Walker "To Hell with Death" by Alice Walker appears on the surface to be the story of a man who has many close -death experiences. However, I believe that Mr. Sweet's story shows the side of depression and failure that Alice Walker might have faced if she had not made her way to success. Sweet grew up in a time when life between blacks and whites was very segregated. However, Mr. Sweet "had been ambitious as a boy, wanting to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a sailor, only to find that black men were better off if [they weren't]" (Walker 1143). When he realized this defeat "he turned to fishing as his only claim to doing something extraordinarily well" (1143). This failure seemed to overwhelm Mr. Sweet as he turned to the bottle as some sort of shrine. Mr. Sweet "was constantly on the verge of being dead drunk" (1144); however, for children this made it the perfect playmate. Often, when Mr. Sweet was "feeling good" (1144), he would dance and play in the yard with the children. When he was in that state he was as vulnerable as they were. In fact, most of the time it is the children who win the battles. One ironic behavior that Mr. Sweet has in this story, however, is that we read about him playing with the neighbors' children, but we never read about him playing with his own children. child. Perhaps this is due to the second failure that occurred in Mr. Sweet's life. When he was younger he had to marry Miss Mary, because she was pregnant with his child; "he was not sure whether Joe Lee, [Miss Mary's] baby, was also her baby" (1144). However, Mr. Sweet was in love with another woman. He had made up a song that he played on the guitar about this unhappy part of his life. When Mr. Sw...... in the center of the paper......, was another Mr. Sweet. However, this Mr. Sweet took his own path to success. He expressed his pain through the poem he wrote so anyone who wanted could read it and feel the pain he had to overcome. Sweet, by showing Alice Walker what would happen to her if she gave in to the racism of the outside world, helped her achieve success. Works CitedWalker, Alice. "To hell with death." The Harper Fiction Anthology. Ed. Silvano Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. 1143-1147.Walker, Alice. "Remembering Mr. Sweet." The Harper Fiction Anthology. Ed. Silvano Barnet. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. 1147-1149. Works consulted Harrison, Faye. “Writing against the grain: the cultural politics of difference in the work of Alice Walker.” Women who write culture. Ed. R. Behar and District Attorney Gordon. University of California Press, 1195. 233-245.