Alice Walker is an African-American writer and activist. This American is known for being the author of Purple color that Steven Spielberg was in charge of bringing to the cinema screens in 1986. And although the film was nominated for 11 Oscar no statuette was taken. The novel rose, yes, with nothing more and nothing less than the Pulitzer in 1983.
However, Alice Walker has a wide range of facets and occupations, and she has not only excelled in her career as a storyteller. She has also written short stories, poetry and essays, and is a university professor. Y typical of a demanding and agitated character, his commitment has always been alongside human rights, the feminist struggle and climate concern.
Alice Walker: African-American writer and activist
Alice Malsenior Walker was born in Georgia (United States) in 1944.. She did it in a humble, southern family, with a slave-owning past and with Cherokee blood. She was the youngest of eight siblings.
His father worked in the fields and his mother was a housewife and seamstress; Her relationship with her father was conflictive, and he took a dim view of the interest that any intellectual work aroused in her daughter. However, her mother, who realized the inclinations of the smallest of the family, I would give him a sewing machine, a suitcase and a typewriter. Elements full of symbolism.
At the age of eight, she suffered an unfortunate accident that left her one-eyed.. While he was playing cowboys and Indians with his brothers, one of his brothers shot him in the face with a pellet. Alice Walker, however, would never see it as an accident, but as a voluntary act.
This event, however, would influence his work and his work. Suffering such a great loss at such a young age, Walker became more reflective, slow and became a great observer of the world. From her She was rejected by the other children and a strong feeling of insecurity seized her. The personal awareness would become an impulse for writing and creation; and on the other hand, this awareness would also be a reason to paint characters with life-changing changes and lucid personalities.
Regarding her private life, Alice Walker was married to an activist human rights defender of Jewish origin, named Mel Leventhal. She divorced him in 1976 and from this relationship her daughter Rebecca Walker (also an activist and writer) was born, with whom she does not have a good relationship.
Recognitions and activism
He has manifested and pronounced towards various causessuch as civil rights (coming to know Martin Luther King), animal rights, pacifism, and feminism (especially that focused on racial discrimination of black women). It has also ruled on the soldier Chealsea Manning (accused of disseminating classified information) and on the case WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Alice Walker is also an active advocate for the liberation of the Palestinian people.
For her literary work, as well as for her active fight for human rights, she has been recognized on many occasions.. The most significant award was the one she got in 1983, the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Color Purple, which was also awarded the National book award.
work and work
Alice Walker studied for a Bachelor of Arts at Sarah Lawrence College and then did a PhD at Russell Sage College. He currently works for Wellesley College (Massachusetts). In her student days she belonged to the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the first African-American sorority in the United States.
His literary work has consisted of the composition of narratives (novels and short stories), essays and poetry.. The themes that stand out in her work are racial, gender, sexual liberation (she declares herself bisexual) and violent behavior that is rooted in society.
Racial and gender concern and commitment has accompanied her in her efforts as an author and activist. Her works on the Afro-American people, the racial question in the United States, her slave-owning past, and especially the situation of greater vulnerability in which black women found themselves not so many years ago in the country where she was born stand out.
The color purple, an epistolary novel, is his most famous work. It was published in 1982. It tells the story of Celie, an African-American girl who has to fight not only against segregation and racism, but also against the patriarchal oppression of the black community. All this at the dawn of the XNUMXth century. With an abusive childhood, estranged from her beloved sister Nettie, and pregnant with her own father, the author chronicles Celie's story over the decades that follow.
Some Alice Walker books
- Everyday Use (1973)
- meridian (1976)
- Purple color (1982)
- the temple of my friends (1989)
- The secret of joy (1992)
- Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart (2018)
- Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker (2022)