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Alice walker, “in search of our mothers’ gardens”
Alice Walker in search of our mothers gardens
Alice walker, “in search of our mothers’ gardens”
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In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Sainthood
To use the name of a Saint generally evokes images of holy men and women of the Catholic church, dressed in flowing robes and surrounded by an oil-painted aura. There are patron saints-those with a sort of specialized divinity-of bakers and bellmakers, orphans and pawnbrokers, soldiers and snake bites, soldiers and writers. Each is a Catholic who lived a life deemed particularly holy and was named, postmortem, by the Pope to sainthood. This construct, I find, is something of an empty set of ideas. The process of canonization is one notorious for its pecuniary nature and tendencies toward corruption. What kind of hope, then, can one possibly be offered by a long-dead person so chosen? Perhaps the kind of sainthood I can accept is much more a secular one. This is, I think, the order of sainthood of author Alice Walker's invention.
In her essay "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens," Walker ponders the histories and legacies of black American women who found, somehow, even in the bondage of slavery, an inextinguishable need and ability to create. Walker refers to these women not as slaves, or Africans, or Americans, or even women-she calls them saints: "these crazy saints stared out on the world, wildly, like lunatics..." (Walker 695). I'd read the essay twice before I began to understand the resonance of Walker's choice of words. Walker's women are saints not because they were named by the pope after the documentation of two miracles of their performance and the paying of the appropriate bishops-but because of the way they looked at the world...perhaps with the special clarity of lunacy.
The dictionary says a saint is "a person officially recognized as being entitled to public ...
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...k is the survival of inhumanity and brutality. She not only survives enslavement, but emerges with her back straight and her head high-not a feat accomplishable by many. Perhaps her ability to do so serves better in the establishment of sainthood than any from-the-grave miracle documented by the pope.
So perhaps neither is Walker writing truly about gardening nor Jacobs about her adolescence. They are both speaking to the nature of sainthood-the sainthood of artists. Their work is our evidence that saints needn't be implored or opportuned for guidance-because the spiritual broadcasting of this direction is inherent in what makes them women, artists, and Saints. Their power is our reminder of the power and beauty of art-of creation. The hope that their genius and mastery exude is the flame which keeps ignited the sparks of creation fundamental to humanity.
D. Du Bois views are consistent with Coopers ’assessment of the plight African American women faced in the United States. In Du Bois essay The Damnation of Women, he makes distinct connections between Christian theology, women’s rights and the importance of elevating black women. Du Bois points out contradictions and unrealistic expectations set on women through Christian theology and ideologies, “All womanhood is hampered today because the world on which it is emerging is a world that tries to worship both virgins and mothers and in the end despises motherhood and despoils virgins.” Du Bois understood the importance of the woman’s position as the first teacher of man. The woman ultimately determines the disposition of their society. He goes on to clarify the origin of “the mother-idea” as being derived from African culture. Asserting the first mother came from the dark-continent Africa and Isis, a goddess who was worshiped and revered as the ideal mother and wife as being the original mother. “No mother can love more tenderly, and none is more tenderly loved than the Negro mother.”
You see him as a saint. I'm far less awed; In fact I see right through him. He's a fraud.
On the other hand, the garden itself within The Secret Garden can be classified as a cultivated natural therapeutic landscape. What makes the garden truly remarkable as a therapeutic is its role in Mary’s coming of age, considering that prior to Mary’s exposure to the garden she was raised without an appropriate adult role models but nonetheless reached emotional maturity. In addition, the garden is considered a true therapeutic landscape due to its role in healing not only Mary, but also Colin and Archibald
“Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conducts of a sexual nature constitute (are) sexual harassment when: (1) submission to (agree to) . . . or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individuals, or (2) such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile (threatening), or offensive working environment” (ENotes.com...
the modern garden. She interprets how we have the need to control and create what we consider perfect with our sciences and labs. While rules reign, sanitation demands, and socialization take control of the perfect scene for a pleasant environment, the unpleasant side of these malls such as their trash is kept out of the vision of the consumer. Most of these consumer products that are used to entice the population to enter into this heavenly place on earth became waste that is not entirely recycled
• Alice Walker herself has said: “I believe it is from this period – from my solitary, lonely position, the position of an outcast – that I began really to se people and things, really to notice relationships and to learn to be patient enough to care about how they turned out...”
...James Robert Saunders, "Womanism as the Key to Understanding Zora Neale Hurston's `Their Eyes Were Watching God' and Alice Walker's `The Color Purple'," in The Hollins Critic, Vol. XXV, No. 4, October, 1988, pp. 1-11. Reproduced by permission.
However, the anonymous voices echoed in Walker’s life and literature are not confined to her ancestral lands; they extend to include every culture known in America, the only land she had ever known. From birth to death, Walker never left America; the mostly white nation, whose culture is mainly derived from Europe. Walker received her education in white institutions and was taught by white teachers for a considerable part of her life. She was well versed in American, European; and world history, philosophy, and literature. She spoke English, French, and German. She read European and Russian world literature....
Sexual harassment is another subject of interpersonal communication that occurs in the workplace. Although sexual harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, it is still a reality in all places of employment which is why it is something that everyone should have the ability to identify, understand, and effectively respond to.
Sexual harassment refers to unwanted sexual advances, requests or favors. It can happen to anyone, anywhere. Sexual harassment; found primarily in the workplace shows that 43% of women have been sexually harassed in their workplace or at a work
What comes to mind when you think of sexual harassment? Most people picture an individual grabbing another individual unwillingly in attempt of committing nonconsensual sex. However, sexual harassment can be something as insignificant as being called something negative. It is anything that makes a person feel uncomfortable about his/her sexuality. According to the law, sexual harassment is anything from unwelcome sexual advances and requests for sexual favors to verbal statements of a sexual nature. It violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Sexual Harassment Policy, which is currently in place in all schools and work places, is aimed at providing an educational and work environment free of harassment. This includes sexual harassment and every form of intimidation or exploitation.
Sexual Harassment in the workplace is defined as “offensive or pervasive conduct in the workplace related to a person’s sex that negatively affects a reasonable person’s employment.”(aauw.org) Sexual Harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it is a form of sex discrimination. According to aauw.org, Title VII is “a federal law that prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, and religion, and it applies to employers with 15 or more employees, including federal, state, and local governments.” Victims of sexual harassment in the workplace may feel like there is nothing they can do about the situation....
Anderson, W. L., & Bouravnev, A. (2011). Sexual Harassment: the Good, the Bad, and the
Sexual harassment is defined as any form of unwelcome physical conduct of a sexual nature. "Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when submission to or rejection of this conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual?s employment, unreasonable interferes with an individual?s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment." (www.eeoc.gov/facts/fs-sex.html). The most extreme form of sexual harassment occurs when an employee loses a job; benefit or other privilege of employment, or is fired because the employee has rejected sexual demands. This is one form of sexual harassment that may occur in the workplace. "This type of sexual harassment of sexual harassment is referred to as quid pro quo which literally means ?this for that?, a specific demand for sexual favors in exchange for job security or job benefits. This type of sexual ...
In today’s workplace, sexual harassment is a growing problem. The legal definition of sexual harassment is any unwelcome sexual advance or conduct on the job that creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment. Another definition is the making of unwanted and offensive sexual advances or of sexually offensive remarks or acts, especially by one in a superior or supervisory position. Women and men of all ages, backgrounds, races and experience are harassed on the job. Sexual harassment encountered in workplaces is a hazard across the world that reduces the quality of working life, jeopardizes the well-being of women and men, undermines gender equality and imposes costs on firms and organizations.