Black woman can survive only
by recovering the heritage of
their ancestors . —Alice Walker
Catalogue
1.Life experience
2.Activism
3.The thought of Walker's Writing
4.Womanism
5.Works
6.Everyday use
Life experience
?Walker was born in 1944 Eatonton, Georgia in a tenant family .
She is the youngest one of the eight children.
?Growing up with an oral tradition, listening to stories from her grandfather , Walker was writing—very privately—since she was eight years old. "With my family, I had to hide things,"
she said. "And I had to keep a lot in my mind.“
?In 1952, Walker was accidentally wounded in the right eye by a shot from a BB gun fired by one of her brothers and became
permanently blind in that eye, felt like an outcast and she turned for solace to reading and to writing poetry. She realized that her traumatic外伤的injury had some value: it allowed her to begin “really to see people and things, really to notice
relationships and to learn to be patient enough to care
about how they turned out.
?In high school , she became valedictorian 告别演说者and got rehabilitation 康复scholarship which made her to
Spelman, a college for black woman, in Atlanta.
?During her junior year, she went to Africa as an exchange
student. She got her BA degree in 1965.
?In 1965, Walker met Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer. They were married on March 17, 1967 in New York City. Later that year the couple relocated to Jackson, Mississippi, becoming "the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi ". They
were harassed and threatened by whites, including the Ku
Klux Klan. The couple had a daughter Rebecca in 1969.
Walker and her husband divorced in 1976.
?She is teaching in Yale University.
三K 党（Klu Klux Klan ，缩写为
KKK ），是美国历史上和现在的一个奉行白人至上主义的民间组织，也是美国种族主义的代表性
组织。三K 党是美国最悠久、最庞大的恐怖主义组织。
?Alice Walker met Martin Luther King Jr. when she was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta in the early 1960s. Walker credits King for her decision to return to the American South as an activist for the Civil Rights Movement. ?She attended the famous 1963 March onWashington. As a young adult she volunteered her time registering voters in Georgia and Mississippi.
?On March 8, 2003, International Women's Day, on the eve of the Iraq War, Alice Walker was arrested along with 24 others for crossing a police line
during an anti-war protest rally游行outside the White House.
"I was with other women who believe that the women and children of Iraq are just as dear as the women and children in our families, and that, in fact, we are one family. And so it would have felt to me that we were going over to actually bomb ourselves."
?In November 2008, Walker wrote "An Open Letter to Barack Obama" ，"Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina活力, and character, is a balm镇痛膏for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about."
?In March 2009, Walker traveled to Gaza along with a group of 60 other female activists from the anti-war group Code Pink, in response to the Gaza War. Their purpose was to deliver aid, to meet with NGOs （Non Governmental Organisations)and residents, and to persuade Israel and Egypt to open their borders with Gaza.
?In a June 2011 interview, Walker described the United States and Israel as "terrorist organizations", stating "When you terrorize people, when you make them so afraid of you that they are just mentally and psychologically wounded for life --that's terrorism."Walker supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions制裁campaign
against Israel.
Her themes are generally revolutionary and confront the contemporary experience of black Americans, particularly black American women, via their cultural, social, and political history
.
Her writing explores multi-dimensional kinship among women, among men and women, among humans and animals, and embraces the redemptive power of social,
spiritual and political revolution.
Alice Walker ‘s creative vision is rooted in the economic hardship, racial terrorism, and folk wisdom of African American life and culture, particularly in the rural South .Alice Walker is an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and activist .
