Alice Walker College Essays Samples For Students

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is a heroic narrative of an African American woman, who in a social context of intense agonizing relationships, eventually reaches safe grounds in issues of feminism and racial liberation. It is a bildungsroman of a female protagonist Celie, who commences her journey as being a tragic heroine to the final attaining of a heroic status, by utilizing an empowering subjectivity that will eventually resonate with all other African American women she is surrounded by. In the end, she will finally reach the “heroic selfhood [which] is achieved when the protagonist successfully subverts those conventions of the established social order ...

The color purple by Alice Walker, it’s a novel which discusses and narrates issues concerning gender inequalities, discrimination and racism within a community based in South America, in the early 1900’s. The main character in the novel “Celie” is a young black woman abused and violated by close members of her family such as, his father and his husband. In this case the novel raised questions to readers of the novel, making them eager wanting to know why didn’t “Celie” tell her mother what his father was doing to her? Another question triggered to readers is; did Celie really ...

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The Color Purple is a novel written by Alice Walker. The story’s setting is in Georgia. It focuses on how African-American women were treated in the United States during the 90’s. It also addresses issues on racism, sexism, and incest, most especially the social culture of lower class people .
In the story, most of the characters suffer many hardships especially poverty. Celie, the main character, had experienced a struggling family during her childhood. She together with her family lived in sub standard housing, separated from the Whites (litnotes.com). With this obvious division, ...

When the volcano inside Mount Tambora erupted in 1815, the ash in the sky left the next summer very dreary and cold. When the eighteen-year-old Mary Godwin traveled with her lover, Percy Shelley, to Switzerland to visit Lord Byron, the weather was so miserable that the group could never take part in the outdoor activities they had planned; instead, they had to amuse themselves indoors. After spending one evening talking about the possibility of returning dead bodies to life and reading German ghost stories, Lord Byron suggested a bet for the group – that each of them would write a supernatural story. ...

In the African-American community, the topic of education has long been one of some considerable controversy. To some, access to education has been seen as the way out of some of the most endemic social problems that the community faces. To others, education has been seen as a choice to assimilate with the majority culture (DeCuir-Gunby). In defiance to that, such institutions as the hip-hop culture have arisen, showing other ways (although more harmful) that members of the African-American community can make a name for themselves. This debate is not new; in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and “Everyday Use,” ...

The story of Alice Walker, entitled “Everyday Use”, was published in 1973, to focus on the tradition of quilting in African American women, which was prevalent for a long time (Whitsitt 443). The quilt has become a cultural artefact for the African Americans, making it a “symbol of gossipy women’s sewing circles” (Whitsitt 143), which was evident back in the 1960s. It also became the “central metaphor of American cultural identity” (Showalter 215). In the short story of Alice Walker, the quilt represents a creative legacy that they come to inherit from their maternal ancestors, who for them carry the centermost value ...

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is a heroic story of a female protagonist Celie, who starts her journey as being a tragic heroine to finally gaining a voice and a sense of self-worth. By being surrounded by social outcasts such as Shug Avery, and being taught how to appreciate herself and her sexuality, by taking back the identity that has been cruelly taken away from her through abuse and sexual exploitation, by the end of the novel, Celie will emerge as the victor and sole owner of her own happiness.
At the very beginning, the fourteen year old Celie’s finds herself ...

Introduction

‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker is a novel which discusses and narrates issues concerning gender inequalities, discrimination and racism within a community based in South America, in the early 1900’s. The main character in the novel Celie is a young black woman abused and violated by close members of her family such as, her father and her husband. The novel raised questions to the readers, making them eager to know why didn’t Celie tell her mother what her father had been doing to her. Another question to readers is: did Celie really wanted to protect her sister or ...

Epistolary novel The Color Purple, composed by American author Alice Walker, illuminates life of African American women in the South parts of the US during 1930-s. This novel is considered to be one of the most controversial and censored literary work of Walker due to its explicit scenes of violence. Thus, in her letters to God main heroine, Celie, reveals true horrors of her life. Being, uneducated and poor fourteen-year-old African American Southerner, Celie faces constant physical and emotional abuse first from her father, Alphonso, who beats and rapes her and later from her husband, known as Mister. (Walker) ...

