Alice Walker Research Paper

In Alice Walker’s, Nineteen Fifty-Five, a young white singer, Traynor, acquires song rights from an African American rhythm and blues singer, Gracie Mae. The song makes Traynor rich and famous. Obsessed with finding out the song’s meaning, Traynor remains in contact with Gracie Mae through letters, gifts, and visits. The conflict of the story is in Traynor’s inability to ascertain the meaning of the song. Traynor eventually passes away, without ever resolving the conflict.

The accounts that Alice Walker used to prove her points and back up her arguments were African American history that she was all too familiar with. It may have been shared to her by her families, or simply a collective knowledge passed down from one generation to another. She is also well-educated, a wide reader, and an artist. She often cites Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, relating a white woman’s plight to a black woman’s hardships. She emphasizes that even though she recognizes Woolf’s point about society’s unfair treatment to women of her time, Walker still believes that black women suffered the most (Walker). There is simply nothing that could compare to the artistic suppression that her mother and grandmothers experienced.

Walker extends this to communicate the value in maintaining accurate historical records for our families. Again in “A Letter to the Editor Ms.” Walker suggests this. “And I looked again at Shirley Chisholm’s Face (which I have never seen before except on television) and was glad that she kept a record of her political and social struggles, because our greatest women die, often in poverty and under the weight of slander, and are soon forgotten.” (ISOMG pg. 274) Walker continually conveys the importance of African American women writers and keeping up with their works. Without these accounts history and truth is being lost. There is so much history that is taught about African Americans in general that is diluted because of the lack of truthful firsthand accounts that are available. Without the ability to get an education, word of mouth and storytelling was the only way that tradition and history could be passed down through the generations. Here the themes of the importance of the role of women is introduced. Their role is important in maintaining this knowledge. We (African American women) can not only know names of those before us, but rather know their story. Walker points out the importance of African American women covering all grounds and knowing ‘her herstory’ to aid future generations. We must spend time doing this, so we let none of our history die with us.

Alice Walker is American novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet, social worker, civil-rights, educator, publisher and peace activist. An acclaimed writer whose controversial novel The Color Purple (1982) won both the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Walker writes powerful, expressive fiction in which she delineates the black woman’s struggle for spiritual wholeness and political autonomy. Viewing the African-American woman as a symbol representing hope and resurrection for humanity, Walker stresses the importance of bonds between woman as a means to content with racism and sexism.

“Poetry is a the lifeblood of rebellion, revolution, and the raising of consciousness” (Walker). This is a quote from Alice Walker, a poet, novelist, and activist. She is an acclaimed writer who is greatly inspired by the civil rights movement and feminism. Born in Eatonton, Georgia in 1944, she helped bring African-American women's lives into attention through her novels and pieces of writing. While growing up Walker got to see the horrors of the Klu Klux Klan and Jim Crow Laws. Despite this, her parents still sent her to school where she received a good education and later went on to college. Alice Walker was immensely inspired by her mother who gave her the incentive for her influential writing. She attended Spelman College in Atlanta, 1961, which is famous for being one of the first historic black women’s colleges in the United States. Here she became involved with the civil rights movement and an active feminist. She has continued to be an activist and is taking action in the world today. Growing up during the oppression of African-Americans inspired her to be an advocate for black women; her writing passionately proclaims a message that educates and inspires others.

Alice Walker is considered one of the most influential African American writers of the 20th century, because of her raw portrayal of African American struggles and the injustices towards black women. She was the first African American female novelist to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple. Her work is appealing and powerful because “Walker's novels can be read as an ongoing narrative of an African American woman's energence from the voiceless obscurity of poverty and racial and sexual victimization to become a reshaper of culture and tradition” (Gray 527). Through

         Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in Georgia. She is a famous black -American writer who is concerned about the identity of black Americans, and especially the black female experience. Until 1960, black American literature was driven by black male writers such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Jean Toomer, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes. Because of discrimination, black women writers were not able to express themselves. They were restrained by society. There was a major resistance to conservative culture. Women writers who raised a hare in a society were Toni Morrison, Carolyn, Paule Marshall, Nikki Giovani, Alice Walker. Among them, a writer who was the most focused on the issue of discrimination and women’s right in black society was Alice Walker. Donna Seaman, a senior editor for Booklist, interviewed Alice Walker that “Segregation in Georgia, our apartheid, was a real blow to me. It was a real shock to see that people would actually spend their time making horrible laws and killing people and tearing down our school when, instead, they could be admiring what was all around them”. Even she was not allowed to enter a public library in her town because of racial discrimination. She had described her experiences of racism, human rights abuses, and discrimination since she was very young. Laurie McMillan said, “Walker is very aware of the history of oppression of African Americans, and she recognizes the importance of building a heritage to help African Americans thrive.” (113) Alice Walker went through many experiences influenced her views about herself as well views of everything that surrounded

Alice Malsenior Walker, an African American born into poverty, came into this world on February 9, 1944 in Eatonon, Georgia. She was the youngest child of eight children born to Willie Lee and Minnie Tallulah Walkers. Both of her parents were sharecroppers as well as expert story tellers. Things were not easy for the Walkers and Alice often witnessed her mother’s frustration of having the burden to take care of eight children with little means. Even though children of share croppers were usually made to work the fields, Alice’s mother made sure that her kids received an education. Alice was brilliant at writing poetry.

