Margaret Walker

1309 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: alice walker poem analysis

In 1942, Margaret Walker won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for her poem For My People. This accomplishment heralded the beginning of Margaret Walker’s literary career which spanned from the brink of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s to the cusp of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s (Gates and McKay 1619). Through her fiction and poetry, Walker became a prominent voice in the African-American community. Her writing, especially her signature novel, Jubilee, exposes her readers to the plight of her race by accounting the struggles of African Americans from the pre-Civil War period to the present and ultimately keeps this awareness relevant to contemporary American society. Margaret Walker was born on July 7, 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama to Reverend Sigismund C. Walker and Marion Dozier Walker (Gates and McKay 1619). Her father, a scholarly Methodist minister, passed onto her his passion for literature. Her mother, a music teacher, gifted her with an innate sense of rhythm through music and storytelling. Her parents not only provided a supportive environment throughout her childhood but also emphasized the values of education, religion, and black culture. Much of Walker’s ability to realistically write about African American life can be traced back to her early exposure to her black heritage. Born in Alabama, she was deeply influenced by the Harlem Renaissance and received personal encouragement from Langston Hughes. During the Depression, she worked for the WPA Federal Writers Project and assists Richard Wright, becoming his close friend and later, biographer. In 1942, she was the first African American to win the Yale Younger Poets award for her poem For My People (Gates and McKay 1619). Her publishing career halted for... ... middle of paper ... ...was meant to be shared, to be remembered; it was made without exceptions, made for all to witness and recall a rich black history even with its brutality. Works Cited Gates, Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 1996. Print. Klotman, Phyllis. “’Oh Freedom’—Women and History in Margaret Walker’s Jubilee.” Black American Literature Forum 11.4 (Winter, 1977): 139-145. JSTOR. Web. 8 December 2013. "Margaret Walker." The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013. . McCray, Judith. "FOR MY PEOPLE: THE LIFE AND WRITING OF MARGARET WALKER." California Newsreel. N.p., 1998. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. . Walker, Margaret. How I Wrote Jubilee. Chicago: Third World, 1972. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Gwendolyn Brooks Research Paper

    1018 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gwendolyn Brooks was born on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, to KeziahWims Brooks and David Anderson Brooks. Brooks’ family didn’t have much income. Her father David Brooks was a janitor. Keziah Brooks, Gwendolyn’s mother was a school teacher. Soon after Gwendolyn was born her family moved away from Kansas. The Brooks family relocated to Chicago, Illinois, where Brooks remained the rest of her life. Brooks, as a child, loved to read. She was encouraged by her family and friends to do so. She spent most of her childhood immersed in her writing. Gwendolyn became a published poet at an early age. At age 13, Brooks’ poem Eventide was published. Her poem appeared in “American Childhood.” Brooks’ poems were frequently published in the Chicago Defender. At age 16, Brooks had written over seventy poems (J.Williams 28).In Brooks’ early years of writing she spoke on a lot. She talked about racial discrimination and praised African American heroes. Also, Brooks satirized both blacks and whites (A.williams1). In 1993, Gwendolyn meet poet James Weldon Johnson and writer Langston Hughes. The two influenced Brooks’ writing tremendously. The influence lead her to write over seventy poems (Bloom 12).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Remembering Nat Turner By Sterling Allen Brown

    318 Words  | 1 Pages

    The author was born in Washington D.C. on May 1, 1901. Later, he received a bachelor’s degree from Williams College where he studied traditional literature and explored music like Jazz and the Blues; then had gotten his masters at Harvard. The author is a professor of African American English at Harvard University. The author’s writing

    Read More

  • Comparing Poems 'I, Too And' Theme For English B

    973 Words  | 2 Pages

    The civil rights movement may have technically ended in the nineteen sixties, but America is still feeling the adverse effects of this dark time in history today. African Americans were the group of people most affected by the Civil Rights Act and continue to be today. Great pain and suffering, though, usually amounts to great literature. This period in American history was no exception. Langston Hughes was a prolific writer before, during, and after the Civil Rights Act and produced many classic poems for African American literature. Hughes uses theme, point of view, and historical context in his poems “I, Too” and “Theme for English B” to expand the views on African American culture to his audience members.

