...2013 Alice Walker Section 1 Biography According to Michael Mayer, Alice Walker, one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the United States, was born in Eatonton, Georgia. She was 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 of her age, Walker began to write poems. Hence, her career as a writer began. Walker found the love of her life in 1967, a white activist civil rights lawyer named Mel Leventhal, and they married him in 1967. A year later she gave birth to their daughter, Rebecca. It was not until she began teaching that her writing career really took off. She began teaching at Jackson State, then Tougaloo, and finally at Wellesley College. Walker was involved in the Civil Rights Movement and spoke for the women’s movement, the anti-apartheid movement, for the anti-nuclear movement, and against female genital mutilation. She also started her own publishing company: “The Wild Trees Press”, in 1984. Walker refused...
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...Brianna Morrell Professor Richard Raleigh ENC 1102 (02): Composition and Literature 12 November 2015 Alice Walker From Evelyn C. White’s “A Life” Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, dedicated her life to establishing a literary canon of African American women writers and to encouraging the “survival whole” of all women. She has actively sought to win recognition for literary “foremothers” such as Zora Neale Hurston and to place their contributions within the fabric of her own artistry. Walker was the valedictorian of her high school class, and when she was graduated in 1961, she was offered a scholarship to Spelman College in Atlanta. After traveling to Africa in 1964. Walker returned to the United States and entered Sarah Lawrence College. She soon discovered that she was pregnant, and just as quickly she found herself depressed and on the verge of suicide. Walker made a decision to end the pregnancy instead of her life and subsequently wrote her first published short story, “To Hell with Dying.” She also produced Once (1965), her first published collection of poems, during her years at Sarah Lawrence. Alice entered the world before the midwife’s arrival February 9, 1944(White 12), into a family of sharecroppers near Eatonton, Georgia. Her father, Willie Lee Walker, was the grandson of slaves. Alice birth marked the first time that Mr. and Mrs. Walker were able to pay the midwife for her assistance (White 13) Walker’s relationship with her father became...
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...Alice Walker: An African American Author Alice Malsenior Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in a neighboring community of Eatonton, Georgia to parents of Wille Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant Walker. In honor of her maternal great-grandmother, Walker changed her middle name to Tallulah-Kate. She was born into a poor sharecropper family, and the youngest of eight children. Even though poor, her family was rich in perspective and kindness. Walker learned to value the beauty in nature from her parents and siblings. Her family also nourished walker’s artistic desires, which included music and painting along with writing. Walker was especially close to her mother, Minnie Lou Walker, whose was love of beauty and legendary gardener. Walker experienced many difficulties in her life, but she overcome her difficulties. Also, Walker pursued many interesting works in her life. Alice Walker is an African American author that my classmates and others would be interested in learning about. First, Walker unforgettable childhood accident happened when she was eight years old. Walker older brother, Curtis, accidentally shot her in the eye with a BB gun, which developed her right eye blind and left her with a white scar. After her accident, Walker believed that she was ugly and became very ashamed of herself. Because of her noticeable scar in her right eye, she became an easy target for the other children in her school who teased her cruelly. Psychologically, Walker grew more focus on...
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...Alice Walker: The Cost of Her Fame Professor Writers often have a way of awakening people’s inner thoughts; Alice Walker is one of those writers. Many people have been touched by her work, feelings rekindled and relationships restored. Walker’s dreams lead her to many new beginnings and sorrows. Walker’s greatest lost would be her most cherished bond – family. Alice Walker was born in Georgia, on February 9, 1944. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a maid. When Walker was eight, her brother accidently shot her in the eye with a BB gun. Unable to get medical treatment, she became blind in one eye and developed a scar. This accident left her feeling unattractive. She became withdrawn and turned to writing. The scar was removed when she was 14, which opened up her world from isolation. She became voted Most Popular, Queen of her Senior Class, and Valedictorian. She attended Spellman College, where Professor Howard Zin, a civil rights activist, influenced her. She transferred to Sarah Lawrence College, where she met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After graduating college, she married Melvyn Roseman Leventhal, a Jewish Civil Right activist. They had a daughter named Rebecca. Walker said her daughter was a “living, breathing, and mixed-race embodiment of the new America that they were trying to forge” (Driscoll, 2008). Walker is an advocate for the unheard and overlooked. She is an activist, often involved with organizations, Code Pink and Women for Peace...
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...Anitra Hatcher Academic and Professional Success November 2, 2014 Alice Walker After conducting research on several of my favorite authors, I selected Alice Walker’s life and works as the focus of this paper. Walker's accomplishments are substantial. Her novel, The Color Purple, won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book award for fiction. She has authored many other critically acclaimed works, and is recognized as a leading author in the literary world. As I began to dig deeper, however, I found the real reason that I chose to concentrate on this individual. Alice Walker is an African American woman who expresses herself and her life experiences in her writing. I feel like I am connected to the themes and characters Walker develops in her stories. I feel like I am connected to Walker herself. I have been broken in some kind of way or another. I have been abused physically and mentally. Walker has not allowed her struggles to get in the way of her success or happiness. I chose to write about her because she is a woman who faced profound struggles in her young life. She came close to giving up because of a childhood accident and an abortion. Alice Walker was a fierce and determined woman who stayed committed to her goals. Alice Walker faced many challenges. She was one of seven children. She was born in poverty to sharecropper parents on February 9, 1944. Her father was the grandson of slaves. Her father did not want her to get an education in fear that...
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...The Life of Alice Walker Learning all about the life of an American Author Alice Walker. She begin her journey in the era of the Blacks Art Movement in 1960 were African American Woman begin to soar among authors. The Life of Alice Walker from birth through adulthood. On February 09, 1944, in Eatonton Georgia a baby girl was born. Her name was Alice Malsenior Walker, her parents are named Minnie Grant Walker and Willie Lee. She grew up in Putnam County with seven older siblings in the house hold. Alice father earned a living by sharecropper and her mother worked as a nanny to help bring in money for the house. Even though Alice parents worked they still were struggling to maintain the house hold. When Alice was eight years old, she suffered...
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...Alice Walker the author of the book The Color Purple had many difficulties thought out her childhood. For Alice growing up in her time was not as easy as it might seem. She faced many obstacles that made it seem impossible for her to accomplish her goals, even though she had a long run through difficulties Alice still tried her very best to accomplish what she wanted and didn't let her obstacles stop her from trying. Even Though, Alice faced many difficulties she still had many extraordinary accomplishments that made her the person who she is today. Alice Malsenior Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton Georgia and is still alive till this day. Alice is known as an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist. She worked as a teacher, social worker and lecturer and Alice was part of the Civil Rights Movement that took place in Mississippi in the 1960s....
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...“The Color Purple” by Alice Walker The Color Purple is an epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name. This novel is making arguments on the topic “racism and sexism”. The Color Purple is an extraordinary novel that’s full of surprises. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life in the 1930s in the southern United States, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. Alice Walker’s biography [pic] Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1994, in Eatonton, Georgia. Living in the racially divided South, Walker attended segregated schools. She graduated from her high school as the valedictorian of her class. With the help of a scholarship, she was able to go to Spelman College in Atlanta. Later, she switched to Sarah Lawrence College in New York City. While at Sarah Lawrence, Walker visited Africa as part of a study-abroad program. She graduated in 1965—the same year that she published her first short story. After college, Walker worked as a social worker, teacher and lecturer. She became active in the Civil Rights Movement, fighting for equality for all African Americans. Her experiences informed her first collection of poetry, Once, which was published in 1968. Better known now as a novelist, Walker showed her talents...
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...Alice Walker (1944 Skip to Central Content Social Security Online Adult Disability Report www.socialsecurity.gov dexter lamond smith xxx-xx-8648 * Complete * Unvisited * Unvisited * Unvisited * Unvisited * Unvisited * Unvisited * Complete * Complete * Unvisited * Unvisited SSA logo: link to Social Security Online home You May Continue You have successfully started your Disability Report. We are providing you with a Reentry Number. If you cannot complete this report in a single session, use this number to come back and finish later. Print or save this page for your records. Note: If you choose to save this page, save it as a file and not as a bookmark. More Info Print this page... Your Reentry Number is: D28278494 The Reentry web site is: www.socialsecurity.gov/adultdisabilityreport Print or save this page, or write down the number and web site, so you will have what you need to return to your report at a later time. If you are unable to complete your online report for any reason, use the "Sign Off (finish later)" option at the bottom left corner of each page. We will save all the information you provided. To Come Back to This Report Later 1. Wait at least 5 minutes. 2. Go to this web site: www.socialsecurity.gov/adultdisabilityreport. 3. Select the "Go back to the Report I Already Started" button...
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...The Color Purple Walker, Alice- 1982 Alexis Moss Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple (book titles in italics) to give her insight of men, women, love or the lack thereof, physical, mental, and verbal abuse. The men within this book were very powerful. It would be safe to say that the men were slave owners, and the women were the slaves. Celie was the main character of the book, and she endures every form of abuse from individuals in her life that should have been showing her love. Everyone abused her except her sister Nettie, whom she found herself trying to protect from their father. Celie’s mother abused and cursed her, even while being on her sick bed because her husband desired to have sex with Celie more than her. Walker uses this unique protagonist to comment on the racism, sexism, and abuse of women who was so prevalent in the early 1900s. Walker used Celie’s inner monologue (in the form of letters to God and her sister Nettie) to convey the overarching message of the novel; the power of finding that inner voice that leads to freedom from the oppression of society’s expectations. The plot takes place over a 30-year period in the reconstruction South of Georgia. They live in a rural farm community and were a hotbed of activity for civil rights and suffrage. This book was written from the other side of racism, from the victim’s point of view forcing the reader to see the result of bigotry. Racism not only affected Celie’s life but also the life of her friend Sofia...
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...the most important in literary masterpieces because everything within an literature work depends on the theme. The theme outline the whole story and what is going to take place. The prior expectations regarding the literary masterpieces and my expectations of this course are based off not only my own knowledge but the way I critically analyze literature and my experiences with literary masterpieces. In all honesty, when it comes to a literary masterpiece, I expect them to fall into literature categories such as, novels, short stories, poems, comedies, dramas, mysteries, nonfiction and fiction. The reason being is based off my experiences from my very first English literature class. Where we had to read literary masterpieces such as, Alice Walker short story,"Everyday Use" and "Color Purple". Also, Langton Hughes poems," Let America be America" and "Still Here." The poem " Let America be America Again," express the past events that occurred in history not only the racism amongst blacks but also whites and it reflects the history of today with having the first African American President. Also, the poem " Still here" express the struggle a person may go through on a daily basic regardless of the harsh treatment from people at the end of the day your...
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...In Alice Walker essay "Beauty: When the Other Dancer self" she describes herself over coming and gaining acceptance of herself exactly the way she is. She narrates in remembrance of the event that forever changed her and perception of beauty. Walker uses superlatives, Metaphors, and tense throughout her writing to deliver her ever-changing outlook toward her own beauty. Walker describes the accident that happens to her as a child to show that one’s mindset can be altered through an intense experience and how her attitude completely transforms from a arrogant child into a newly reincarnated woman who now sees a new kind of beauty from within herself. She uses different points of her life to develop this very idea in separate comprehensible stages. She brings the scene to life when she tells us how she manipulates her daddy into taking her to the county fair by swirling around, with her hands on her hips, in her pretty dress and biscuit polished patent leather shoes and says '“I’m the prettiest!”' As she parades around using her cuteness for her father's approval. Her attitude is further encouraged by the people of her church. She was always used to hearing “'Oh, isn’t she the cutest thing!' This makes us believe that she is satisfied with her looks and shows us that she is confident with the outer beauty in herself. Then Walker outlook suddenly change. We feel the sadness in her words when she states “It was great fun being cute. But then, one day, it ended.” Walker now...
