When readers first hear the name Alice Walker, the first thing that will probably come to mind is one of her most popular works, The Color Purple. Well, besides receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National book award for The Color Purple, Walker has written several other pieces, such as seven novels, four collections of short stories, four children's books, and volumes of essays and poetry. Her work continues to reach out to people, especially African American women who she writes about in most of her works. Black feminist and civil rights advocator Alice Walker has used her stories to inspire many African American women today and to express her strong views of black male violence and womanism. Alice’s childhood paved the way for
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Walker lived a simple life. According to a statement Walker wrote in the World Authors she explained, “The house in which I was born was small, of unpainted wood, and stood beside a dirt road that wandered through the backwoods of Putnam County, Georgia”(Biography Reference Bank 2). Her parents Willie Lee and Millie Tallulah Walker are part of the reason Alice started to become invested in writing. Her father only made about 300 dollars every year with sharecropping, a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land and dairy farming (Wikipedia 1). Her mother also helped out Alice’s father in the fields and brought in more income to support her family by working as a maid. Both her …show more content…
One of Alice Walker’s most popular works was her third novel, The Color Purple. It tells the story of the life of a girl named Celie over a 30 year span. She writes letters to God, telling her story. Her life takes horrible and unfortunate turns and twists, from being impregnated by her father, separated from her sister, and beaten in a forced marriage. Her book was a success and later was turned into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie was a huge success as it had 11 Academy Awards nominations. The film featured well-known actors such as Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, however, the movie and the book did face some controversy. Some people believed Walker was promoting lesbianism among black women and giving black males a bad label. However, the book allows readers to take a deeper look into Celie’s thoughts and feelings throughout the story, which allowed all readers to see the development of her character over 30 years. The Color Purple really explained how aspects such as sexism and racism had effects on African American families. The Color Purple even went on Broadway, with Cynthia Erivo playing Celie, Jennifer Hudson playing Shrug, and Danielle Brooks playing Sofia and the show had over 905
Walker lived a simple life. According to a statement Walker wrote in the World Authors she explained, “The house in which I was born was small, of unpainted wood, and stood beside a dirt road that wandered through the backwoods of Putnam County, Georgia”(Biography Reference Bank 2). Her parents Willie Lee and Millie Tallulah Walker are part of the reason Alice started to become invested in writing. Her father only made about 300 dollars every year with sharecropping, a system of agriculture in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land and dairy farming (Wikipedia 1). Her mother also helped out Alice’s father in the fields and brought in more income to support her family by working as a maid. Both her …show more content…
One of Alice Walker’s most popular works was her third novel, The Color Purple. It tells the story of the life of a girl named Celie over a 30 year span. She writes letters to God, telling her story. Her life takes horrible and unfortunate turns and twists, from being impregnated by her father, separated from her sister, and beaten in a forced marriage. Her book was a success and later was turned into a movie directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie was a huge success as it had 11 Academy Awards nominations. The film featured well-known actors such as Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, however, the movie and the book did face some controversy. Some people believed Walker was promoting lesbianism among black women and giving black males a bad label. However, the book allows readers to take a deeper look into Celie’s thoughts and feelings throughout the story, which allowed all readers to see the development of her character over 30 years. The Color Purple really explained how aspects such as sexism and racism had effects on African American families. The Color Purple even went on Broadway, with Cynthia Erivo playing Celie, Jennifer Hudson playing Shrug, and Danielle Brooks playing Sofia and the show had over 905