    Read More

  • Mary Edwards Walker: A Woman's Name

    982 Words  | 2 Pages

    “A woman’s name is as dear to her as a man’s is to him, and custom ought, and will prevail, where each will keep their own names when they marry, and allow the children at a certain age to decide which name they will prefer.” (Great Lives in History). This was a quote that May Edwards Walker lived by, it was meant for the time when she was married and didn’t take her husbands last name. Mary Edwards Walker was born in the rural part of Oswego, New York on November 26, 1832. There is a historical marker placed at her birthplace on Bunker Hill. She was a sibling to four sisters, Aurora, Luna, Vesta, Cynthia and one brother, Alvah Junior. Her parents were Alvah and Vesta Walker. Mary’s family was an abolitionist family.

    Read More

  • Contrasting Native Son and Their Eyes Were Watching God

    4138 Words  | 9 Pages

    This paper examines the drastic differences in literary themes and styles of Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston, two African--American writers from the early 1900's. The portrayals of African-American women by each author are contrasted based on specific examples from their two most prominent novels, Native Son by Wright, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Hurston. With the intent to explain this divergence, the autobiographies of both authors (Black Boy and Dust Tracks on a Road) are also analyzed. Particular examples from the lives of each author are cited to demonstrate the contrasting lifestyles and experiences that created these disparities, drawing parallels between the authors’ lives and creative endeavors. It becomes apparent that Wright's traumatic experiences involving females and Hurston's identity as a strong, independent and successful Black artist contributed significantly to the ways in which they chose to depict African-American women and what goals they adhered to in reaching and touching a specific audience with the messages contained in their writing.

    Read More

  • Shall Be … Forever Free

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    In her book, Jubilee, Margaret Walker tells the story of slavery from American history, based on real narrative from her family. Walker’s real great-grandmother, Vyry, was born to Hetta as her youngest child with Masters John Morris Dutton. Vyry was two years old, when Hetta died. Mammy Sukey took care of Vyry until the day she left to the Big House. Seven year old Vyry began her duty in Masters House; however, Big Missy Salina, John’s wife hated her and bullied her for she knew her husband cheated on her with Hetta. Master John found out how Salina mistreated Vyry; thus, he changed Vyry’s duties to work in the kitchen under the command of Aunt Sally. During the time spend with Sally, Vyry learned a lot about cooking, food preserving and herbs using, which enormously helped her later in her life. Because of her cooking skills, which she gained during work with Sally, Vyry became the main cook after Sally was sold away and stayed in the Big House kitchen till the day of emancipation. Throughout the years of her service, Vyry met a free black man Randal Ware, who imposed her the idea of freedom, saying he can buy it for her. Neither Master John nor his wife want to set Vyry free, thus she stayed in slavery with her two children. Ware had a plan of escape for her, but Vyry didn’t want to leave without children, got caught, and punished. The years of Civil War came, Ware was gone, and Masters family started dying out. Finally, only Miss Lillian, who was losing her mind after head injury, stayed alive, when the war ended and emancipation was brought. Vyry, alone with her children and a new man she met – Innis Brown, had to leave the Big House and start a new life. There were many obstacles they had to overcome. Although being free, it...

    Read More

  • Lucile Clifton: Reflections of Triumph

    2155 Words  | 5 Pages

    Lucille Clifton’s experiences as an African-American living in a town inhabited by mostly Caucasians affected her decisions and goals in life. Growing up in a world filled with racism and gender discrimination, Clifton challenged and overcame stereotypes about both blacks and women. Despite her early struggles, Clifton writes about her problems as she endeavors living to the fullest extent. As a child, Clifton remained thankful for her parents “gifts of poetry and storytelling” (Lupton 18). These experiences as an African-American living in an impoverished environment along with a lasting love for her community and family helped Clifton grow as a person and poet. Therefore, she gained popularity for portraying African-American youth and family life in her works. Overcoming all of her struggles was most likely the hardest thing to accomplish, and reflecting on them through poetry came naturally.