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...their lives and from society. In the novel, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, the narrator is an abused black woman named Celie. Walker uses this unique protagonist to comment on the racism, sexism, and abuse of women that was so prevalent in the early 1900s. Walker used Celie’s inner monologue (in the form of letters to God and her sister Nettie) to convey the overarching message of the novel; the power of finding that inner voice that leads to freedom from the oppression of society’s expectations. Celie started off the book as a powerless victim of the men in her life with no voice. Walker uses Celie’s first person point of view to tell her life story of abuse and submissive silence. Celie’s only form of communication about her thoughts and feelings are through letters to God that are brief at first but then are more complex as Celie gets more confident and finds her voice. In the beginning, Celie’s inner voice had been beaten into silence at an early age by her abusive step-father and later by her husband with emotional and physical abuse. She survived by “[not] fight(ing)… stay[ing] where (she) told” and staying silent letting her step father believe that she is” too dumb to keep going to school” (Walker 2.254, 3. 342) Celie was only able to find her voice once she stood up to her husband and confronted him about his abuse telling him “youse children is rotten”, “why you beat me for what you done to them?” (Walker 7.94,7.92) Once Celie found her voice, she began to “see the...
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...The Color Purple is a great story of resilience and overcoming great oppression. Alice Walker tells a story a young black woman who was raped as a teen by her stepfather and beaten, also later beaten by her husband. With the help of new friends and her sister Nettie, Celie learns how to use her voice and stand up for herself and not just be a doormat. This novel explores the effect of strong female relationships which are essential for Celie’s development into a independent woman. As the novel is written in a series of letters to God and Nettie by Celie, the characters in the novel are uniquely introduced. The Color Purple would make a great addition to the AP English 12 curriculum, students would learn about the strength of the human spirit. At the beginning of the novel Celie is voiceless against her abuse and has learned how to survive but soon from Nettie and her new friend Shug gains a voice through the power of strong female relationships. Throughout the novel, Celie has been discriminated for who she was, and didn’t accept herself. She was always used for, and had a male dominating her. In the novel, there were several characters that changed Celie, and it were women that were very close to her. Her sister Nettie was a big influenced to her and Shug. In the story, Shug has helped her overcome Mr.____ and not be taken granted for. On pg. 186, it states that she is leaving Mr.____ and going to see Pa. This part of the story, Celie is taking charge and leaving Mr.____, showing...
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...Perseverant Perseverance is defined as steady persistence in a course of action, in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement. In my personal opinion perseverant (the adjective of perseverance) represents this story in many aspects. Almost every individual throughout The Color Purple by Alice Walker had to be perseverant, especially the stories main character Celie. Throughout the story Celie faced many obstacles she was mentally and physically abused, her loved ones were taken from her, and she was alone. Yet, through all her trials and tribulations she continued to live and look after others. She looked after kids that weren’t hers though they gave her a rough time, she cleaned and cooked for a man who abused her and did nothing but sit on his butt while she worked in the field, and took care of another woman whom her husband was having an affair with and upon first meeting Celie called her ugly. Yet, Celie continued to look out for them and not complain. In addition to Celie her sister Nettie was perseverant. Though she was thousands of miles away from her sister in a foreign country she never stopped caring for her sister. She persisted in writing to Celie, though all the time she knew that Albert was withholding the letters from her sister, she even mentioned this fact in one of her letters to Celie. Shug was also perseverant in her singing career. Everyone was against her except for Albert who was in love with her and Celie whom admired her. Though people thought...
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