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Alice Walker's Alice: A Narrative Fiction

703 Words3 Pages

Alice had the flawless complexion of an adolescent. Glowing pale skin that appropriately matched her pale blonde hair, which drifted in disciplined rivulets down her back. Her eyes were something of a celestial phenomenon; nebula as seen through a telescope. They peered seductively over her nose, making her presence, in itself, claustrophobic. I couldn’t help but stare as she twirled her tongue around a hard candy that had stained her lips red; cherry. She sat across from me, dripping with charm, stenching of sweet iced tea. I never liked it here. A town so suffocatingly small that you tripped over people you hated every day. People who knew things about you. It was the kind of town that oozed ignorance, gossip, and death. The kind of town that at certain points of the day, the dirt grounds appeared rusted with blood. It was that way now. I turned my eyes away from the window and back towards Alice. Her juvenile detention uniform looked more like something she had chosen to wear and less like what she had been locked up in. Particularly with the shirt deliberately pulled down, exposing an adequate amount of cleavage. Purposely conspicuous. She had occupied herself by fiddling with a doll that sat on her lap. Acting like the child she is. Innocent, foolish, disturbing. …show more content…

Her beauty was inexplicable; almost hurtful. Long skinny legs, slim wrists, high, babied voice. She aimed it all like a gun, exploiting her beauty for the sake of attention. Childish, petty, yet dangerously intelligent. Physical proof of the effects of a distant mother. How confusing it must have been, competing with the death of her sister; living in the shadow of a shadow. I guess, a child weaned on emotional abuse would consider harm a comfort; a corrupt method to attract her mother's attention. I turn my attention towards the window. The derelict buildings contrast dramatically with the clear sky above and woods

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Maggie on the other hand, is characterized by her unattractiveness and timidity. Her skin is scarred from the fire that had happened ten or twelve years ago. Those scars she has on her body in the same way have scarred her soul leaving her ashamed. She “stumbles” in her reading, but Mrs. Johnson loves her saying she is sweet and is the daughter she can sing songs at church with, but more so that Maggie is like an image of her. She honors her family’s heritage and culture, by learning how to quilt and do things in the household, like her mother views their heritage.

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1049 Words | 5 Pages

I came out of the hallway and walked in to the small office and met the judge for the first time. She was a female, with exquisite taste of clothing. A cream-colored blouse, with a long tan pants. I looked around the room and thought of the unwavering pulse in the room. The room itself was simple, yet cluttered.

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379 Words | 2 Pages

Alice Walker uses narrative pace and diction to prepare the trade of what might just be a very gruesome ending. Throughout the short story she uses positive words to contrast the ending and the pace she uses gives a bigger impact towards what the main character Myop is about to experience. The first element I noticed was the contrast between the use of positive words in the beginning and negative words in the end. Throughout the short story Alice uses words like “skipped lightly” which gives us a sense of joy and happiness that is portrayed through Myop. And in the end she gives a sense of fear and wonder by using words like “The air was damp, the silence close and deep.”

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394 Words | 2 Pages

Alice Walker was born in 1944. She was the youngest of eight children. She had an unfortunate accident. When she was eight years old. Walker's eye was blinded by a shot from a BB gun.

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150 Words | 1 Pages

Alice Walker was born into a poor family of sharecroppers in Eatonton, Georgia. Her mother, who worked as a maid to support her eight children, enrolled her in first grade. She acknowledged how intelligent her daughter was and knew that education was important. One day, while she was playing with her brothers, she was shot in the eye with a BB gun. She was self conscious and worried about what other people thought of her.

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983 Words | 4 Pages

The point of view in the story “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker plays a big part. Throughout the story, one of Mama’s daughters came to visit. The way Mama and Maggie see her is not in a very pleasant way. In fact, they are scared to tell her no when it comes to anything. From Mama’s perspective Dee seems like this rude, stuck up, spoiled child because she had the opportunity to go out and expand her education, while Mama and Maggie continued to live their lives on the farm.