Beauty in American culture is stereotyped on certain physical attributes. Absence of these attributes on an individual condemns them as ugly. Marge Piercy in the poem “Barbie Doll” singles out a girl who in spite of possessing immense intelligence, health, strong arms and back, “abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity” was condemned as ugly because she had a “fat nose and thick legs”.
Height and specifically being tall is perceived as part of physical beauty and a lot of importance is attached to this. Marge Piercy in the poem “a work of Artifice” focuses on the diminutive bonsai tree. She terms it as “ ...

Honor without sincerity in any circumstance is evident in the behavior and choices that are made by the individual who claims to have admiration and value. In the story “Everyday Use” by well-known African American author Alice Walker; evidence of insincere honor is displayed by one of the characters of the story. Dee, one of the sister’s in the story shows the lack of honor through her skewed sense of pride in the family heritage she has run from. The purpose of the following essay provides evidence of honoring one’s origin with sincerity as being more important ...

Analyzing “Everyday Use”

The story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker has been source of inspiration for many people. It is story based on an interesting topic that would make anyone attracted to its content. The story is interesting on how it succeeds in bringing out lessons such as true inheritance. This paper will aim at evaluating the literal techniques that Alice has used to bring meaning into this story. For proper understanding of the “Everyday Use” story, it is significant to conduct an analysis on elements of theme, characterization, and symbolism.
In the story, Alice Walker sides with a theme of the ...

Many times the writings of poets are testimony to experiences in their lives. Alice Walker was born in an era when discrimination was rampant; she uses her poem, “Women,” to express her gratitude to the women who fought and worked hard for their children’s education and place in society.
Alice Walker was one of the activists who fought against discrimination during the sixties. She was born February 4, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia and experienced her people’s struggles first-hand. She is the last child of eight children; her father was a sharecropper who only earned three hundred dollars ...

Alice Walker offers her own form of revival to her readers in her short story "To Hell With Dying." In this story of an old man repeatedly revived to life by the love of a neighbor's children, including the story's narrator, Walker shows how the narrator's spirit, repeatedly called by the values of another culture, is revived through her connection with the old man.

The old man, Mr. Sweet Little, frequently suffers from bouts of depression caused by the limitations that have been placed on his life and from which he must be revived. "Mr. Sweet had been ambitious as a ...

In this article, I would like to talk about the historian Howard Zinn, without going into the details of his biography. Because you can easy found this information on the Internet. I would consider his views on history in general, why and under what circumstances its occurred. Howard found himself in history and political science since his youth. A first rally Zinn visited when he was a seventeen-year-old young man, the friends who were breathing unevenly to the communist ideology invited him. After the meeting, young Howard changed his mind about the rule government and human rights in general.
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There can be no denial of the fact that literature has always been the mirror of the world society. The creative artists have always delved into the intricacies and subtleties of human life and existence so as to portray them in the literary works. The quintessence of portrayal and the aesthetic as well as affective appeal go on to leave a lasting mark in the hearts of the readers who can only revel at the sheer genius of the creative works. Now, one can very well take into reckoning the works of Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Franz Kafka, and ...

and “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker
In Marriage is a Private Affair, the story tells of two people who are in love but because of tradition they are being kept apart. Nene and Nnaemeka are madly in love and are planning a wedding. Nene is from the city and Nnaemeka is from the rural area. Both lovers were from a different tribe and the Ibo ancestors have passed on the tradition or their beliefs that there should never be any marriage outside of the Ibo tribe. In Everyday Use by Alice Walker, traditions and culture also are at the forefront of ...

The modern concepts in the literary world have crept into the works of various writers. The differences in the old and past ways of life have been the subject of the many modern day stories. Many of the conflicts that arise in today’s works focus on the idea of modernization and the effects of it. Two of the famous works that constitute stories of alienation in the modern day world are the “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “The Love Song by J. Prufrock” by T.S Eliot. The tectonic shift to modernization traps people in a stultifying past while ...

