Alice Walker And Her Legacy on American Literature

Alice Walker’s Background Born in Eatonton, Georgia 1944 Parents were poor sharecroppers BB gun accident in 1952 left her blind in one eye Accident left her to live a life of seclusion Began writing poetry at the age of 8 Coined the phrase “Womanist” for women of color First black woman to win Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple

Some of Walker’s Novels and Short Stories The Third Life of Grange Copeland Everyday Use In Love and Trouble Meridian The Color Purple Am I Blue? The Temple of my Familiar Possessing the Secret of Joy

Quotes about Walker “ One of the things that most upsets Walker is the manner in which black people skipped over their parents, grandparents, and great grandparents in the great rush to return to African values and traditions.” (Korenman) “There’s nothing quite like a Pulitzer Prize to draw attention to a little known writer. Walker is one of the few black writers of the mid-60’s to remain steadily productive for the two ensuing decades, the enormous success of The Color Purple has generated critical interest in a literary career that has been, even if not widely noted, at the very least worthy of note.” (Petry)

Quotes cont’d “The strength of Walker’s writing derives from the author’s inexorable recognition of her place in history; the sensitivity of her work, from her profound sense of community; its beauty, from her commitment to the future.” (Willis) “Her technique was flawless—her plots inexorable, her images perfect, her control unwavering. She writes with sadness and defiance of the price she had paid for loving a white man.” (Bradley) “Walker defines her response to the South in a richly ambivalent way. She emphasizes that Southern black writers have enormous richness and beauty to draw from.” (Butler)

Her Success Walker took all of her experiences as a poor black child in a volatile discriminatory southern town and developed an outlet for her voice. She portrays many of her characters based on her own life. She stands for equality of not only races but gender. Her writing has helped bring the civil-rights movement into the forefront of society. Walker was encouraged by whites to remain uneducated. She was valedictorian and later graduated from Sarah Lawrence College.

Summary Alice Walker’s work has influenced the literary world by her ability to turn life experiences into celebrating the accomplishments of strong black women. She focusing most of her works on the racist and sexist struggles of black women. Walker characters are typically black women who eventually turn their rage on the men in the story. I enjoy her writing and believe that she has uplifted many women who have encountered some of the same struggles in life.

Honors and Recognition Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple “Humanist of the Year” American Humanist Assoc. California Hall of Fame O. Henry Award for “Kindred Spirits” Rosenthal Award

Works Cited Petry, Alice Hall. "Alice Walker: The Achievement of the Short Fiction." Modern Language Studies (Winter 1989): Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol Detroit: Gale Research, Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. TROY UNIV. 25 June Korenman, Joan S. “African-American Women Writers, Black Nationalism, and the Matrilineal Heritage.” CLA Journal (Dec. 1994): Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena O. Krstovic. Vol. 97. Detroit: Gale, Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. TROY UNIV. 4 June Willis, Susan. "Alice Walker's Women." Specifying: Black Women Writing the American Experience. The University of Wisconsin Press, Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol Detroit: Gale Research, Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. TROY UNIV. 16 July Bradley, David. "Novelist Alice Walker Telling the Black Woman's Story." The New York Times Magazine Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Deborah A. Schmitt. Vol Detroit: Gale Research, Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. TROY UNIV. 16 July Butler, Robert James. "Alice Walker's Vision of the South in The Third Life of Grange Copeland," in African American Review, Vol. 27, No. 2, Summer, 1993, pp Reproduced by permission. Reproduced in Contemporary Literary Criticism-Select. TROY UNIV. 16 July