Women Breaking the Barriers in Literature I Have Chosen Alice Walker the Novelist Term Paper

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African-American Literature -- Alice Walker

Women breaking the barriers in literature: Alice Walker, Pioneer of Womanism and Bastion of the African-American Culture (Literature)

African-American culture as American society characterizes it today contains significant elements that enrich the character of African-American society and communities. In the realm of arts, African-Americans have excelled, producing works of art that uniquely speaks for the African-American experience, but is universally crafted for people to appreciate and understand the history of one of the dominant societies in the United States at present. African-Americans excelled in the performing arts, music, visual arts, as well as literature, which has been developed with the emergence of Harlem Renaissance during the early 20th century. Alice Walker, following the great tradition of African-American literature, has been considered one of the women writers, particularly, African-American writers, who fought to 'break the barrier' that divides African-Americans from other races and women from men in a dominantly white American and patriarchal society, respectively.

Alice Walker was propelled to success during the 1980s after the publication of her novel, The Color Purple. Prior to the creation and publication of her successful novel, Walker has been known to be a staunch supporter and contributor to African-American literature, composing poems and writing prose about the lives of African-Americans, as reflected in their vivid history.

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However, due to the extraordinary themes and powerful characterization of Celie (main character in the novel) in The Color Purple, Walker has become one of America's most prolific African-American women writers.

What makes Walker successful in portraying the lives of African-American women? As reflected in The Color Purple, Walker sought to confront the primary issues and problems that African-American women (and women in general) experience during her time -- that is, the issues of racial, gender, and socio-economic discrimination within African-American communities and the society. These issues include the racial discrimination against (by the dominant white American society) and among African-Americans; gender conflict between males and females, particularly in the struggle for power and dominance; repression of women through poverty; and coping with physical and emotional abuse, self-discovery, and lesbianism.

Indeed, these issues are illustrated in Walker's writing style in her works. Walker's critics have considered her an "undeveloped" writer because she has yet to achieve superior style that is prerequisite to every novelist who has achieved a popular status. Despite Walker's "underdeveloped" style of writing in The Color Purple, the themes and character portrayals are considered "supreme" because of their ineffectiveness and substance to the development of the novel. As critic Robert Towers….....

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