Alice Walker Essay Examples Page 2

Short biography of Alice Walker

Alice Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. Walker was the eighth and youngest child of Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker’s eleven children. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a maid. Her parents worked hard to make sure that their children got an education. When she was eight years old, Walker was accidentally hit in the eye with a BB pellet from a BB gun shot by one of her brothers. Her injury eventually resulted in the loss of sight in that eye.Alice Walker was raised in Eatonton, Georgia, in the heart of the Black Belt in the American South. Because of the racism and segregation that were prevalent in the South, she was educated in all-Black schools. After graduating from high school, she attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She later transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. In 1965, she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with a bachelor’s degree in English.

After college, Walker returned to the South. She became involved in the civil rights movement and worked as a volunteer in voter registration drives and Head Start programs. In 1967, she married Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer. The couple had a daughter, Rebecca, in 1969. They divorced in 1976.In the early 1970s, Walker wrote her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland. The novel is set in the early twentieth century and tells the story of a Black man who leaves his abusive wife and starts a new life with a new family. The novel was not well received when it was first published, but it is now considered a classic of African-American literature.Walker’s second novel, Meridian, was published in 1976. The novel is set in the civil rights era and tells the story of a young woman’s coming of age. Meridian was a finalist for the National Book Award.In 1982, Walker published The Color Purple, a novel about a Black woman’s struggle for independence in the early twentieth century. The novel was an instant bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The novel was made into a movie in 1985, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Danny Glover.

In 1983, Walker published In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, a collection of essays about African-American women writers. The book is considered a classic of feminist literature.In 1984, Walker and her daughter Rebecca founded the Wildflower Press, a small press that publishes books by African-American women writers.In 1992, Walker published Possessing the Secret of Joy, a novel about a woman who has undergone female genital mutilation. The novel was controversial and sparked a debate about the practice of female genital mutilation.In 1996

General Essay Structure for this Topic

1. Who is Alice Walker?
2. What is Alice Walker’s writing like?
3. What are some of Alice Walker’s most famous works?
4. Why is Alice Walker an important African American writer?
5. How has Alice Walker’s writing affected society?
6. What would the world be like without Alice Walker’s writing?
7. How has Alice Walker’s writing inspired other writers?
8. What challenges has Alice Walker faced as a writer?
9. How has Alice Walker’s writing evolved over time?
10. What impact will Alice Walker’s writing have on future generations?

Important information

Spouse: Melvyn R. Leventhal (m. 1967–1976)

Awards: Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada

Parents: Willie Lee Walker, Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant