Abstract This paper compares Flannery O'Connor's short story,"Good Country People" with AliceWalker's story, "Everyday Use" in terms of character, family and relationships.
From the Paper "In Flannery O'Connor's Good Country People and Alice Walker's Everyday Use there are some striking similarities to be observed with regard to such elements of literature as relationships, specifically with family place ..."
Tags: Flannery O'Connor, AliceWalker, short stories
Abstract The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of the basic plot and thematic elements in AliceWalker's "Meridian". A basic overview of the text is provided and also the context within which it was written. The primary focus of the report will be to situate Meridian Hill, the text's protagonist, within the context of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, in which the character fictitiously participates. Some of the structural considerations of the text are also discussed.
From the Paper "The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of the basic plot and thematic elements in Alice Walker's Meridian. To that end, I will provide a basic overview of the text and the context within which it was written. The primary focus of the report will be to situate Meridian Hill, the text's protagonist, within the context of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, in which the character fictitiously participates. I will talk somewhat about some of the structural considerations of the text, but will focus mostly on Meridian's role within the civil rights movement. In this regard, we should be able to see some of the attitudes that the author possessed regarding the Civil Rights movement and the importance of personal action as opposed to political action. Meridian is set in the American South during the 1960s.."
Abstract This paper reviews and discusses the literary forces that influenced the lives and work of two African-American writers, AliceWalker and Ralph Ellison. The paper further compares the similarities and differences between the work of these two authors.
Contents:
Introduction
AliceWalker, During & Post Civil Rights
AliceWalker's Literary Influences
Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston
Pre-Civil Rights; Ralph Ellison's Literary Influences
Conclusion
From the Paper "The mutual appreciation and love between the two was made permanent when Walker wrote Langston Hughes: American Poet, and explained in the "Author's Note" that in Hughes' books, she "encountered a spirit very like my own: a spirit that loves people, enjoys variety, hungers for diversity and change." She liked his poetry, she wrote in "Author's Note," but "even more compelling for me was his autobiographical writing, especially The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander" (Walker 36). The literary world is full of writers who "are reluctant to write about how hard it can sometimes be to understand parents and society and the way the world is organized," Walker explained, "but not Langston." And moreover, because Hughes wrote "so honestly about his struggles with his parents, and the often-puzzling cruelties of other human beings," Walker continued in her "Author's Note," she believed she could "trust him as a writer who still remembered the world of childhood."
Abstract AliceWalker unfolds the oppression of the black woman in her literature, perceptibly illuminating the roles they have been given to fill but to which they do not belong. This paper examines how through her characters, AliceWalker embodies the struggle of a double minority and leads them to find what so many black women have struggled and searched for a sense of identity separate and individual from what has been pressed upon them. The paper looks at works such "The Color Purple" and "The Third Life of Grange Copeland", among others.
From the Paper "Celie, from The Color Purple, is an excellent example of a woman that frees herself from an oppressor and with enormous courage discovers her own individuality. Celie is locked in a brutal relationship, barely surviving in a hollow existence where no love exists. She is a wife/slave to the nameless Mr. He controls her life with an iron fist until she finds solace and strength in another woman's arms. Shug, the other woman, helps her find her powerful voice hiding within. For the first time she is able to denounce Mr. and every evil thing he had done to her. She left brutality behind to move on and find her own place within this world."
Abstract This paper compares and contrasts the differences and similarities between the three main characters, Mama, Dee and Maggie, in AliceWalker's "Everyday Use." The paper concurs with the statement made by AliceWalker that when the traits of each of the characters in "Everyday Use" are combined, the result would be a fully realized and fulfilled person.
From the Paper "The short story "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker is a glimpse into the lives of a mother and her two daughters. The story is told from the perspective of the mother, who is referred to in the story by the moniker Mama. The relationship between Mama and her daughters, Maggie and Dee, makes up the bulk of the story of "Everyday Use," but to understand the story on a deeper level one needs only listen to what the author of the book has to say."
