Alice Walker

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12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alice walker is an excellent choice for your author thesis paper. She writes about hard-hitting topics such as molestation, lesbianism, racism, and self-esteem just to name a few. I’ve read the Color Purple, The Temple of my Familiar and Possessing The Secret of Joy which all talk about the struggle of women of color. Also they support the fact that all a black woman knows is how to survive. Her novels are very empowering and make you proud to be who you are. Many characters such as Ceile, Nettie, Mr.___, Sofia, and Shug reappear in her novels. If you like novels you can get into and are hard to put down Alice Walker is the author for you.

Becca (Rose) said...

I think that Alice Walker would be a good choice for your author thesis paper. Throughout all her books that I read there was an obvious common theme that was easy to find in the early stages of this paper. Though it is easy to find, it is difficult to narrow down in to a specific thesis that fits with all the books. I read The Color Purple, Meridian, and In Search of our Mothers’ Gardens. These are all easy to read and aren’t too abstract. If you like stories about the struggles of black women, then Alice Walker is the author for you.

Caroline (Rose) said...

I chose Alice Walker because I was looking for an author who wrote powerful and inspiring novels, however I did not enjoy her books as much as I had hoped because they were very intense and often times inappropriate. Her novels were extremely personal and followed the lives of women who had been through extreme situations and through a lot of physical and mental pain. Although her novels were very powerful and often times inspiring, i was not prepared for the density and sexuality of the stories she followed.t

Courtney ( Bennett) said...

Alice Walker in my opinion is an author who has very reoccurring themes in her works, so in terms of creating a thesis I would have to say that no matter what books you read you will be able to come up with a thesis that you can support. Walker write about really deep, sometimes shocking subjects that at first I was not prepared for. She examines sexuality, abuse, intimacy, relationships, and self image in all of her books. Walkers novels take a very feminist stand. I read The Color Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and The Temple of My Familiar. Walker's books are empowering but at the same time sad and depressing she forces readers to think about things that you would not normally consider. If you like reading book with strong female characters and books that push society's limits then Alice Walker could definitely be a point of interest for you.

Gail-Agnes (Brown) said...

Alice Walker's books are not difficult to read in terms of time and taking notes. It is easy to find important quotes and write down important notes. Also, her books are not dull, so it is never a pain to pick one up and read. However, before choosing her, it would be a good idea to see if you are ready to read about the topics that she discusses in her novels. She hits hard topics such as racism and rape, and her writing is quite graphic and descriptive. I read The Color Purple, In Love and Trouble, Possessing the Secret of Joy, Meridian, You Can't Take A Good Woman Down and By the Light of My Father's smile. Her reoccurring themes made it easier and maybe in some ways harder to write about. It was easier because there were so many quotes and pieces of evidence to choose from, but it was harder because it was difficult not to repeat information.

Celeste (Brown) said...

Walker is wonderful with words and writes about very real topics. Her writings touch on subjects like rape, race, and sexism, so if you are touchy about reading very real, sexually intense writings I wouldn't read her works. I enjoyed her works a lot though because of her gripping stories and characters. Her books will draw you in and hold on tight while you're reading. If you do choose to read her works you should make sure you take good notes through all the books because you will get distracted while reading and forget to take notes.

Kimmy (Brown) said...

I found Alice Walker as a great author for the American Author Thesis Project. I found that her books very easy to trace themes throughout all the novels. Walker's books are very descriptive when dealing with subjects such as rape, homosexuality, racism etc. For me this was a positive aspect because it kept me engaged in the reading, however i recommend skimming a few sections of her novels before choosing her if you feel uncomfortable with said topics. I read The Color Purple, Meridian, and The Way Forward Is With A Broken Heart. These novels were a great length (all around 200-250 pages) In conclusion, i would highly recommend Alice Walker as an author for this projects because her short novels and descriptive writing make it easy to read the books and take notes, and her clear themes make writing a thesis easier!

Laurel (Dube) said...

Alice walker was a very interesting author. She writes about very powerful topics such as racism, sexism, and stereotyping. I read The color of Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy, Meridian and The Temple of My Familiar. I personally found the reading to be intense and a little graphic. So you have to be willing to write about controversial topics. Although the reading was intense the books themselves were not too long and writing the actual essay was very easy. There are a lot of similar and overlapping topics seen throughout Walker's work which is helpful. Also I did find that Meridian was harder to connect to my thesis and the other novels I read.

Stephanie (Brown) said...

Alice Walker writes many novels about the African-American experience. She also focuses on African-American women and how because of their race and their gender, they are doubly oppressed. Her novels vary in length, ranging from 200 to over 400 pages. She creates many characters and sometimes they are hard to keep track of. She writes her novels using a mix of Southern black vernacular and Standard English. Her writing is generally easy to understand, even the vernacular. She uses language without censoring herself, which at times includes profanity and sex. Themes in her novels are relatively easy to find and connect between books because they tend to share similarities about sexuality, death, racism, sexism, and oppression within families. Some of her novels seem to focus more on the message than plot development. I recommend The Color Purple for its distinctive, engaging characters.

Brielle (Brown) said...

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Alice Walker’s novels. Most of Walker’s novels are fairly short—only about 200 to 300 pages each. My favorite of her novels were The Color Purple and Meridian and the one book I did not like was Temple of My Familiar. Walker writes about some very intense topics such as discrimination, sexual orientation, obesity, and racism so if you prefer light and humorous books rather than intense ones then I would not choose Alice Walker as your author. Most of her books connect to each other through the characters, specifically references to The Color Purple were quite frequent, however if you haven’t read the book it is referencing yet then it doesn’t affect your understanding of the novel. Her novels are easily connectable, so finding a common theme when writing the paper is pretty easy. Overall I really enjoyed Alice Walker and I would recommend her for others to read.

Alex Hermacinski said...

I think that overall Alice Walker is an interesting author that writes about the struggles of women in the world. I read The Color Purple, The Temple of My. Familiar, Meridian, and Posessing The Secret of Joy. Meridian was my least favorite of the books and found that the theme tied in with the other books. In all of the books there is an immense amount to explicate. Almost every line in the books has a deeper meaning which makes it easier to write the analysis when it comes to writing the essay.
-Alex Hermacinski

Anonymous said...

Alice Walker is an amazing author to do your author's thesis on. Her books are genuinely interesting and easy to read. They are fairly short but the topics and themes she discusses are intriguing and deep. I read the books The Color Purple and Possessing The Secret of Joy and I found that the hardest thing for me during the writing process was choosing which theme I wanted to explore. Walker writes about the many controversial topics including gender roles, sexuality, violence, and racism in the majority of her books, making it easy to see how each book relates.

American Author Thesis

Now that you have written your essay, we ask that you reflect on the reading portion of the experience and write 100-150 words about your author.

Think of what you write as advice for someone next year and beyond, someone who (like you were doing last fall) is thinking about choosing your author - and maybe even the same three books - to read for the assignment.