Alice Walker

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Alice Walker

Famous writers are everywhere, but what are the writers famous for. People may know Alice Walker as a famous writer, but what was she famous for? When I asked people questions about Alice Walker, some can only give some vital statistics and some will just shrug their shoulder and say, “I don’t know.” In my research paper I will be giving some brief facts about Alice Walker and I will also be answering some questions. Questions like “What did Alice Walker do to make her a famous writer?” “What obstacles did she have to go through to become a popular writer?” and “How is Alice Walker doing now?” These are some of the most frequently asked questions and I will be answering them in this research paper.

Who is Alice Walker? Her full name is Alice Malsenior Walker. She was born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the eight and youngest child of Minnie Tallulah Grant Walker and Willie Lee Walker. Her parents were poor sharecroppers. In the summer of 1952 Alice Walker is blinded in her right eye due to a BB gun pellet while she was playing “cowboys and indian” with her brother. When graduating high school in 1961, she was her school’s valedictorian and was the prom queen that year. She went to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia on scholarship. While in Spelman as a freshman, Alice Walker participated in the civil rights demonstrations. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. invited her to the Youth World Peace Festival in Helsinki, Finland. After attending the conference she started to love traveling around meeting many people and cultures of the world. She traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. She was also there to hear Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. She returned to Spelman College for her junior year. She found out that she has received a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Walker was planning to stay at Spelman, but after her teacher has encouraged her to attend Sarah Lawrence she decide to accept the challenge. In Sarah Lawrence, Walker enjoyed the teaching of poetry by Muriel Ruykeyser and writer Jane Cooper who nurtured her interest and talent in writing.

What did Alice Walker do to make her a famous writer? It all started during her senior year in Sarah Lawrence, where she realized that she was pregnant. She was so frightene...

... middle of paper ...

...s for change in society, and I could not help but grow. It was just inevitable that if I looked out and saw people in all their radiant fighting beauty, then I would just stuck with love for them” (Sealeve, 1998). In this conversation, I found out that Walker has found her inner self and trying to help others find themselves in this painful world. This conversation talks about Walker’s experience through life, but I have also found out that she has realized it was worth the experience to through because she found out that life is tough and if you stay tough you can get through life. Walker felt pain in this world back then, but time went on and now she feels good about herself and trying to get her word across people.

Bibliography

1. Bloom, Harold. Alice Walker: (Modern Critical Views, Series2). January 1992.

2. Gates, Henry Louis and K. A. Appiah. Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past

and Present. January 1993.

3. Kramer, Barbara. Alice Walker: Author of the Color Purple (People to Know

Series). August 1995.

4. McLeod, Melvin. “A Wind through the Heart.” Shambhala Sun. August 1998.

http://www.shambhalasun.com/alice.html.

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