Meridian By Alice Walker

It is very arduous to live in a world, in which one doesn’t feel they belong. The world being the traditionalist constraints society forces upon individuals. The majority of the novel, Meridian by Alice Walker, tells of Meridian Hill, an African American woman who is caught between conforming to society and her own virtues during the time of the Civil War. She was strongly against the Civil War activists because they try to use their anger and destruction to end segregation. The one person that first introduced Meridian to this notion was a 13 year old, pregnant, orphan people called Wile Chile or Wild Child. Aptly named, she is a free spirit who isn’t corrupted by society’s norms. Walker uses the Wild Child to convey that even though people don’t fully understand why they are fighting for a cause, they continue on with the battle because they become consumed with anger.

Meridian, however, is the only one who is willing to go out of her way to help the child because she herself is struggling to break the chains of conformity. Meridian tries to take the child in while living in Saxon College, but the child’s mannerisms make some uncomfortable. Although the Wild Child is homeless, the housemother of Saxon college refuses to let Wild Child stay because it “is a school for young ladies” (37) and to her, the Wild Child was an animal. The students treated her like a pariah and could never understand why she acted so abnormal. Walker chooses to leave out the Wild Child’s real name to portray how society perceives these unorthodox people as insignificant. The Wild Child’s situation renders how judgmental and ignorant society can be to people who are simply