Besides Alice’s close involvement as a sharecropper’s daughter, she also shared an incident that scared her life at a very early age, which may have changed the way she saw the world around her in addition to having an immense influence in her writing. At eight years old, she was shot in the eye by her older brother with a BB gun while playing cowboys and indians. As a result, Alice was not only wounded physically but emotionally as well.

Alice Walker was born February 9, 1944 to parents Minnie Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker in Eatonton, Georgia. Her parents were sharecroppers and her mother worked as a maid to help to supplement the family income. She was the youngest of 8 children. At the age of 8 years old, one of her brothers accidentally shot her in the right eye with a BB gun while playing a game of Cowboys and Indians. She became partially blind and developed scar tissue in her eye. She was teased by her classmates and felt misunderstood by her family, which caused her to become a shy and withdrawn young lady. (New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2012) "For a long time, I thought I was very ugly and disfigured,"

     Alice Walker is an African American essayist, novelist and poet. She is described as a “black feminist.”(Ten on Ten) Alice Walker tries to incorporate the concepts of her heritage that are absent into her essays; such things as how women should be independent and find their special talent or art to make their life better. Throughout Walker’s essay entitled “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” I determined there were three factors that aided Walker gain the concepts of her heritage which are through artistic ability, her foremothers and artistic models.

In “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens”, Alice Walker looks to educate us on the hardships that almost all black women face when trying to express themselves through things such as art. She delves into many sociological and psychological concepts that have affected black women throughout human history. These concepts and ideologies created a realm for mass exclusion, discrimination, and oppression of many African American women, including Alice Walker’s Mother, who Alice utilizes as one of her particular examples. The writing thematically aims to show how these concepts of sexism, racism, and even classism have contributed to black women’s lack of individuality, optimism, and fulfillment for generations. The author does a tremendous job of defending and expanding upon her arguments. She has a credible background, being a black woman that produces the art of literature herself. As well as being raised by one, Walker’s first-hand experience warrants high regard. Therefore, her use of abstract and introspective language is presented clearly and convincingly. Also, her use of evidence and support from sources like Jean Toomer, Virginia Woolf, and Phillis Wheatley, all produce more validity for her stance through poems, quotes, and even experiences. All these individuals have their own accounts pertaining to the oppression of black women and their individuality. Successfully arguing that the artistry plights of black women described in “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” are

     The essay “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” by contemporary American novelist Alice Walker is one that, like a flashbulb, burns an afterimage in my mind. It is an essay primarily written to inform the reader about the history of African American women in America and how their vibrant, creative spirit managed to survive in a dismal world filled with many oppressive hardships. This piece can be read, understood, and manage to conjure up many emotions within the hearts and minds of just about any audience that reads it. However, Walker targets African American women in today’s society in an effort to make them understand their heritage and appreciate what their mothers and

The day Alice Walker was born, February 9, 1944, was the same year that the Supreme Court ruled that white only political primaries are unconstitutional. Right from the start she was witnessing progress that she would help move forward later in her life. She was born in Eatonton, Georgia and grew up in poverty. She said in an interview that at 2 years old her mother was so sick and since she was the last of eight children they needed someone to take care of her so her parent sent her to relatives, the audience laughs when she says that her family was trying to “get rid of her” but she continues and you realize that they had so little that they were trying to send her away. She only stayed with those relatives for some months because when she saw her father again she wouldn’t let him go. Her parents were sharecroppers and also “dairy people” as she puts it in that same interview. Even though her family was very poor and there were so many children her parents still sent her to school starting at the age of 4 a year ahead of schedule.

So who is Alice Walker, you may ask? Alice Walker; born in Eatonton, Georgia in year of 1944 is a novelist, poet and feminist who is one of the most admired African-American writers working today. As a major American novelist, Alice Walker’s work displays a ray of universal truths while speaking about the issues concerning women and women of color. At a young age, Walker was grown to the idea of racial separation. Living in the racially divided South, she attended segregated schools; however that did not stop her in pursuing in her academics. She graduated as the valedictorian of her class, and with the help of a scholarship, she was able to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia In the late 1900’s, young Walker become an activist in the Civil Rights Movement fighting for equality for all African Americans. The goals of the Civil Rights Movement were to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans and to secure legal recognition.