Abstract This paper reviews the literary proficiency that AliceWalker employs in her book "The Color Purple". The author of the paper examines the use of this technique in building the character of the story and how it conveys to readers how AliceWalker uses her main character's command of the English language to convey her sense of self confidence and ego development.
From the Paper "Alice Walker depicts these important female bonds as being established through language - i.e., the exchanging of confidences and ideas, the giving and receiving of advice and comfort; other positive, ego-affirming verbal exchanges. Here then, the use of language for deepening friendships, mutual understandings, and self-understanding in particular nourishes Celie and helps her finally know and articulate not just how she has felt and feels now, but who she is and wants to be."
Abstract This paper discusses how the novelist AliceWalker writes about her own youth and development into a woman and shows how gender roles in childhood are more flexible. It looks at how Walker's best-known work is her novel "The Color Purple", in which she writes about people she has known, people who lived in the part of the country where she grew up, and how she understands these people and the reasons for their behavior. It analyzes how the subject matter of the book is the mistreatment of black women by their men and shows how, in order to explore this theme, Walker sets her book in the mind of one victim of this abuse so that the nature of the abuse and its consequences are expressed by that character's letters.
From the Paper "The novel is set in a period around the turn of the century, not that long after the period of slavery and the Reconstruction era during which blacks were not given the "40 acres and a mule" they had been promised. The males seem to be fighting back at the only target they have any control over, their women. Though slavery was outlawed at the end of the Civil War, the social reality was that blacks in the South were still considered second-class citizens and were not given the same opportunities as whites. Their movements were also circumscribed to a great extent, and the law was on the side of the whites and not the blacks. The social attitudes that developed during the period of slavery, with one race of people elevated over another, continue in the time of this book. The black characters are living in a different kind of slavery, and this slavery derives from the fact that their opportunities are fewer when compared with the whites in the same community. Black-white tensions are not central in this novel, though they are seen in the attitudes and actions of the Mayor, but racial tensions are a subtext of the events just the same."
Abstract This paper studies the literature and poetry of African American writer AliceWalker. The paper argues that Walker unfolds the oppression of the Black woman through her writing. The paper examines some of Walker's most well-known characters, and how they embody the struggle of being a double minority -- both black and female. The paper demonstrates these women's struggle and search for a sense of identity separate and individual from what has been pressed upon them. The works studies in this paper are: "Anything We Love Can Be Saved", "The Color Purple", "Meridian" and "The Third Life of Grange Copeland"/
From the Paper "This young lady described above is distraught and lost much like the title character in Alice Walker's Meridian. It angered Meridian when she would think on the fact that none of her friends or family members had mentioned anything to her about sex or morals, for that matter. Her mother plied her puzzling euphemisms such as "Be sweet" and "Keep your panties up and your dress down" (Meridian 53). This non-information left her confused and available to be taken advantage of by the males that she dated. Pregnancy and an unwanted marriage ensued. She was forced into the role of the all-encompassing burden carrier. She became the well-loved slave, that was treated "good" because her husband didn't "cheat and beat her both"(Meridian 58). She was ironer of clothes, the tolerator of her husbands late nights, the only ears that her baby's cries fell upon. She was unhappy."
Abstract This paper explains that AliceWalker's essay "Beauty: When the Dancer is the Self" is a brief summary of how her perception of beauty has had an impact on her internal life. The paper relates that the essay describes how, when she was young and perfect in her own eyes, she was confident. This confidence was lost when she perceived herself as greatly flawed, only to return when the scar tissue is removed. The paper then relates that, regardless of what Walker wants the reader to take away from the essay, the ending reminds the reader that even Walker's alleged acceptance of her remaining flaw is flawed in itself.
From the Paper "Rather than simple and straightforward anecdotes, Walker has to take the reader back from a moment of doubt to previous moments of acceptance. Rather than leave the reader with the idea that her doubt about her self and her beauty remains, Walker relates several brief stories that culminate in an anecdote that takes place nine years earlier, when her daughter notices the "world" in her mother's eye."
Abstract The paper attempts to show how AliceWalker's works were shaped by her personal childhood as well as the civil rights and feminist movements during the 1960s. The paper asserts that although Walker's literary success came when the sixties were long over, she can be seen as a product of the values she absorbed during that time. The paper examines how Walker's stories contain themes of social injustice, racial bigotry and female abuse.
From the Paper "In the 1960s, social pressures in the United States came to a head, sparking several transformative cultural movements. Among the most prominent among these were the U.S. civil rights movement and the feminist movement. These tumultuous times had a particularly profound effect on a young black woman named Alice Walker who would go on to become one of the most important literary voices of her generation. Her stories have taken on themes of social injustice, racial bigotry, and female abuse. Although Walker's literary success came when the sixties were long over, she can be seen as a product of the values she learned during that time. Furthermore, the impact that she has had on the literary word is a direct result of having lived through the times that she did. In fact, Walker is a writer whose voice has been shaped by small personal incidents as well as seismic cultural shifts that took place during the 1960 when she was young."
This paper discusses the courage to stand-up to fight injustice as portrayed by the female African-American writers AliceWalker in "The Color Purple" and Maya Angelou in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings".
Abstract This paper explains that female African-American writers AliceWalker in "The Color Purple" and Maya Angelou in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" use the horrors of the African-American experience to draw attention to racial prejudice, injustice and sexism making their protagonists struggle for their independence and their indignity. The author points out that in "The Color Purple", Walker, telling the story in diary form in a series of letters to God and between the sisters, uses a rape scene on the first page to draw her readers into the story. The paper relates that Angelou's work, written in a more formal style, is based on her real life experiences, which makes "Caged Bird" much more disturbing than "The Color Purple".
From the Paper "One of the most disturbing parts of the book is when the young Marguerite has a toothache and visits the white dentist. The dentist is in debt to Marguerite's grandmother, but refuses to treat the child, saying, "Annie, my policy is I'd rather stick my hand in a dog's mouth than in a nigger's." Usually, her grandmother responds to such racism with quiet dignity. However, in this case, Angelou uses a dream sequence to put the Dentist in her place. She imagines her grandmother confronting the dentist behind the closed door and telling the bigot "to leave Stamps by sundown". Momma tells him when he gets to the next town he is going to live his punishment will be he has to treat dogs with mange and cats with cholera. In this way, Angelou defeats the memory of the indignity of racism and her toothache."
Abstract The paper begins by providing a biography of AliceWalker, describing her childhood, early life and education. It shows how her upbringing influenced her style of writing and the themes she wrote about. It then focuses on her short story "Everyday Use" and provides a character study of Dee, a main character in the short story.
From the Paper "A famous author once wrote, ?Black women can survive only by recovering the rich heritage of their ancestors.? (Walker, 1983) The woman who wrote that is probably the best example of what it truly means. Alice Walker has incorporated her heritage and life into what she has written through the years in the form of poetry, novels, essays, and biographies. She has been well renowned within the literary community and has published many works."
Abstract This paper will discuss the technical aspects of AliceWalker's writings and how they affected her and the times that she lived in. By analyzing the way that she writes a better understanding of her style will reflect the way that she wrote and affected so many peoples lives in the realm of literature.
Abstract This paper focuses on the author's perception of how society and culture creates the perpetual cycle of violence. In "The Third Life of Grange Copeland" author AliceWalker demonstrates how families are adversely affected by the culture in which they live in and the depiction of ruthless and violent treatment of family members and particular women.
From the Paper "What is it in a society or culture that creates the perpetual cycle of violence and why do individuals, generation after generation continue to accept it? Part of it is that it has happened before and future generations follow the example of those who have lived before them and never taught any other choices. Early in the novel, violence is shown to be a part of the culture in which the Copelands live. Brownfield watches as his father berates his mother, calling her names and treats her poorly."
