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The color purple alice walker essays
The sociological criticism of alice walker
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Best known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker portrays black women struggling for sexual as well as racial equality and emerging as strong, creative individuals. Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia, the eighth child of Willie Lee and Minnie Grant Walker. When Walker was eight, her right eye was injured by one of her brothers, resulting in permanent damage to her eye and facial disfigurement that isolated her as a child. This is where her feminine point of view first emerged in a household where girls were forced to do the domestic chores unaided by the brothers. Throughout her writing career, Alice Walker has been involved in the black movement and displays strong feelings towards the respect black women get.
In 1961, Walker entered Spelman College, where she joined the Civil Rights Movement. Two years after graduating in 1965, she married Melvyn Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer; afterward, they worked together in Mississippi, registering blacks to vote. In the summer of 1968, she went to Mississippi to be in the heart of the civil-rights movement, helping people who had been thrown off farms or taken off welfare roles for registering to vote. In New York, she worked as an editor at Ms. Magazine, and her husband worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
	In 1970, Walker published her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, about the ravages of racism on a black sharecropping family. In Meridian, 1976, her second novel, she explored a woman’s successful efforts to find her place in the Civil Rights Movement. She read much of Flannery O’Conner's work and greatly admired her.
For one thing, O’Conner practiced economy. According to Herbert Mitgang of the New York Times, "She also knew that the question of race was really just the first question on a long list"(1983).
Much of Walker’s writings are very personal. For example, one of her first books once was written during a time in which she was pregnant and suicidal and it described how she had an abortion and dealt with all of its after effects. Unlike many other authors, she is not afraid to write about very personal experiences she has had. Since the beginning of her writing career, she has written sixteen books, including five novels, several collections of essays, short stories, children’s books, and poems...
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Overall, Walker has been a very influential author throughout the black community, and her audiences are very much interracial. Although many of the criticisms are controversial over her view of black men, through this research it is concluded that the depiction cannot be narrowed down to black men. She was merely describing the kind of man who had the potential and who was abusive. Not suprisingly, most of the controversy streams from the fact that there aren’t other black male characters portrayed to counteract the depiction of the abuser.
This perceived imbalance however doesn’t mean that she is focusing all her anger towards black males, she is merely trying to illustrate topics that people know are true yet perhaps unwilling to admit it. Another good argument is that it seems as though critics are trying to force her to choose between her support for the black community and her support for the feminist movement, and she won’t do that for them. She is equally supportive of both, and that is a very admirable quality. Alice Walker was a very personal author who was not afraid to show or hide anything in the struggle against racism and support for black women.
Detrimental stereotypes of minorities affect everyone today as they did during the antebellum period. Walker’s subject matter reminds people of this, as does her symbolic use of stark black and white. Her work shocks. It disgusts. The important part is: her work elicits a reaction from the viewer; it reminds them of a dark time in history and represents that time in the most fantastically nightmarish way possible. In her own words, Walker has said, “I didn’t want a completely passive viewer, I wanted to make work where the viewer wouldn’t walk away; he would either giggle nervously, get pulled into history, into fiction, into something totally demeaning and possibly very beautiful”. Certainly, her usage of controversial cultural signifiers serve not only to remind the viewer of the way blacks were viewed, but that they were cast in that image by people like the viewer. Thus, the viewer is implicated in the injustices within her work. In a way, the scenes she creates are a subversive display of the slim power of slave over owner, of woman over man, of viewed over
Between 1924 and 1938,she was the executive director of YWCA facilities in Springfield,Ohio,Jersey City,New Jersey,Harlem,Philidelphia,Pennsylvania and Brooklyn. She married Merritt A Hedgeman in 1936. In addition,she was also the excutive director of the National Committee for a Permanet Fair Employment Practices Commission,she briefly served as the assistant Deam of Women at Howard University,as public relations consultant for Fuller Products Company,as a associate editor,columnist for the New York Age. And she also worked for the Harry Truman Presidential campaign. Besides her being the first black woman to have a Bachlor`s degree in English,she was also the first black woman to serve to hold the position in the cabniet of New York Mayor Robert F. Wagner Jr from 1954 to 1958. All of her success made her a well respected civic leader by the early
The first detail the authors selected is the fact that drug dealers still live with their mothers at home. Drug dealing has been painted by the media as “one of the most profitable jobs in America” (Levitt 83). However, that is not the case. Drug dealing works much like a business in America, namely crack dealing in Chicago. In the novel, there is the example of the Black Disciples, a crack gang in Chicago. Their group is organized into a multitude of franchises that report back to the board of directors, providing the board with a large cut of the profits made on the streets. The leader of each gang made a large sum of up to $100,000, but “the foot soldiers earned just about $3.30 an hour, less than the minimum wage” (Levitt 93). This detail of the drug dealers was selected to appear in the novel to show how “conventional wisdoms” are false and misleading. The media at the time was stating that drug dealers made large sums of money participating in the illicit drug trade, but that was not the case. Drug dealers did not even make enough money to move out of their mother’s home. Foot soldiers worked for less than the federal minimum wage at the time, but the “conventional wisdom” was that the foot soldiers were making large sums of money. This detail causes the reader to question what they see in the media, and readers see that there exists a complexity behind
Alice Walker grew up in rural Georgia in the mid 1900s as the daughter of two poor sharecroppers. Throughout her life, she has been forced to face and overcome arduous lessons of life. Once she managed to transfer the struggles of her life into a book, she instantaneously became a world-renowned author and Pulitzer Prize winner. The Color Purple is a riveting novel about the struggle between redemption and revenge according to Dinitia Smith. The novel takes place rural Georgia, starting in the early 1900s over a period of 30 years. Albert, also known as Mr._____, and his son Harpo must prevail over their evil acts towards other people, especially women. Albert and Harpo wrong many people throughout their lives. To be redeemed, they must first learn to love others, then reflect upon their mistakes, and finally become courageous enough to take responsibility for their actions. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker effectively develops Albert and Harpo through redemption using love, reflection, and responsibility.
