Sweet Potato Pie

Title

The title of the story “Sweet Potato Pie” by Eugenia Collier has both a literal and a symbolic meaning. In the literal sense, the title refers to the sweet potato pie that Bea, Buddy’s sister-in-law, makes for him. Sweet potato pie is also Buddy’s favorite desert: “There’s nothing in this world I like better than Bea’s sweet potato pie!” (p. 9, l. 1). The sweet potato pie is very meaningful to Buddy: “ ‘Great!’ I’d eaten all I could hold, but my spirit was still hungry for sweet potato pie.” (p. 9, l. 9). This suggests a sense of nostalgia that Buddy perhaps feels in connection to his childhood and family. Therefore, the symbolic meaning of the title is about connection, and family caring for each other.

The sweet potato pie is also something that connects the characters with their African-American heritage, as it is another “soul food” alongside “fish fried golden, ham hocks and collard greens, corn bread” (p. 8, ll. 15-16). Soul food is food traditionally associated with African-American culture, and is clearly something that Buddy enjoys and draws comfort from: “if I’d tried to leave, my feet wouldn’t have taken me” (p. 8, l. 16).