    Read More

  • Margaret Fuller

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sarah Margaret Fuller is often referred to only as Margaret Fuller. The reason I chose to write about her is because I found it interesting that she is known as “America’s first true feminist” among other things such as an editor, journalist, teacher, and literary critic. I feel that since she was a female during the 1800s she worked hard to make a good name for herself. Her works that I chose to write about specifically are “The Great Lawsuit” which is a profound essay arguing for women’s equality, and “The Fourth of July” which was an essay written to describe the values Margaret believed America had lost.

    Read More

  • An Empty Heart Cup Gwendolyn Brooks Analysis

    2018 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gwendolyn Brooks, a world renowned black, female poet, made it her life’s purpose to create positive change in the lives of others. Brooks was born on “June 7, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas” (Contemporary Authors Online 1), then her family moved to Chicago during the Great Migration when she was six weeks old. Growing up on the south side, Brooks saw the daily struggles that blacks faced. There was a lot of racial tension building at this time, as many more blacks pushed back against oppression. Brooks was, “Deeply involved with black life, black pain and black spirits” (Lee 2). Throughout her lifetime, she was an activist, who worked to promote blacks to study literature by writing poetry. She published many books and wrote countless pieces of poetry,

    Read More

  • The Poetry in Harlem Renaissance

    1966 Words  | 4 Pages

    Leonard, K. D. (2009). African American women poets and the power of the word. The Cambridge Companion to African American Women's Literature, 168-187.

    Read More

  • Alice Walker

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    •     Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia. She was born into a poor sharecropper family, and the last of eight children.

    Read More

  • Phillis Wheatley: The African-American Literary Leader

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    Phillis Wheatley marks the beginning of the African-American literary tradition. Although she is the first African-American to become a published author, it is Wheatley’s work that proves her originality as it reflects a specific time in American history, her status as a slave, and a young woman of Christian faith (Harris). Each of these inherently contribute to her fresh African-American perspective. Wheatley is ingenious in the way she subtly ties in the roots of slavery and racism in a way that whites did not feel guarded. Not only does her work allow those with a conscious to at least somewhat consider the African-American point of view, but it invites criticism by those who care not to see African-Americans as intelligent equal beings that deserve respect. Some of the African-American community also criticizes that Wheatley did not speak enough about the injustices of slavery and prejudices of her time (Scheick). These critics are simply unable to see the Wheatley’s intent as her writing breeds originality and attention to a young and well-educated African-American woman whose words could stifle her freedoms if put any other way. In evaluating Wheatley’s On Being Brought from Africa to America, An Hymn to the Evening, and To the University of Cambridge, in New-England it is clear to see that she could only be imitative in style perhaps, but nuances of her heritage is what places her “writing at the heart of any definition of an African-American canon” (Harris).

    Read More

  • Alice Walker

    964 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alice Walker, one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the US, was born in Eatonton , Georgia, the eighth and last child of Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker. Her parents were sharecroppers, and money was not always available as needed. At the tender age of eight, Walker lost sight of one eye when one of her older brothers shot her with a BB gun by accident. This left her in somewhat a depression, and she secluded herself from the other children. Walker felt like she was no longer a little girl because of the traumatic experience she had undergone, and she was filled with shame because she thought she was unpleasant to look at. During this seclusion from other kids her age, Walker began to write poems. Hence, her career as a writer began.

    Read More

  • A Dream Deferred by Langston Hughes and My Little Dreams by Georgia Douglas Johnson

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement during the 1920s and 1930s, in which African-American art, music and literature flourished. It was significant in many ways, one, because of its success in destroying racist stereotypes and two, to help African-Americans convey their hard lives and the prejudice they experienced. In this era, two distinguished poets are Langston Hughes, who wrote the poem “A Dream Deferred” and Georgia Douglas Johnson who wrote “My Little Dreams”. These two poems address the delayment of justice, but explore it differently, through their dissimilar uses of imagery, tone and diction.

    Read More

  • Black Poetry

    2173 Words  | 5 Pages

    Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.

    Read More

More about Margaret Walker

Open Document