?艾丽丝·沃克的作品所涉及的主题极具普遍意义，例如：精神生存、个人认同、自由和力量，以及自我与社群的内在联系。她把对于这些问题的关心，有力地投射到了黑人女性的经验之中。她认为种族主义和性别歧视都是男权文化所产生的后果，她要揭示它们对个人的摧残。
?艾丽丝·沃克认为在种族主义和性别主义的双重压迫下，黑人妇女的生存状态，尤其精神世界是分裂、破碎、不完整的。由于种族主义，她们不仅被贬低人格，还失去了与祖先历史的联系，以致无从确认自己文化身份；由于性别主义，特别是种族内部的男权思想，她们还要背负男人强加的重担，沦为“世间的骡子”，以致失去最起码的做人的尊严。
?艾丽丝·沃克把向世人揭示黑人妇女生存状态的真相当作自己的责任。
沃克为黑人妇女的代言并不只停留在对丑恶现实的揭露上，对于她来说，更为重要的是通过艺术创作呼唤黑人妇女自我意识的觉醒，树立黑人妇女的自尊和自信，探索将黑人妇女破碎的灵魂缝合以实现完整生存的途径。艾丽丝·沃克在探讨美国黑人妇女的完整生存的思考中，特别强调了四种因素的重要作用，即黑人妇女的文化身份、异教信仰、姐妹情谊以及代表民族精神的社区意识。
Womanism
?The word womanism
was adapted from Alice Walker’s use of
the term in her book In Search of Our Mother’s Garden:
Womanist Prose.
?In her book, Walker used the word to describe the perspective and experiences of "women of color".
?Although most Womanist scholarship centers on the African American woman's experience, other non-white theorists
identify themselves with this term.
Womanism
?The roots of theological womanism grew out of the theology of
Jacquelyn Grant, Delores Williams, and James Hal Cone.
?In Cone's book A Black Theology of Liberation, Cone argued that “God is black”in an effort to demonstrate that God identifies with oppressed people.
?Grant responded by claiming that Cone did not attend to the fullness of black experience —specifically that of black women. She argued that the oppression of black women is different from that of
black men. She believes that Jesus is a “divine co-sufferer”
who suffered in his time like black women today.
How did Womanism develop?
?Delores Williams, in her book Sisters in the Wilderness, defines womanism:
?“Womanist theology is a prophetic voice concerned about the well-being of the entire African American community, male and female, adults and children.
?It attempts to help black women see, affirm, and have confidence in the importance of their experience and faith for determining the
character of the Christian religion in the African American community. ?It challenges all oppressive forces impeding black women's struggle for survival and for the development of a positive, productive quality of life conducive to women’s and the family’s freedom and well-being.
?It opposes all oppression based on race, sex, class, sexual preference, physical ability, and caste（阶层）。”
Black feminism
?argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together. Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression but ignore race can discriminate against many people, including women, through racial bias. One of the theories that evolved out of this movement was Alice Walker's Womanism.
?Alice Walker and other Womanists pointed out that black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women. They point to the
emergence Black feminism after earlier movements led by white middle-class women which they regard as having
largely ignored oppression based on race and class.
Novels and short story collections ?The Third Life of Grange Copeland(1970)
?In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women(1973)?Meridian(1976)
?The Color Purple(1982)
?You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories(1982)?To Hell With Dying(1988)
?The Temple of My Familiar(1989)
?Finding the Green Stone(1991)
?Possessing the Secret of Joy(1992)
?The Complete Stories(1994)
?By The Light of My Father's Smile(1998)
?The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart(2000)
?Now Is The Time to Open Your Heart(2005)
?Devil's My Enemy(2008)
Poetry collections
?Once(1968)
?Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems(1973)
?Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning(1979)?Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful(1985)?Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems(1991)?Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth(2003)
? A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings (2003)
?Collected Poems(2005)
?Poem at Thirty-Nine
Non-fiction
?In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose(1983) “母亲的花园”作为妇女主义的一个具象，既代表了黑人女性创造力和审美特征，又象征了妇女主义所追求的完整生存的理想境界。
?Living by the Word(1988) social issues ranging from homosexuality to animal rights.
?Warrior Marks(1993)
?The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult(1996)
?Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism(1997)
?Go Girl!: The Black Woman's Book of Travel and Adventure(1997)?Pema Chodron and Alice Walker in Conversation(1999)
?We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For(2006)?Mississippi Winter IV
?Overcoming Speechlessness(2010)
Select awards and honors
?Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Color Purple(1983) (first black woman).?National Book Award(First black woman)
?O. Henry Award for "Kindred Spirits家族精神" 1985.
?Honorary Degree from the California Institute of the Arts(1995)
?American Humanist Association named her as "Humanist of the Year" (1997)?The Lillian Smith Award from the National Endowment for the Arts
?The Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts & Letters
?The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, the Merrill Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship
?The Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswoman's Club of New York
?Induction to the California Hall of Fame in The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts(2006)
Story
background
文本
The theme
The
symbolism
The
character Everyday Use The plot
Story Background
?Everyday Use was written in the heyday全盛期of Black Power Movement, when African Americans
were trying to gain racial equality and called for self-determination and racial dignity. Blacks were seeking their cultural roots in Africa, the slogan “black is
beautiful”and Afro style arose. Everyday Use is
Walker’s answer to social discourse演说of that time, especially concerning African Americans concept of heritage and identity.
?The black power of movement grew out of civil right movement that had gained steadily momentum
through 1950s and 1960s.
?The Civil Rights Movement between 1954 to 1968 was directed at abolishing racial discrimination
against African Americans.
?The March on Washington（1963）for Jobs and Freedom and the conditions.
It had put pressure on the American government ?The Civil Rights Act (1964) . It banned
discrimination in public accommodations,
employment, and labor unions.
?The Voting Rights Act(1965). It expanded federal authority over states to ensure black political
participation through protection of voter registration and elections.
?The Black Power movement (1966). It expanded upon the aims of the Civil Rights Movement to
include economic and political self-sufficiency, and freedom from white authority.
The Plot
?The short story Everyday Use takes place in the home of
a black family.The house has three rooms,a tin roof and
holes in the walls for windows.This is a family without a man,but a mother that works as hard as a man.?Influenced by the seeking African root, Dee went
home ,took photo of their old house ,showed interests to everything such as churn ,dasher搅拌装置,and she
wanted to take them away. Finally, she wanted to take the quilt. Here the conflicts come.Mother refused Dee
and gave the quilt to Maggie.
Everyday Use Alice Walker I will wait for her in the yard that Maggie and I made so clean and wavy yesterday afternoon. A yard like this is more comfortable than most people know. It is not just a yard. It is like an extended living room. When the hard clay is swept clean as a floor and the fine sand around the edges lined with tiny, irregular grooves, anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house. Maggie will be nervous until after her sister goes: She will stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs, eyeing her sister with a mixture of envy and awe. She thinks her sister had held life always in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 You?ve no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has “made it” is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage. (A pleasant surprise, of course: What would they do if parent and child came on the show only to curse out and insult each other?) On TV mother and child embrace and smile into each other?s faces. Sometimes the mother and father weep; the child wraps them in her arms and leans across the table to tell how she would not have made it without their help. I have seen these programs. Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort. Out of a dark and soft-seated limousine I am ushered into a bright room filled with many people. There I meet a smiling, gray, sporty man like Johnny Carson who shakes my hand and tells me what a fine girl I have. Then we are on the stage, and Dee is embracing me with tears in her eyes. She pins on my dress a large orchid, even though she had told me once that she thinks orchids are tacky flowers. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 In real life I am a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands. In the winter I wear flannel nightgowns to bed and overalls during the day. I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. My fat keeps me hot in zero weather. I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; I can eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog. One winter I knocked a bull calf straight in the brain between the eyes with a
Class：英语09-1 Name：包红梅Number：200920801033 The summary of everyday use by Alice walker Everyday use for grandmama is an essay by Alice Walker, Who was born in America, 1944. Alice Walker, an American author and poet, most of whose writing portrays the lives of poor, oppressed African American women in early 1900s.the Color Purple which won the Pulitzer Prize of fiction and The American Book Award. She was also active in the moments for civil war and women’s rights. The short story everyday use, from the collection In Love and Trouble was published in 1973.Alice Walker conceptually expresses her wariness of the Black Power Movement. During the mid-1960’, young black African Americans proclaimed they would shake off their current lifestyle and began to celebrate African culture by exotic names and ethnic appeal. In this story Walker’s attitude is that for the culture heritage, they should not reflect it on purpose, instead it should be treated as a kind of lifestyle. It is a narrative fiction story, about the different attitudes of three black women in a family to Africa-American heritage. The mother, Mrs. Johnson, who is a less educated worker but intelligent and upright, works in a church and raises money to support one of her two daughters, Dee, to school. Dee is a beautiful, smart, brave but selfish, bad temper and arrogant girl. On contrast, her little sister, Maggie, is a homely girl who had scars on her face. Totally different from Dee, Maggie is a timid, shy, inferior but easy-going, kind and generous girl. Mrs. Johnson is proud of Dee and also she loves Maggie. The story begins in a day when Dee visits her mother’s house and Mrs. Johnson and Maggie waiting for her. They find Dee has changed a lot than before, for she changes her name to a long African name which is very different to pronounce so does her dress. to their surprise she also changes her attitude toward ,everything she used to hate very much. She asks for many things from her mother which she regards as the symbolic of the African culture. But later she focuses on two pairs of old quilts made by their grandmamma which Maggie also wants to have. Dee wants to hang them up, but Maggie thinks it can remind her of her grandmamma. After a long time discussion, their mother gives the quilts to Maggie. The story ends happily with Mrs. Johnson and M aggie still enjoying their simple but happy life. But Dee goes away disappointly. From the story, we can see the author’s deep respect of their culture, and her attitude towards their culture is that the cultural relic heritage should be regarded as a kind of lifestyle not a study. The story is well-knit, and make readers imaginable .The plot and the end are favorable just as you wish to have. Though the story is very long, you will not feel bored, for the funny and plain words used. By reading her story, readers can feel excited and have a sense of happiness, since they can realize their dream through their continuous struggle.
Alice Walker From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alice Malsenior Walker(born February 9, 1944) is an American author and activist. She wrote the critically acclaimed novel The Color Purple(1982) for which she won the National Book Awardand the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 爱丽丝沃克 英文摘录自维基百科，自由的百科全书，罗金佑翻译 爱丽丝.马尔瑟尼奥.沃克（Alice Malsenior Walker出生于1944年2月9日）是一位美国作家和活动家。她写的广受好评的小说《紫色》（1982）为她赢得了国家图书奖和普利策小说奖。 Early life Walker was born in Putnam County, Georgia,the youngest of eight children, to Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant. Her father, who was, in her words, "wonderful at math but a terrible farmer," earned only $300 ($4,000 in 2013 dollars) a year from sharecroppingand dairy farming. Her mother supplemented the family income by working as a maid. She worked 11 hours a day for $17 per week to help pay for Alice to attend college. 早期的生活 沃克是出生在乔治亚州普特南县，是威利.里.沃克和米妮.楼.塔露拉.格兰特的八个孩子中最小的一位。她的父亲，用她的话说，是“在数学上令人惊叹却还是一个很厉害的农民，”每年从事谷租佃农和奶牛养殖中只能赚到300美元（在2013年为4000美元）。她的母亲给人当女仆来补充家庭收入。她每天工作11小时，每周挣17美元来帮助支付爱丽丝上大学的学费。 Living under Jim Crow laws, Walker's parents resisted landlords who expected the children of black sharecroppers to work the fields at a young age. A white plantation owner said to her that black people had "no need for education". Minnie Lou Walker, according to her daughter, replied "You might have some black children somewhere, but they don't live in this house. Don't you ever come around here again talking about how my children don't need to learn how to read and write." Her mother enrolled Alice in first grade when the girl was four years old. 生活在对黑人种族歧视的法律下，沃克的父母反对地主让佃农的孩子们在尚年轻时就去田间干活。一个白人种植园主对她说，黑人“不需要接受教育”。据她的女儿说，米妮.楼.塔露拉.格兰特当时回答说：“你可能会有一些黑人孩子在某处，但是他们不住在这所房子里。你不要再到这里来谈论什么我的孩子不需要学习如何读和写了。”当爱丽丝四岁的时候她母亲送她进入一年级学习。 Growing up with an oral tradition, listening to stories from her grandfather (who was the model for the character of Mr. In The Color Purple), Walker began writing, very privately, when she was eight years old. "With my family, I had to hide things," she said. "And I had to keep a lot in my mind." 听着口头传说，听着她祖父讲的故事（她祖父是《紫色》里的人物先生的原型）渐渐长大，沃克便开始写作，非常私人的，当时她才八岁的。“涉及到我的家庭，我不得不把许多事情隐藏起来，”她说。“我已经把很多事情记在脑海里了。” In 1952, Walker was accidentally wounded in the right eye by a shot from a BB gunfired by one of her brothers.[9]In 2013, on BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs, she said the act was actually deliberate but she agreed to protect her brother against their parents' anger if they knew the truth. Because the family had no car, the Walkers could not take their daughter to a hospital for immediate treatment. By the time they reached a doctor a week later, she had become permanently blind in that eye. When a layer of scar tissue formed over her wounded eye, Alice
艾丽斯沃克 The Color Purple is an acclaimed 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received 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. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life during the 1930s in the Southern United States, addressing the numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence.[1] Celie Celie is the main character, who has been oppressed by men her whole life. As an adolescent she is raped by her stepfather and soon thereafter gives birth. Her children are taken away. Her stepfather gives her away to be married to Albert. She becomes friends with Shug, which leads to a sexual relationship between the two. Celie learns many things about herself and her body due to Shug. She models herself after Shug and becomes more independent the more she listens to Shug's views and opinions. Shug influences not only the way that Celie allows Albert to treat her, but also her religious views. In showing Celie that it is all right to commit sin but still believe in and live for God, she broadens Celie's view on religion. It is also Shug who frees Celie from Albert's bondage, first by loving her, then by helping her to start a custom sewing business. From Shug, Celie learns that Albert has been hiding letters written to her from Africa by her sister Nettie, a missionary. These letters, full of educated, firsthand observation of African life, form a moving counterpoint to Celie's life. They reveal that in Africa, just as in America, women are persistently oppressed by men.[6] Shug Avery Shug is a very extroverted and transcendental character. She is Albert's mistress, the one who always got away. When she comes back to visit Albert, she shakes up not only his feelings, but also those of Celie. Celie harbors an admiration for Shug and the life that she has lived. Shug enters and exits Celie's life, normally making it for the better. She influences Albert to the point that he ends up treating Celie better than he ever had. Eventually, Shug herself develops a physical relationship with Celie. By showing Celie the wonders of life and her body, she helps Celie develop herself emotionally and spiritually. Shug also helps Celie discover the long lost letters that her sister Nettie had written to her. In allowing Celie to view these letters, Shug is supplying her with even more hope and inspiration, letting Celie see that in the end, everything works out for the best. Sofia Sofia is the wife of Harpo, the son of Mr. Johnson. She loves Harpo well, but she insists "she killem dead before he hits her." She is a strong, independent, and feisty character who takes pride in what she does, and cannot be controlled by men, no matter who they are. She is humbled -and perhaps even broken- when she is beaten by white people for hitting the mayor, and then forced to work for his wife.
Biography of Alice Walker By Jone Johnson Lewis Dates: (February 9, 1944 - ) Occupation: writer, activist Known for:author of The Color Purple; Pulitzer Prize; recovering work of Zora Neale Hurston; work against female circumcision Alice Walker, best known perhaps as the author of The Color Purple, was the eighth child of Georgia sharecroppers. After a childhood accident blinded her in one eye, she went on to become valedictorian of her local school, and attend Spelman College and Sarah Lawrence College on scholarships, graduating in 1965. Alice Walker volunteered in the voter registration drives of the 1960s in Georgia, and went to work after college in the Welfare Department in New York City. Alice Walker married in 1967 (and divorced in 1976). Her first book of poems came out in 1968 and her first novel just after her daughter's birth in 1970. Alice Walker's early poems, novels and short stories dealt with themes familiar to readers of her later works: rape, violence, isolation, troubled relationships, multi-generational perspectives, sexism and racism. When The Color Purple came out in 1982, Walker became known to an even wider audience. Her Pulitzer Prize and the movie by Steven Spielberg brought both fame and controversy. She was widely criticized for negative portrayals of men in The Color Purple, though many critics admitted that the movie presented more simplistic negative pictures than the book's more nuanced portrayals. Walker also published a biography of the poet, Langston Hughes, and worked to recover and publicize the nearly-lost works of writer Zora Neale Hurston. She's credited with introducing the word "womanist" for African American feminism. In 1989 and 1992, in two books, The Temple of My Familiar and Possessing the Secret of Joy, Walker took on the issue of female circumcision in Africa, which brought further controversy: was Walker a cultural imperialist to criticize a different culture? Her works are known for their portrayals of the African American woman's life. She depicts vividly the sexism, racism and poverty that make that life often a struggle. But she also portrays as part of that life, the strengths of family, community, self-worth, and spirituality.
