Alice Walker Influences

Alice Walker is an American author who wrote a controversial novel during the civil rights movement. This novel, ‘The Color Purple’, is based on the ideas of racism, sexism, and freedom. As an author, Alice Walker was very active in the civil rights movement and her childhood greatly influenced her writing. In her novel, Walker uses diary entries to create a musical sense which makes her novel connected and rhythmic. Also, Walker’s work embraces black culture and how people had to live during times of racial segregation. Alice Walker bases her characters on her own life struggles to convey a message to the readers of staying strong and having perseverance through challenges in life.

Author’s Background

Alice Walker was born into a poor family

in Georgia “on February 9, 1944, she was the eighth child of Georgian sharecroppers, Minnie Tallulah and Willie Lee Walker.” (Cummings 2) Due to the Walker families financial struggle, Alice was required to help her mother raise her seven siblings. The reader was informed of this when she mentioned that “The Walkers lived in poverty,and as a young girl,Walker experienced her mother's frustration with the burden of caring for eight children.”(Cummings 3). As a result she didn’t have much of a childhood, leading to Walker being diagnosed with depression. Furthermore, she faced discrimination in southern America during her mid-20s and experienced even more struggles throughout her life. Despite the constant obstacles thrown at her, “she survived Jim Crow, suicidal depression, interracial relationships,and an illegal abortion.”(Burns 1) In her novel, ‘The Color Purple’, Celie, the main character, faced many challenges like abuse and racism before having the strength to go out into the open world and overcome her fears. This indicates that Walker used her own life experiences to portray the hardships of black women who were treated poorly by others.
2. Famous Pieces
Walker wrote many famous pieces like ‘Meridian’ and ‘Nineteen Fifty-five’. She wrote a powerful novel named ‘Meridian’ that portrayed her view on racism. “With the publication of ‘Meridian’ Walker earned a reputation as a writer of well-crafted fiction that embraced the triumph of African American women’s spirit over the evils of racism and sexism.” (Cummings 13) In the novel ‘Meridian’, the readers follows a young girl called Meridian Hill who was active during the civil rights movement. She was denied an education because of her skin color and even had a fatal illness which causes stroke. Consequently, Meridian finds the strength and courage to get up from her depressing life and fight for what she believed in. This suggests that Walker based many of her novels on her own life as she was also very active during the civil rights movement. Also, due to Walker’s strong passion for women’s right, she wrote a short story called ‘You can’t keep a good woman down’ from her collection ‘Nineteen Fifty-five’. Her collection ‘Nineteen Fifty-five’ celebrates the strength and resilience of black blues singers during the civil rights movement.(Johnson 8) In this novel, the narrator Gracie Mae Still goes through many ups and downs in her love life and musical life. She overcomes all the challenges by finding her true love and passion for music. Alice Walker wrote many novel and collections that was based on her own life challenges and essentially, conveys how she conquered them.
3. Author’s Style
In her novel, ‘The Color Purple’, Walker received a lot of criticism for portraying black men as evil and rapists.“To her critics, Walker came to embody a new African American women’s literary movement that was foremost distinguished by its condemnation of black men.” (Cummings 20) She replied to the critics by saying she explored the limits of both art and the authentic (Whitsitt 8). She didn’t purposely want to degrade black men but felt like people should hear what men in general do to women, which causes them to feel inferior. She portrays these thoughts by writing with a musical theme in many of her novels. “In ‘Nineteen Fifty-five’ and ‘The Color Purple’, Walker employs the character, language, structure, and perspective of the blues to celebrate the lives and works of blues women” (Johnson 7) Walker ,in both of novels, gives the reader an insight into the lives of black women who tries to succeed in music. Shug Avery in ‘The Color Purple’ represents a black women who is a popular blues singer and she ends up showing Celie her true potential and encouraging her to leave her abusive husband. In ‘Nineteen Fifty-five’, Gracie is hidden behind a singer names Traynor. He is determined to show the world that Gracie writes amazing songs but his white fans scorn her. “Walker uses blues techniques of contrast and ironic juxtaposition to articulate discrepancies between appearances and reality, between what appears to be and what is, exposing the contradictions and hypocrisy of the white material world, while demonstrating the vital and "authentic" character, value, and beauty of Gracie Mae and her music.” (Johnson 14) Overall, Walker has a very unique musical style in her writing that provides an insight into her logic and views on racism, and equality. She used both musical related character in her famous pieces and showed how they helped society and people through their music.
4. Analysis of Novel
The theme of ‘the Color Purple’ is the journey towards freedom. (Brown 3) Celie, the main character in Walker’s novel ‘The Color Purple’, endures many struggles during her childhood with her abusive father as her sister runs away from home, leaving her to fend for herself. After being forced to marry, she is obligated to take care of her husband’s children and provide him with everything he needs. Throughout the novel, Celie is unhappy with her life and wants to change it. After meeting a famous blues singer, Shug Avery, Celie reveals that she’s attracted to women. Shug Avery gives her confidence to travel the country and leave her abusive husband. “In The Color Purple, Walker begins to explore the physical and psychological tell with involvement in the music business, racism, sexism, life on the road, and lack of familial support” (Johnson 16). This novel portrays how a woman can rise up from all her difficulties and find out her true self while facing challenges in her life. To portray this story more vividly, Walker composed her book with a series of letters and diary entries. “Walker’s most famous novel, “The Color Purple”, is written in epistolary form, or as a series of letters which frames the story” (Cummings 16). This gives the reader an insight to everything Celie thought and how she was feeling during the struggles she faces throughout the novel. After the publication of this novel, “Walker was attacked for portraying black men negatively, writing in dialect, and focusing on lesbianism” (Burns 1). By conveying the male characters in the novel as abusive, Walker received major criticism by many.
5.Literary Criticism
Walker’s writing helped many readers overcome life struggles they might be dealing with by showing determination and resilience through her characters.

“In Walker's writing, redemption will take one away and bring one back, in a perhaps humbling but empowering way, to something close to home.” (Whitsitt 15) Her writing has a inspirational meaning which impacted readers everyday life. Also, many of Walker’s writing is based on music or has some sort of musical reference. “The fiction of "Everyday Use," in which Mama comes to have a voice, is an art which would on the one hand deny the role of the artist, but only insofar as the one who comes to have a voice becomes an artist” (Whitsitt 24). Walker’s writing is sometimes based on specific real-life people like the story ‘Nineteen Fifty-five’, which is based on Elvis Presley. “Walker both encapsulates the essence of the theme which unites the stories in the volume and alludes to the signifying relationship of her work, particularly the story ‘Nineteen Fifty-five,’ to the lives and work of several others from the past” (Johnson 8). By using real-life artists, Walker creates a real and relatable character who can be connected to Elvis. Accordingly, most of Walker’s novels have a musical theme and specifically ‘Nineteen Fifty-five’ describes a young black women’s journey to exploring the art of music (Johnson

16).
In conclusion, Alice Walker’s background and struggles influenced her writing. Her involvement in the civil rights movement impacted her writing a lot as she conveys her perspective and view on racism and equality through her characters. Walker also embraces the African American culture in her writing but using diary entries to create a musical sense and using characters who are active in the civil right movement like Meridian Hill. In her writing, Alice Walker bases her characters on her own life struggles to convey a message to the readers of staying strong and having perseverance through challenges in life.