Alice Walker's Meridian Essay

1025 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Gender roles in 1960

“But Truman did not want a general beside him. He did not want a woman who tried… to claim her own life” (Walker, 112). Alice Walker’s Meridian is a modernist critique of gender in American society during the 1960s and 1970s. Walker uses third person point of view with an emphasis on the thoughts and feelings of Meridian to tell her story. The reader is able to characterize Eddie and Truman through the lens of Meridian’s beliefs and ideas about men, women, and sex. Eddie and Truman appear to the reader as archetypal misogynistic men, who use women for their personal pleasure and gain. The characterization of these integral men in Meridian’s life reflect the struggle to overcome the restrictive ideals for women imposed by the climate of sexual …show more content…

When Eddie impregnated her, Meridian was expected to want and love her baby. She felt this historical pressure and responsibility to want her child due to Black women having their babies stolen from them and forced into slavery. However, Meridian was given the option of pursuing higher education and she seized the opportunity by symbolically releasing the shackles of motherhood imposed on her against her will. Furthermore, her ability to go to college while not finishing high school was a remarkable one. It allowed Meridian to be included in the Civil Rights Movement and gave her back her voice. She was educated and given a cause she could fight for, one she felt strongly about and that mattered to her. Her education gave her the purpose she sought in life. The Civil Rights Movement was something she participated in on her own terms. Even though Truman encouraged her to join the Movement, she stayed because she wanted to and because it mattered to her, even when he left and became distracted. Meridian was born into a life in which she needed to be a virgin, a mother, a wife, and a caretaker; but she built for herself her own legacy in which she became an activist, a leader, and a role

Show More
Related

  • Abigail Adams and How She Shaped the Role of Women in American History

    1691 Words  | 4 Pages

    Skinner Keller, Rosemary. Patriotism and the Female Sex: Abigail Adams and the American Revolution. Brooklyn, New York: Carlson Publishing Inc., 1994.

    Read More

  • Lulu Nanapush Character Analysis

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    A common theme of social and political male-assertiveness is prominent throughout the course of history. This occurrence subjects females to serve as the less privileged gender, and has created much controversy. Within the novel Tracks, Louise Erdrich conveys differentiating social commentary through the leading, female characters: Fleur Pillager, Pauline Puyat, Margaret Kashpaw, and Lulu Nanapush. Patriarchy is not defined to the extent of popular belief in the story, but can be easily observed from minute actions of Erdrich's characters. All of these actions pertain to a common belief coinciding with the muted discrimination. While not completely circumventing the ostentatious patriarchy, the female figures define themselves by avoiding confinement of it.

    Read More

  • Comparison of Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper

    1214 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society continually places restrictive standards on the female gender not only fifty years ago, but in today’s society as well. While many women have overcome many unfair prejudices and oppressions in the last fifty or so years, late nineteenth and early twentieth century women were forced to deal with a less understanding culture. In its various formulations, patriarchy posits men's traits and/or intentions as the cause of women's oppression. This way of thinking diverts attention from theorizing the social relations that place women in a disadvantageous position in every sphere of life and channels it towards men as the cause of women's oppression (Gimenez). Different people had many ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities amound women, including expressing their voices and opinions through their literature. By writing stories such as Daisy Miller and The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic that took a major toll in American History. In this essay, I am going to compare Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to James’ “Daisy Miller” as portraits of American women in peril and also the men that had a great influence.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper and A Streetcar Named Desire

    1527 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many different depictions of gender roles exist in all times throughout the history of American culture and society. Some are well received and some are not. When pitted against each other for all intents and purposes of opposition, the portrayal of the aspects and common traits of masculinity and femininity are separated in a normal manner. However, when one gender expects the other to do its part and they are not satisfied with the results and demand more, things can shift from normal to extreme fairly quickly. This demand is more commonly attributed by the men within literary works. Examples of this can be seen in Tennessee Williams' “A Streetcar Named Desire”, where Stella is constantly being pushed around and being abused by her drunken husband Stanley, and also in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper”, where the female narrator is claimed unfit by her husband as she suffers from a sort of depression, and is generally looked down on for other reasons.

    Read More

  • Symbolism in Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    1557 Words  | 4 Pages

    Symbolism in Alice Walker's Everyday Use. History in the Making Heritage is something that comes to or belongs to one by reason of birth. This may be the way it is defined in the dictionary, but everyone has their own beliefs and ideas about what shapes their heritage. In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, these different views are very evident by the way Dee (Wangero) and Mrs. Johnson (Mama) see the world and the discrepancy of who will inherit the family’s quilts.

    Read More

  • Symbolism Inherent in "The Yellow Wallpaper"

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.

