Alice Walker Essay

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Elements of an Essay Voice “To be an artist and a black woman, even today lowers our status in many respects, rather than raises it and yet, artists we will be." Alice Walker uses a determined voice, determined to be an artist and prove to the whole world how great black women are. Also, this comes amid knowing that being a black woman and at the same time an artist does not earn one respect in the society. Style “Below this quilt I saw a note that says it was made by "an anonymous Black woman in Alabama, a hundred years ago." If we could locate this "anonymous" black woman from Alabama, she would turn out to be one of our grandmothers-an artist who left her mark in the only materials she could afford, and in the only medium her position in …show more content…

In the above quote, Alice makes use of repetition to emphasize how black women were treated in those days. She uses the word "only" twice to show that black women were not allowed to make progress in what they were doing and so they could not afford quality materials to express their art. Structure: Description “What then are we to make of Phillis Wheatley, a slave, who owned not even herself? This sickly, frail black girl who required a servant of her own at times-her health was so precarious-and who, had she been white, would have been easily considered the intellectual superior of all the women and most of the men in the society of her day”. Alice Walker uses description to win over the hearts of black women. She gives a vivid picture of a frail and sickly woman who despite her health and having to work for a white lady managed to write poems. And because she lived in a world that enslaved black women let alone provide them with primary education, her prowess was never recognized. Ideas “But this is not the end of the story, for all the young women-our mothers and grandmothers, ourselves-have not perished in the wilderness. And if we ask ourselves why, and search for and find the answer, we will know beyond all efforts to erase it from our minds, just exactly who, and of what, we black American women

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