The African American male community and colorism aren’t as affected by the judgement and abused as that of a women. Our community of African Americans are supposed to live in harmony because of everything that we have been through, For example, slavery, voting, etc... The African American male community to judge women on their skin shade, their looks, and their personality has my interiors aching. It has always been the male's job to raise a family by supplying the money to put food on the table not whether they're being mistreated by a shade of color. A woman is the one that is being put down by their shade of color and judged by how black they are compared to the rest of the world. It’s supposed to be the male's job to help the women out, but they’re the ones that judge and ridicule them the most.
Alice Walker grew up the youngest of eight children. She was in an accident as a child that left her blind in one eye. She is best known for her work The Color Purple. Much of her work is focused on Civil Rights for African Americans. In Alice Walker’s poem Remember? she begins by posing a question. Just by the title, the reader begins to believe that this poem is taking place in the past, it may cause the reader to think of another time where they have been asked the question, remember? To paraphrase, the poem begins rather dark, a hate for Walker’s physical appearance, which makes reference to her past time when her eye had been shot by a BB gun. She continues with detest towards her life and the way that she is living her life, "holding their babies / cooking their meals / sweeping their yards / washing their clothes." After these first two stanzas, the poem shifts into a powerful and defiant outlook. She no longer lets this hate for herself, or the hate that comes from the oppression against her skin color to affect her. She turns from looking at the bad times that have struck her life, as moments for possibility for the future.
Booker T. Washington named her, “one of the most progressive and successful women of our race.” Walker demanded respect from men, and encouraged women not to rely on their husbands, but to become independent. She’s inspired so many people with her willingness and ambition to be successful. She encouraged black women to develop their own natural beauty and self-confidence and to love themselves. She wanted her people to pursue their dreams and to not limit themselves to what they can accomplish.
• AW has had some problems of her own; she was very depressed after an abortion in senior year at college. She slept with a razor under her pillow for three nights as she wanted to commit suicide. Instead she turned to writing and in a week she wrote the story “To Hell with Dying”. She only stopped writing to eat and sleep.
Before the Civil Rights Movement, which took place from 1955-1968, African-Americans had a difficult time establishing an identity and their rights. However, for many African-Americans, the Civil Rights Movement developed a purpose for one’s life and progressed African-Americans’ status and rights in society. Although some people may argue that the Civil Rights Movement was not productive and only caused conflict and havoc, due to the majority of African-Americans still employed in low-level jobs and many towns affected by the Civil Rights Movement being torn apart and degraded, those effects were only temporary and tangible to others. The Movement had a much more profound effect of giving one a purpose or “spark” in life, which later led to African-Americans demanding more rights and equal status in society.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Harcourt Bruce Jovanovich, Publishers. New York, San Diego, London, 1992
Alice Walker’s writings were greatly influenced by the political and societal happenings around her during the 1960s and 1970s. She not only wrote about events that were taking place, she participated in them as well. Her devoted time and energy into society is very evident in her works. The Color Purple, one of Walker’s most prized novels, sends out a social message that concerns women’s struggle for freedom in a society where they are viewed as inferior to men. The events that happened during and previous to her writing of The Color Purple had a tremendous impact on the standpoint of the novel.
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 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 family, she is able to overcome her obstacles and grow into a stronger, more self-assured individual. While there are numerous themes transpiring throughout the course of the novel, the symbolism is one of the strongest prospects for instigating the plot.
What inspires her to write the story? As I read her biography I concluded that her personal life and experiences. she mentions that she started to write after her husband’s death. Which indicates that she was not allowed to write before and when in the story her husband
The progression of civil rights for black women that existed throughout the twentieth century mirrors the development Celie makes from a verbally debilitated girl to an adamant young woman. The expression of racism and sexism that evidenced itself during the postmodern era presented Walker with an opportunity to compose a novel that reveals her strong animosity toward discrimination. Without these outlets, Walker would not have had the ability to create a novel with such in-depth insights into the lifestyle of an immensely oppressed woman. The novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the story of a poor, young black girl, growing up in rural Georgia in the early twentieth century.
According to the bibliography portion of “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, Alice was born in Georgia and attended Spellman College before transferring to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Her first work was a book of poetry that was published while she was still in college. She moved to Mississippi and became a teacher and a civil rights activist. Walker’s work is known for highlighting the struggle of African American women during her time and in the past.