    Read More

  • Disorderly Women : Gender And Labor

    936 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Disorderly Women: Gender and Labor Militancy in the Appalachian South,” Jacquelyn Hall explains that future generations would need to grapple with the expenses of commercialization and to expound a dream that grasped financial equity and group unanimity and also women’s freedom. I determined the reasons for ladies ' insubordination neither reclassified sexual orientation parts nor overcame financial reliance. I recollected why their craving for the trappings of advancement could obscure into a self-constraining consumerism. I estimated how a belief system of sentiment could end in sexual peril or a wedded lady 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, in any case, should cloud a generation’s legacy. I understand requirements for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the section of ladies into open space and political battles beforehand cornered by men all these pushed against conventional limitations even as they made new susceptibilities.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Alice Walker's short story, Nineteen Fifty-five

    1174 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alice Walker's short fictional story, "Nineteen Fifty-five", revolves around the encounters among Gracie Mae Still, the narrator, and Traynor, the "Emperor of Rock and Roll." Traynor as a young prospective singer purchases a song from Mrs. Still, which becomes his "first hit record" and makes him rich and famous. Yet, he does not "even understand" the song and spends his entire life trying to figure out "what the song means." The song he sings seems as fictional as certain events in this story, but as historical as Traynor's based character, Elvis Presley.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper

    1449 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wallpaper," the reader is treated to an intimate portrait of developing insanity. At the same time, the story's first person narrator provides insight into the social attitudes of the story's late Victorian time period. The story sets up a sense of gradually increasing distrust between the narrator and her husband, John, a doctor, which suggests that gender roles were strictly defined; however, as the story is just one representation of the time period, the examination of other sources is necessary to better understand the nature of American attitudes in the late 1800s. Specifically, this essay will analyze the representation of women's roles in "The Yellow Wallpaper" alongside two other texts produced during this time period, in the effort to discover whether Gilman's depiction of women accurately reflects the society that produced it.

    Read More

  • Point of View in Alice Walker's Everyday Use

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    Point of View in Alice Walker's Everyday Use. Alice Walker is making a statement about the popularization of black culture in "Everyday Use". The story involves characters from both sides of the African American cultural spectrum, conveniently cast as sisters in. the story of the. Dee/Wangero represents the "new black," with her natural.

    Read More

  • The Minister's Black Veil Character Analysis

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    History has underrepresented females throughout countless centuries. In contrast, Hawthorne allows them to take on essential roles in “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “and “The Birthmark.” The way he presents them distinguishes his stories from others at his time. He proves all of his female characters almost flawless, deeply connects the male protagonists to them, and uses them to reveal the males’ hidden sides.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Awakening, by Kate Chopin

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening were two works written during the Age of Expression. The entire country was going through an era of Reconstruction; politically, socially, culturally and econmically . The Yellow Wallpaper and The Awakening are feminist works aimed at the psychological, social, and cultural injustices during the era. According to Mizruchi, “ Cosmopolitanism aroused dis-ease: depression and disaection were prevalent in a society whose pace and variety seemed relentless. Yet the same circumstances also instilled hope. For it was widely recognized that the burgeoning heterogeneity of a newly global America would be a source of enduring vitality.”(Mizruchi, 2008) The wives portrayed in these works defeated the attitudes of their husbands during this patriarchal culture.

    Read More

  • The Woman Question Analysis

    2250 Words  | 5 Pages

    Marked by a growing British Empire, extended suffrage, and scientific advances, the Victorian period is characterized as a time of social and political change. These advancements and reforms proved to be influential in encouraging the debate of societal roles that had previously been held without question. This era resolved itself to determine the nature and proper role of women in British society; or, to use the phrase favored by the Victorians, to resolve “The Woman Question.” A number of prominent writers used their texts to explore this question, including H. Rider Haggard in his novel She. Throughout this novel, Haggard positions the feminine persona as unlearned and one to be distrusted. When females, of either prominent or minor roles, claim social or sexual independence in She they are condemned for their choices, and pay the consequences with their lives. For Haggard, the answer to “The Woman Question” is simple: there is no place for the independent woman.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles: Then and Now

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    Indisputably, roles and characteristics of opposite genders have been ubiquitous, since historical evidence proves so – dating back to when the practice of oral tradition was favored over written language. This historical evidence is especially apparent in literature from previous time periods. In these works of literature, men and women often have very different social and economic positions within society. Particular duties, or tasks, are practiced depending on the gender of these individuals. However, in the advancing world we are currently living in, these duties are beginning to intertwine in an effort to allow equal rights amongst opposite genders. This effort to break the sexist barrier, which encompasses our world, has already begun rattling the chains of politicians and the like. However, with the progressions made thus far in retaliation to sexism and unequal gender privileges, the United States of America is heading in a positive direction towards gender equality. Nonetheless, the female gender is perceived as a lesser entity in society while the male gender is dominant and controlling. The masculine individuals in literary works usually govern, or direct the feminine individuals. These characteristics are often evident in various literary works – including “Hills Like White Elephants,” and “A&P” written by Ernest Hemingway and John Updike, respectively. The slow and steady transformation from a sexist society to one that allows inferior genders to perform similar tasks, if not the same as their superior counterparts, may disturb the ideological mindset of figures with authority; however, it provides inferior genders with the opportunity to branch out socially, economically, and politically.

    Read More

  • The Sociological Criticism of Alice Walker

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    The definition of sociology is the study of society. Social criticism is the practice of analyzing a literary work by examining the cultural, political and economical context in which it was written or received. Alice Walker’s work demonstrates this type criticism very well; from The Color Purple to Everyday Use, or any of her earlier short stories. The majority of her work reveals the struggle of African Americans in society, especially women. Furthermore, her stories mirror a lot of the social characteristic that were taking place in America, from the 1940’s on; thus, making Alice Walker the epitome of sociological criticisms.

    Read More

More about Alice Walker's Meridian Essay

Open Document