Cotton Candy & Little Cog-burt

“Little Cog-burt” by Phyllis Shand Allfrey and “Cotton Candy” by Dora Alonso are both short sorties centered around the theme of otherness. The authors lead different lives, but both of their works reflect marginalized people, people who they interacted with in their daily lives. Allfrey was revolutionary for Dominican peoples who were beset by the English, while Alonso’s romanticism focused on how Cuba’s corrupt system was affecting the lower class. Lola, Cog-burt, and Moira are flawed, Moira is misappropriating her feelings toward her children and directs it at the slave children, most prevalently Cog-burt. Lola, however, is much more developed by Alonso, we see Lola’s views of the world shift from acrid existence to a lover of life. “Cotton Candy” and “Little Cog-burt” overlapping themes of otherness, existentialism, and love cause the reader to empathize with the characters and their battles of internal strife.    

            Alonso introduced Lola a small child whose curiosity and affections are misunderstood by the young men she craved. Rejected the young woman grew under her overbearing mother, quietly driving her to the edge of insanity. She became complacent with circumstance and took her mother passing to allow her to step toward enlightenment. She enjoyed her humble life until she stumbled back in time to peak into her youth. The former seamstress fell in love with love again awakened by the primal calls of the inhabitants of her new job. She began to smile again and enjoy life; her joy became infectious spreading to those around her. Radiant with virility she reclaimed her life and found the person she had been looking for.

Moira and Cog-Burt are part of the complex system of helter-skelter of the times, Moira recently parted with her children hardening her heart, Cog-burt is a young pitiful wretched slave child. Moira problems are shallow, and as a dutiful husband, Richard tries to help his wife adjust as he lifted the spirits of the plantation workers. Respecting Richard she tries to see them a people, but her separation anxiety allows her tactless imagination to run rampant. As the party that Richard threw for the slave starts Moira sees the swarthy children running about “quite like fair children” that she is used to. Moira was haphazardly redeemed with the conclusion of this story by giving the wretched child whom she scorned her most precious Christmas tree fairy. Allfrey presented Moira and Cog-burt as victims of circumstance, Moira’s selfless act serves as her taking a step to cope with the void of being an empty nester.

Alonso and Allfrey’s short narratives offer the reader the opportunity to reflect as they sympathize with the woes of the afflicted. Moira and Lola had to accept their circumstance before they could properly move on. We all cope with plight in different ways, if we do it in the wrong way it can become bile and infect the heart.