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553 Words | 3 Pages

Ko-Seung-Duck, a renowned Korean lawyer and a candidate for education minister in the previous election, was defeated utterly by some unknown candidate. The primary reason for his defeat was that his daughter confessed that Ko lacked empathy, and did not communicate with his children. In Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday use”, we can also note such conflicts between family members. The narrator, a mother of two, is a tough women who can “kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man” (5). Dee, her second daughter (24), is egocentric character who didn’t have “hesitation as her nature” (12).

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531 Words | 3 Pages

I immensely enjoyed reading this essay. Alice Walker takes us on a raw and intimate journey opening her heart, and allowing us access into her deepest fears in a manner that is heartfelt. As a young child Alice possessed a level of confidence, an assurance within herself, sass, that it oozed and captivated all those she encountered. Alice was accustomed to the attention she would receive from those around her. She was sure of herself, her beauty, intelligence, and talents.

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705 Words | 3 Pages

Alice Walker was born February 9, 1944. Walker was born in Putnam, Georgia and is the youngest of eight children, to some African American sharecroppers. The family had Native American ancestry which Walker did some of her writing and spirituality. Minnie Lou (Alice’s mother) worked eleven hours a day for $17 per week to help pay for Alice to attend college. The time they were living is was the time of Jim Crow laws, so her parents resisted landlords who expected the children of black sharecroppers to work in the field at a young age.

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507 Words | 3 Pages

The author, Alice Walker tells the story of an African-American family in the deep rural south in the 1960’s. The main characters are Mama Johnson and her two daughters, Dee and Maggie. Dee moves away to further her education, while Maggie stays at home with Mama Johnson. Mama compares both daughters, speaking of Dee as lighter than Maggie, with nicer hair and a fuller figure always wanting nicer things. Due to Maggie’s injuries that she suffered in a fire, comparing her to a lame animal.

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220 Words | 1 Pages

“Poet, novelist, ‘Womanist’ activist, Spiritualist, animist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Malsenor Walker has been referred to as ‘lavishly talented writer’” (Gates and Appiah as cited in Howrad31) with “an astounding versatility” that demonstrates that she is “equally at home with poetry and fiction and as a litterateur alone (Howard 33). She contains a unique presence in U.S .letters” (Howard 31).” few twentieth-century American writers “add Ikenna Dieke,” have left their imprint on many generations of reader as Alice Walker has (Howard 31). Alice Walker has made a name for herself worldwide.

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1095 Words | 5 Pages

In the 1960’s, the Civil Right movement was in full swing. Martin Luther King was holding rallies in Birmingham and other cities in the South. In 1963, the headlines across the nation state that six were dead in a Baptist Church in Birmingham. The “Ballad of Birmingham” is a tragic poem written in response to the bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church, which is a meeting place for Civil Rights leaders. The poem describes an African-American mother and her daughter conversing about a "Freedom March" in the streets of Birmingham.

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629 Words | 3 Pages

Separating from one’s true values may lead one to betray their own family and culture. In the short story Everyday Use a young woman who disregards her family inferiorly is faced with the conflict of self identity. The author reflects betrayal of family values through his exposure of heritage and education in the story. Heritage unveils the concept of who Dee is and the disconnection from her own shows her inadequacy to have one. Dee tries her best to stray away from the life she once had and went the extent of changing her name.

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802 Words | 4 Pages

When it comes to stories, especially in short stories, the setting is the basic foundation that sets the stage for the rest of the story. This is no different than in the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. In this story, there is not only a physical setting but also a historical/social one because of the period in which this takes place. The story would be very different if it were to occur during another time or area. The setting is key in this story because of its historical context; it sets the story's tone and reveals more about each character.

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1002 Words | 5 Pages

Transitional states of maturity can be challenged or championed by unexpected discoveries which can be confronting or provocative. This is explored through Alice Walker’s 1973 prose fiction, “The Flowers”, as the protagonist’s view on the world is transformed due to the personal zemblanic discovery made. The short story explores the themes of loss of innocence and death in order to address cultural indifference and the prejudice experienced by certain groups within society, which in turn causes individuals to be effected negatively. Walker hopes to evoke sense of political and social reflection in her audience, hoping that intimate discoveries of past inequity by her readers will ensure cultural equity maintains future momentum.

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