The Biography Of Alice Walker, Her Wtiting Style And Common Themes
Alice Walker is one of the most well-known and influential African American Female authors of all time. Her novels are often about her experience as an African American female, and the injustices they face in their daily lives. The Color Purple takes place in Southern United states during segregation. It is about an African American female named Celie, who constantly endures the abuse of men around her, and how she manages to find support within a group of other African American women. Celie doesn’t quite understand that it is not okay for men to abuse her, and that she can stand up for herself, and she constantly lets herself be pushed over by men and used by them. It isn’t until she meets other African American women that she begins to feel empowered and more confident in herself.
Biography
Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia, to Willie Lee and Minnie Tallulah Walker. Her parents were sharecroppers, and they had eight children together, the youngest being Walker. When she was eight years old, she was accidentally injured by her brother with a BB gun. The BB hit her eye, causing her to be partially blind. The partial blindness caused her to withdraw from other kids her age, and she became a shy kid that spent most of her time alone. To help cope with her loneliness, Walker wrote poems. While she loved writing, it was difficult to do in a small house with 10 people living in it, she instead spent most of her time outside writing her poems and stories. She attended a segregated school, and she had great teachers that encouraged her to follows her dreams and work hard. Her family and teachers encouraged her to become a writer, and pursue her passion.
After graduating high school, Walker attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, on a scholarship. There she got involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, Walker left to Sarah Lawrence College in New York, on anther scholarship. She graduated two years later with a bachelor's degree. After she graduated college, she began working at a voter registration drive in Georgia and the Head Start program, a program to educated children in poverty in Jackson, Mississippi. There she met a civil rights lawyer named Melvyn Leventhal, and they married in 1967. Their marriage faced many criticism from people that disapproved of interracial relationships. They were the first interracial couple to be legally married in Mississippi. They had a daughter named Rebecca, and in 1976, they divorced. According to Walker, she believes the divorce was attributed to “living interracially, attempting to raise a child, attempting to have a normal life, wore us out. I think we were exhausted. In our tiredness we turned away from each other”.
In 1968, her first collection of poems was published. It was called Once. In the 1970s, she worked as a writer and a teacher. Her first novel was titled The Third Life of Grange Copeland. Her third novel became her most well known book, The Color Purple, was published in 1982. It won both a Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award the following year. Walker was the first African American woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. In From Puritanism to Postmodernism, it describes Walker as one of the “black women writers” that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s.
Common Themes
Most of Walker’s works are based on her own experiences as an African American woman in America. It’s about the injustice and emotional turmoil they face due to their race, gender, and environment. A large theme is these women struggling to find their identities in a male dominated world. Many times the characters have a vulnerable aspect to them, no matter how strong they are, part of them is still exposed. They often draw their strength from family and through female friendships. Her works also heavily focus on familial relationships. Often it’s about how when those relationships have been violated, it damages the person's life and has a large impact. When that familial trust has been violated, it is devastating for them, and the betrayal lasts for a long time. These common themes are shaped by Walker’s own experiences as an African American female who grew up without much. Many of the experiences her characters went through are a reflection of her life’s experiences.
In The Color Purple, the protagonist, Celie faces abuse from the men in her life, and draws strength from the women in her life. Celie was abused and assaulted by her father repeatedly when she was growing up, she never really fought back and just accepted it. Later on, she was forced to marry a man know as “mister”. Mister would also abuse Celie, and once again she just accepted it. It wasn’t until she formed relationships with other African American women that she started to fight back. Her friends encouraged her to stop being vulnerable and weak, and start standing up for herself and gave her confidence. They made her feel like she was worth something, and didn’t deserve to be abused. By the end, Celie is a confident person, and she has discovered her personal identity. Heather Alumbaugh describes it as, “Celie's emergent sense of self, one that rejects degradation and abuse, is fostered by her relationships not only with Shug Avery (Albert's mistress), but also with Sofia, the wife of Albert's son Harpo; with Mary Agnes (Squeak), with whom Harpo becomes involved after Sofia's desertion; and, eventually, with Nettie, through the discovery of hidden letters. This community of women helps Celie to realize that she exceeds the being that Albert constructs for her”.
Walker’s childhood and upbringing plays a large role in the themes of her writings. Barbara Smith believes, “Alice Walker writes from a world of experience which (no white poet) could possibly share”. Walker’s experiences let’s her write from a point of view that others are not able to understand. This gives people the chance to get a glimpse of what other people, who have different lives than them, think and feel based on their environment. It will give people a better understanding of one another.
Style
Walker’s writing style is often rhythmic and poetic. This is due to her childhood. As a child she loved writing poetry, and since she was very withdrawn from society, she spent most of her free time writing poetry. Because of her experiences with writing poetry, it lead to her novels being written in a poetic manner. Her writing seems to have a beautiful flow to it. Mel Watkins wrote, “Alice Walker writes efficiently and economically, and the shorter pieces here, even when thin as fiction, are often prose poems”. Since she grew up poor and African American, Walker incorporates some slang in her writing. The grammar her characters use is very different from what the modern day middle class American is used to. She depicts the differences between her educated characters, and uneducated characters through grammar. Characters who are educated often speak in a more proper way and use correct grammar. Characters who are uneducated speak in a combination of simple sentences, run on sentences, and incorrect grammar. Chelsea House explains it with “many critics of the novel have taken exception to the shifts in narrative voice, language and geographical location that these letters bring to the novel”. She uses the vocabulary in such a way that can give the reader a small glimpse into their lives. Walker also uses repetition in her writing. She uses anaphora to help convey importance and symbolism.
Walker also likes to break up long flowing sentences, with short and powerful sentences. This makes it so she is able to add a sentence that is impacting and powerful to the reader since it’s been embedded in the middle of long flowing sentences. The short sentences are an abrupt difference to its surroundings, and causes the reader to pay more attention to it than the other sentences, thus resonating with them further. Walker really helped push African American women’s literature forward in America. She also supported other African American female writers and pushed them too. She has made a lasting impact on American literature, and helped people better understand the struggles African American women face. She gives a voice for her people, while also giving them courage to face their problems. Walker strives to inspire people with her writing, in an interview she stated, “If literature didn't inspire empathy and compassion, it would be virtually useless”.