The Color Purple Alice Walker The Color Purple is an epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker in 1982. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name. The Color Purple has become the indispensable reading works of Black literature and women's literature in American universities. The novel has been appeared on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books at number seventeen. The Color Purple is a novel that reflects female black thinking and life, it uses the new angle of view, original in choice of subject and special characteristics of art to approach female black from different angles. The novel shows female black who oppresses by race and gender try to find the way to liberate themselves. And the novel writes about the relationship between sister, homosexuality, writing to show female black recognize themselves in the end, and they are able to be equal to men. The story is told through a series of diary entries and letters. Celie is a poor, uneducated young woman who, at 14, is abused and impregnated twice by her stepfather- Alphonso. After her children are taken away, she is physically, and mentally abusive. Her stepfather gives her away to be married to Albert, who had originally wanted to marry her sister, Nettie. After Albert tried to seduce Nettie and fails, he forces her to leave, but she promises to write to Celie. As time passes, no such letters appear to arrive, and Celie assumes that her sister is dead. In her writings, Celie refers to her husband as "Mr.__", and it is some time in the book until we find out his name is actually Albert. "Mr.__" was married previously, but his wife was murdered by a lover. Originally, he seeks a relationship with Nettie, but settles for Celie. He mistreats Celie just as her father did, and he uses Celie to help raise his children. He has a mistress, singer Shug Avery, and she comes to live with the family because of her poor health. Like "Mr.__", at first, Shug has little respect for Celie and the life she lives. When Shug discovers that "Mr.__" beats Celie, she decides to remain in the house for a short while in order to protect her.
Black woman can survive only by recovering the heritage of their ancestors . —Alice Walker
Catalogue 1.Life experience 2.Activism 3.The thought of Walker's Writing 4.Womanism 5.Works 6.Everyday use
Life experience ?Walker was born in 1944 Eatonton, Georgia in a tenant family . She is the youngest one of the eight children. ?Growing up with an oral tradition, listening to stories from her grandfather , Walker was writing—very privately—since she was eight years old. "With my family, I had to hide things," she said. "And I had to keep a lot in my mind.“ ?In 1952, Walker was accidentally wounded in the right eye by a shot from a BB gun fired by one of her brothers and became permanently blind in that eye, felt like an outcast and she turned for solace to reading and to writing poetry. She realized that her traumatic外伤的injury had some value: it allowed her to begin “really to see people and things, really to notice relationships and to learn to be patient enough to care about how they turned out.
Alice Walker Alice Walker is an African American novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and activist. Her most famous novel,The Color Purple, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in1983. Walker's creative vision is rooted in the economic hardship,racial terror,and folk wisdom of African American life and culture,particularly in the rural South.Her writing explores multidimensional kinships among women and embraces the redemptive power of social and political revolution.Walker began publishing her fiction and poetry during the latter years of the Black Arts movement in the 1960s. Her work, along with that of such writers as Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor, however, is commonly associated with the post-1970s surge in African American women's literature. Early Life and Education Malsenior Walker was born in Eatonton on February 9, 1944, the eighth and youngest child of Minnie Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker, who were sharecroppers. The precocious spirit that distinguished Walker's personality during her early years vanished at the age of eight, when her brother scarred and blinded her right eye with a BB gun in a game of cowboys and Indians.Teased by her classmates and misunderstood by her family, Walker became a shy, reclusive youth. Much of her embarrassment dwindled after a doctor removed the scar tissue six years later. Although Walker eventually became high school prom queen and class valedictorian, she continued to feel like an outsider, nurturing a passion for reading and writing poetry in solitude. In 1961 Walker left Eatonton for Spelman College, a prominent school for black women in Atlanta, on a state scholarship. During the two years she attended Spelman she became active in the civil rights movement. After transferring to Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Walker continued her studies as well as her involvement in civil rights. In 1962 she was invited to the home of Martin Luther King Jr. in recognition of her attendance at the Youth World Peace Festival in Finland. Walker also registered black voters in Liberty County, Georgia, and later worked for the New York City Department of Welfare. Two years after receiving her B.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence in 1965, Walker married Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a white civil rights attorney. They lived in Jackson, Mississippi, where Walker worked as the black history consultant for a Head Start program. She also served as the writer-in-residence for Jackson State College (later Jackson State University) and Tougaloo College. She completed her first novel,