Essay

Everyday use is a short story by Alice Walker, from her story collection “In love and Trouble”. The storytelling of the “Everyday use” is made by “Mama”, who is a narrator of the story. “Everyday use” by Alice Walker illustrates very well the difference between the narrator and her daughter, Maggie, both raised according to traditional black culture of their region and Dee “Wangero”, educated and successful daughter of Mrs. Johnson, which tries to scorn her roots in favor of the native African identity.
Narrator’s tone, addressed to Dee shows that Mrs. Johnson still considers “Wangero” as her daughter, ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Toni Cade and Alice Walker are the perfect descriptions of talented literary commentators and writers of the ancient or classical times. However, there is a cutting edge and the common denominator in all the three stories. They resonate well with the strength of the human spirit and how they strive to overcome injustices and unfair treatment. For instance, Alice Walker did an interesting and eye-opening short story which highlighted the struggles of the black community in the United States of America. The story was titled The Colour Purple. This is an interesting piece which highlights the plight of ...

“The White Man will never be alone” (Chief Seattle 120). Chief Seattle is correct when he says that the White man will never be alone because there will always be other cultures in America. Throughout the ages, America has gone through a lot as a country, events which have torn the nation apart, yet in its own way sown unity within our hearts. The struggles started even as early as the colonization of the Americas, and still continue until this day. Although, there are events in time which helped shaped our country and our people. Over the course of American history, ...

(Name of poems), are perhaps three of the most distinguishing poems of Langston Hughes, where it becomes obvious that Langston’s everyday life and everything surrounding him have been an inspiring platform for him to write. In fact, he appears to be noticing even the slightest details of what is going on around him and be particularly drawn by nature’s beauty as well as societal issues that included racism and the rights of the African Americans of that time, among others. For that reasons his poems include intense scenes that easily carry the reader away.
Since the ...

Introduction to Cinema

Anneke Smelik has regarded that cinema can be considered as a cultural practice wherein there are mythologies regarding women and the female gender; as well as men and male gender, which depicted legends concerning sexual differences that have been created, fabricated and epitomized (Smelik, 1998, p. 7). Smelik has identified the sexual differences as major obstacles that have been defied by women’s rights movements. As a result, several female directors have emerged to create a better understanding on how films and movies strengthens the folklores on sexual difference, and how it was magnified by some film theorists who symbolized women as ...

Classic English Literature

March28, 2013

Thesis Statement:Du Bois argued that people from African decent live through a special double consciousnesswhere there exists a psychological challenge of integration of African heritage to the European cultural background and education. Walker used the mule as the representation of black women who surpassed the abuses and oppression they went through to establish African identity, territory, class, culture and kinship with other nations. King’s letter was used as the medium to expose his sentiments against racism and human conflict where he expressed optimism in his battle despite the extreme prejudices committed against the blacks. Race is proven to ...

In Short-Story Characters

Loneliness is a human condition that people almost universally wrestle with, at least during some point in their lives, which is why it is such a compelling subject for writers to depict with their characters. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “lonely” is defined as “being without company, cut off from others, not frequented by human beings, sad from being alone, and producing a feeling of bleakness or desolation” (n.d.). A person may feel lonely when all his friends are going away to college but he is still in his hometown working at the same job he has had through high school, when ...

“You just don’t understand your heritage.” (Walker, 1973) This line from Alice Walker’s 1944 short story “Everyday Use” pretty much sums up and perfectly depicts the conflict that arises between clashing of cultures and the factors that influences transformations of them. Culture, as Dr. Dennis O’Neil says, undergoes continuous change and “exists only in our minds” making it much easier to leave behind and get a new one. (2006) But just how much of our adopted and inherent culture can we lost? And how much change is enough?
The 2011 film “From Prada to Nada”, a Mexican-American ...

African American Deracination and its Presentation in Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” and Gwendolyn Brooks’ “Sadie and Maud”

It could be argued that the whole experience of African Americans in the U.S.A. is one of forced and violent deracination. African Americans are doubly, triply, deracinated and without roots. Violently uprooted from Africa, they entered a system of slavery in which, at the whim of their owners, they could be uprooted again and separated from children, lovers and family. In the period following the American Civil War many African –Americans moved north to find work in the north’s industrial cities – thus becoming geographically uprooted yet again. It is no wonder that deracination – the sense of being without real ...