Similarities Between Dana And Alice

Alice Walker used her writing to convey a message to African Americans. She used her character to show that although one might try to remove himself or herself from a race they will always be connected to it. The situation Dee is going through is generational issue for African Americans. They are always on a constant search to find their place in this world. Walker exemplifies this in

There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and

In Kindred by Octavia Butler, the main character, Dana, travels back in time from nineteen seventy-six in California to Maryland in the eighteen-hundreds. She travels to the Weylin plantation where she realizes that they were her ancestors. Dana experienced first hand the brutality and suffrage that they faced. She too must learn how to survive in a time where blacks are believed to be below white men and considered sub-human. This novel goes into detail and the brutality of what it is like to be a black woman in the antebellum south and have all of her rights taken away.

Despite having numerous benefits, historical fiction has many drawbacks in helping to understand the past. A drawback might be that readers focus on the storyline rather than the history. Alice was present at many events that were part of pre-revolutionary America. However, these events were not nearly as interesting as Alice’s pregnancy and her changing relationship with Freeman and Widow Berry. For some readers, this might make them focus on the entertaining part of the novel versus the historical and learning aspect of the novel. Another drawback is that historical fiction might romanticize the time period. An example of this in Bound is the love story between Alice and Nate. When Nate choose to sit with Alice at the watermeloning party, Nate’s “father watched him all the way back to the log” (Gunning 146), which illustrated how Nate and Alice’s relationship was extremely unusual. The idea of a poor indentured servant and a wealthy boy who comes from a well respected family falling in love with each other sounded like a Cinderella story. Although it added to the characters dynamically, the possibility of this actually happening in that time period seems very unlikely.

Gender inequality was a big issue during the early 1900s, and especially for the African American women because some “Africa American women were used as sex slaves or just slaves in generally” (Karpowitz). These women were treated badly even if it was from their dad or their "husband"/owners, but at the end of the day they knew only one person who these women can trust which is God. In Alice Walker’s novel, she shows and expresses how women will have bad times or bumps on the road, but if they keep going towards their dream they will succeed. Walker also showed how women did not have a voice to stand up for themselves but later in their life they started getting together to fight back for their rights. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker demonstrates gender inequality in the lives of African Americans in the early 1900s.

Kindred is the first sci-fi written in the mid-1970s by a black woman to explore how the history of the enslavement of blacks by whites in America This combination of slave memories, imagination, and historical fiction is a narration of rich literary complexity. She published Kindred, a dark fiction that represents the American history: slavery. This narration, in which a young middle-class black female finds herself moving between 1976 antebellum and Maryland. Dana uncovers her family’s history and discovers a dark past. Her history starts with a slave owner’s son called Rufus and her survival means keeping him alive even when he is turning to the slave owner like his father. Like the past has attached on the present, Rufus attaching onto Dana, the sacrifices of the past form the present today. Dana sacrifices with her arm which is an important for a writer as well as slaves sacrifices with their skin, bones and souls for better future.

While reading literature, we manage to forget that they have true roots to what is being written and what they actually represent. When looking at the similarities of how literature is represented it obvious to see that there are certain socially constructed groups presented. Although these socially constructed groups do vary throughout literature, they still tend to be very similar. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use,” Lorraine Hansberry play “A Raisin in the Sun,” and Langston Hughes’s poems “Harlem” and “Theme for English B” they evaluate the social construction of African Americans. What makes these authors so alike is the similarities that they share; being that they were all born in the early 1900’s, are all of African American ethnicity, and acknowledge the social construct of African Americans in these works. Looking at each of these works of literature they represent the struggles that African Americans faced when trying to be seen as equal, by allowing these works to be shown in different insights towards the battles faced in their movement towards being seen as equal.

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story of a young girl’s journey down the rabbit hole into a fantasy world where there seems to be no logic. Throughout Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice experiences a variety of bizarre physical changes, causing her to realize she is not only trying to figure out Wonderland but also trying to determine her own identity. After Alice arrives in Wonderland the narrator states, “For this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people” (Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 12). This quotation is the first instance that shows Alice is unsure of her identity. The changes in size that take place when she eats or drinks are the physical signs of her loss of identity.

Alice is a very light skinned, black woman who could pass off as white without any makeup. She works as a supervisor of case work in city welfare. She came from the one of the richest Negro families on the West Coast. She is, in Bob’s mind,

Throughout history, language has always been an important way to communicate with others. But do not abuse language to manipulate, threaten or demoralize others. Many characters in the novel show the importance of knowledge and the power of language. In the novel Kindred, Octavia Butler explores this topic through Dana, a black woman, and her white ancestor, Rufus Weylin. She describes the class difference, and the amount of power the language is used in the novel. Rufus is Dana’s ancestor but also a slaveholder in the 1800’s. Each time Dana goes back into the 1800’s to save Rufus, she learns the hardships of being black, and the struggles. The readers meet Dana Franklin, the main character, in the beginning of the novel. Dana shows the readers

Both Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston are similar to having the same concept about black women to have a voice and being perspective. These two authors are phenomenal women who impacted on the southern hospitality roots. Alice Walker and Zora Neale Hurston comment on fear, avenge, and righteousness among African American women that are abuse of their power. Walker and Hurston uses the same theory of feminism to point out the liberation that is told through the story of survival. The comparison of the two authors expresses hardship among characters to discover their purpose. Also, Walker fines Hurston books intruding on into detail the heritage. Hurston narratives was not dull it was more upscale and interesting to talk about change to become reality. Walker and Hurston develop a comparison of the folk tale tradition in black culture. (Howard 200)

Also, the character of Alice has some interesting meaning to the story. The character of Alice may be modeled after the author Alice Munro because they have shared similar experiences between men. Apparently, the author had been through a divorce and many of the

Alice Malsenior Walker was born February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. Her father Willie Lee Walker worked as a sharecropper and a dairy farmer. Her mother Minnie Walker worked as a maid to help support her family of eight children. Alice also married activist, Melvyn Leventhal in 1967. Alice and Melvyn had moved to Mississippi and became, “the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi.” ( Beaulieu) They later had one daughter named Rebecca Walker in which they later divorced in 1976. Alice Walker, is a novelist, essayist, poet, and feminist.

Alice Malsenior Walker is an American novelist who was born in Eatonton, Georgia on February 9, 1944. She’s the youngest of eight children, her parents are Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant. Alice grew up being poor, her parents were sharecroppers and only earned about $300 a year. Her mother worked as a maid to be able to support her family and to be able to send Alice to college. Since Alice lived under the Jim Crow Laws, Walker's parents resisted landlords who expected the children of black sharecroppers to work the fields at very young age. Instead of children being sent to school they were expected work but Alice's mother said otherwise, she saved up money so Alice can attend college.

Rufus is unpredictable; intoxicate slave owner and also the father of one of Dana’s ancestors. He sexual assault and subjugate Alice and makes an attempt to do the same to Dana. Rufus longs to be loved but expects to always get his way, using violence if denied.