The Test by Angelica Gibbs Short Story Analysis

An interesting and contradicting short story that explores an important theme is ‘The Test’ by Angelica Gibbs. The story explores the theme of racial prejudice. Angelica Gibbs uses impressive skills of; characterization, key incidents, and also setting to explore this theme. The story is about a woman named Marian who is retaking her driving test which is important to her. But along the way, things get uncomfortable, the instructor is being racially abusive towards her and continues to try to make her feel uncomfortable enough to fail. 

The story begins with Marian who is currently getting ready to redo her driving test for the second time. At the beginning and starting conversation that is held between Marian and the employer called Mrs. Ericson, they both confidently agreed on the fact Marian’s driving skills and talent isn’t what is making her fail her test, especially the first time. The fear and discomfort of Marian are shown with: “I don't remember doing all the things the inspector marked down on my blank” This reinforces the fact in which Marian is had been failed for reasons in which she is in denial about which is causing her anxiety about resitting it. We then see during the beginning, her driving great and continuing against the fear and low confidence which is revealed with: “Marian drove slowly on the crowded boulevard” This establishes the fact she is a great, skillful and responsible driver which showed it had to be other things she was nervous about. Here we see Marian drive well and also prove the instructor different. This links to the theme of racial prejudice by the instructor causing her to feel confident about being failed due to her race to affect her driving.

When Marian sees the instructors for the first time, she begins to have a build-up of anxiety and begins to get scared and intimidated. As she is driving, we see her begin to become frightened and uncomfortable with the quote: “shout directions at the driver at head of line” The fact that directions are being shouted at the driver by the instructor when she has only just first met them, isn’t a nice way to speak to people which can make the driver feel uncomfortable and scared about what was to come next. It also emphasizes how inconsiderate and disrespectful these men's natures are and how strong their respective values are towards others. Also, these men are “military” looking. This is revealed by them turning up in a logo car made to look like police instead of instructors. This wouldn’t help Marian relax before, during, and after her test. This hints that the men and their use of tone towards Marian will show that she is going to have a difficult time working around these men which links to the racial prejudice theme throughout. 

Throughout the test, Marian receives a fair amount of disrespect before it turns into her being a victim of racial prejudice. She takes it but keeps how she feels to herself instead of vocalizing it to the instructor. One example of this is shown with the quotation of “the driving inspector repeatedly calls Marian ‘Mandy’ and ‘Mandy-Lou” This is extremely disrespectful for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that the instructor knows that they aren’t her names no matter how often he says they are, he has also been corrected with the name. Also, the instructor thinks the names are for black people, which tells us that he doesn’t want to treat her with any sort of respect or dignity. He would rather knock her down and lower her confidence due to her ethnicity. He continues to knock her down and be disrespectful, we see this by the quote: “When Mrs. Ericson says when Marian is a good driver, the instructor ‘winks’ and says ‘sure thing’” This tells us that the instructor isn’t on the same page as Mrs. Ericson is and believes that he shouldn’t go along with Mrs. Ericson’s evaluation. He believes that Marian isn’t an impressive driver on the road. This is where we see the theme of racial prejudice coming back through by the race comments and being disbelieved for her ethnicity. 

As Marian’s driving test continues, the disrespect from the instructor then begins to turn into more racial comments and it is where prejudice is more common in the story. The instructor first begins the racial comments in this section of the story with the quote: “quite a flock of pickaninnies” The instructor is using a racial phrase for children and young people who are black. The instructor using this is not only extremely disrespectful and racist but is extremely unethical and dishonorable of them. The word choice of ‘flock’ is used for a group of animals, but here the instructor is using it in a different context. The context that he is using it in, is that he is making Marian look like she is below him all due to her race and ethnicity and that his race is much better. The racial comments which are coming from the instructor continue to get worse for Marian. An example of it getting worse for her is: “you all sho can read fine” he then decides to continue to make her look lower by making the racist accusation of the fact she is black she can’t read and that she shouldn’t be able to. This reinforces the fact that Marian is being belittled all due to her race and the instructor is bring back the theme of racial prejudice by thinking that people of different cultures are so low under him. 

At this point in the climax of the story, Marian has had enough of the instructor’s indecorous and racial comments and prejudice and looses her temper due to not taking anymore but gets immediately failed by the instructor. We see Marian begin to lose her temper by Gibbs using the quotation: “Damn you” Marian cried’. This further emphasizes the fact Marian has bit her tongue for too long and eventually loses it to the instructor. This proves to be the main crucial part of the story as it shows us Marian’s feelings of enragement and frustration and the driving instructor sees this as an important and good time to fail her. The word choice of ‘damn’ has a connotation of ‘darn’. In this context, ‘damn’ is used instead of a curse or swear word to show her anger. This quote links into the strong emotions of the instructor when he fails her and the quote that shows the contrast is: “made four very black crosses at random in the squares on Marian’s application blank” The instructor has made the marks extremely heavy so that they cannot be rubbed out, which shows the instructor’s adamant decision to fail Marian. This symbolizes the fact the world of white people will always treat those who are black differently. Here the theme of racial prejudice is shown further by treating Marian differently and failing her due to her ethnicity and race. 

Angelica Gibbs has created a strong opinionated and ethical short story that explores the theme of racial prejudice throughout. The main character Marian, was in to fail her test again from the beginning of the story and she knew but she’d thought it might have been different the second time around. Coming from me as the reader of this story, I found it thought-provoking to think that some people think the way we as a society and community treat those who are different from us doesn’t need to change but it does as it isn’t fair and it isn’t something that any of us should be proud of for doing.