Black Women
In the essay "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens", Alice Walker created a sense of literary tradition among black women by providing wisdom for the past, with her discussion of artistic role models. This essay has a lot interesting of themes such as spirituality, creativity, oppression of black women, and respect. Black women have shown to be highly spiritual and creative but society has oppressed them by not giving them the freedom to create art. They have suffered because of unfulfilled potential and their sorrow supports Walker's perspective of black women's treatment by society. She though that black women sang, told stories and gardened in order to express their spirituality because they were impeded to perform art on a greater level. Walker starts this essay with a quote from Jean Toomer's writing. This quote showed that men were aware of black women's artistic talent and that they were hold back just to serve men and have low statuses. In Toomer's quote he states, "I talked, beautifully I thought, about an art that would be born, an art that would open the door for women the likes of her. I asked her to hope and built up an inner life against the coming of that day" (128). Toomer agrees that black women can become
artists because they all have talent and invites them to hope and never give up because sooner society's roles for black women will expand with better opportunities. It's not only harsh conditions that impede artistic expression but conditions may lower a women's spirituality. Slavery and patriarchy in society were fatal to some women but reshaped black mother's artistic activities like singing hymns, gardening and quilting. There is no doubt that they could have become famous artists but they still created great things even though their economic and social conditions. Walker argues that "One example, perhaps the most pathetic, most misunderstood one, can provide a backdrop for our mother's work: Phillis Wheatley, a slave in the 1700's" (131). Phillis published a few volumes of poetry and was considered the first African American writer in the United States. She needed to feed her children and try as hard to express her gift but she eventually got sick and it led to her death. Walker integrated Phillis "a slave, who owned not even herself" (131) in her essay to show that black women like Philiis have great spirituality within themselves. Even though, they still had difficult living conditions and social restrictions to express their spirituality, they have managed to express it for many years by writing poetry, fiction, painting, and being women of good. Walker wanted to search for her mother's garden in a deep perspective by understanding her spirituality and gaining knowledge from her mother. We usually absorb what our mothers teach us throughout life. Walker stated, "Guided by my heritage of a love of beauty and a respect for strength - in search for my mother's garden, I found my own"(136). Walker was lucky that her mother taught her certain values because it helped her to understand her mom better and in that way understand herself too. Walker's purpose in writing this essay is to call attention to the original art created by humble activity. She points out "If we could locate this "anonymous" bla
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1375
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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