Alice Walker

Paper Summary:

This paper studies the literature and poetry of African American writer Alice Walker. 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."

More papers on Alice Walker:

• Comparison Essay # 71219 : "Flannery O'Connor and Alice Walker"
• Essay # 87522 : "Summary of Alice Walker's "Meridian"
• Essay # 137592 : "The Uniqueness of the Women in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”"
• Analytical Essay # 134513 : "Alice Walker's "Beauty: When the Dancer is the Self"

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