Analysis of Alice Walker's Everyday Use - Essay Example

Heritage Denial Alice Walkers Everyday Use is a story about a daughter who wanted to be anything but what her sister and mother were. Dee always wanted to be more than an poor African American from the South, she wanted to be above that classification. Dee was ashamed of her poor background. When she went away to receive her education, her Mother and sister, Maggie thought she would never return. However, Dee fell into an African root group of friends. This made her want to return home, in order to construe a new distorted heritage for herself. Dee might be seen as growing personally, instead of being self centered. Yet, if she truly understood her roots, she would not treat her mother and sister so poorly. Dee would have learned like her mother to accept who she was, then Dee could have grown as an individual. As a result of Dees attitude, she became stuck in the past. This story is narrated by the mother. Dee and Maggie are the daughters. Dee always wanted a better life. Dees mother explains “Dee wanted nice things. A yellow organdy dress to wear to her graduation from high school; black pumps to match a green suit shed made from an old suit somebody gave me (Walker 26). Dee wanted to be more than her sister or mother. However, Maggie and their mother were content with the life they led. Dee always tried to change them, not understanding their refusal to change. For example, “She used to read to us without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks habits, whole lives upon us two, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice” (Walker 26). Dee wanted to be better than her family, even if it meant denying her heritage. Dees mother never apologize for who she was, realizing that she did the best she could with the life given to her. For example, when she states matter factly, “I never had an education myself. After second grade the school was closed down. Dont ask my why: in 1927 colored asked fewer questions than they do now” (Walker 26). Not having an education did not mean the narrator was stupid. Like many African American women of the time she had knowledge to share. Just because she could not read did not mean she could not pass down a noble heritage. Many illiterate African American shared stories Walkers mother passed down through the oral tradition (White). The narrator did not pity herself, because she did not have an education. She worked hard to provide for her daughters. In her eyes, there was nothing to be ashamed of. This is why Dees attitude baffled the narrator. At first Dee wanted to forget her family, but her roots became important after finding a new group of friends. Her friends, including her boyfriend/lover, were people interested in their African roots. Walker wanted to present the reality of how African Americans felt coming from poorer backgrounds, then returning to their African roots. Walker used this example because: Walker has focused on a matrix which includes sexual and racial realities within black communities as well as the unavoidable connections between family and society. For exposing the former, she has been criticized by some African-American male critics and theorists; for exploring the latter. (“Alice Walker”) By exploring her African roots, Dee felt important. Instead of a poor African American, she became an African princess oppressed by the white system. Dee made it clear she felt oppressed. For example, Dee explains why she changed her name: Shes dead, Wangero said. I couldnt bear it any longer, being named after the people who oppress me. You know as well as me you was named after your aunt Dicie, I said. Dicie is my sister. She named Dee. We called her Big Dee after Dee was born. But who was she named after? asked Wangero. I guess after Grandma Dee, I said. By changing her name, she can be an African princess, not just a little girl named after an aunt. Dees boyfriend/lover seemed to be a big influence on her style and dress. It is not said explicitly in the short story that Hakim is Islamic, but the clues are there. He does not eat pork, calling it unclean. Hakim greets everyone with Asalamalakim, an Islamic greeting. Dees hair, clothing, and shoes suggest the influence Hakim has had on her. If she presents herself as coming from a poor African American family, he might have not wanted anything to do with her. If she presents her background and family as victims of an oppressive society, then he can accept her. In this manner, Dee is not as successful as her sister and mother. She does not want to be successful, but only wants Hakims approval. Walker has been criticized in male/female relationships. For example: Walkers harshest critics have condemned her portrayal of black men in the novel as "male-bashing," but others praise her forthright depiction of taboo subjects and her clear rendering of folk idiom and dialect. (“Alice Walker b. 1944”) As a victim, she does not threaten Hakims manhood. When Dee returns home, it was not to make peace with her mother and sister. It was to show how badly the dominant society had oppressed her family. She takes pictures of her old house to show that her family was poor. The house looked like: It is three rooms, just like the one that burned, except the roof is tin; they dont make shingle roofs any more. There are no real windows, just some holes cut in the sides, like the portholes in a ship, but not round and not square, with rawhide holding the shutters up on the outside. This house is in a pasture, too, like the other one. (Walker 27) With the cows grazing, her mother and sister in front, Dee thought the Polaroids would make her claim of white oppression more believable to her friends. It can be argued that Dee is just growing personally, exploring her African roots. If this was true, she would not have come home to place her mother and Maggie on display. An example was how Dee and her boyfriend regarded her mother. “He just stood there grinning, looking down on me like somebody inspecting a Model A car. Every once in a while he and Wangero sent eye signals over my head” (Walker 27). They were pitying Maggie and her mother. They did not come back to inform them about their African heritage. Another rebuttal to Dees coming home because of personal growth is her greediness. Dee wants everything, including what belongs to Maggie. When Maggie concedes, the mother grows indignant. She gives Maggie the quilts that Dee covets. Dee did not come home to share her knowledge about African roots, she wanted what her group of friends considered antiques. Dee was not proud of her background. She only wanted them, because her new group of friends thought these things were cool. This is why Maggie received the quilts. She appreciated the true value of the quilts, her grandmothers memory, not the materialistic side. Dee thinks she knows exactly who Maggie and her mother are, but in reality is too wrapped up in herself to understand anything. Dee always wanted to be different. By connecting with her African roots, she became not only different, but special. What she never realized was her mother and Maggie were special too. An individual does not have to distort who they are, only have pride in what real traits they do have. Works Cited “Alice Walker.” 2006. Voices from the Gap. Regents of the University of Minnesota, Minnesota. 3 Dec. 2007 http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/walker_alice.html#contrib “Alice Walker.” 2007. New Georgia Encyclopedia. Georgia Humanities Council, Georgia. 3 Dec. 2007 http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-998 Walker, Alice. Everyday Use. New York: Rutgers University Press, 1994. White, Evelyn C.. "Alice Walker: On Finding Your Bliss; Interview by Evelyn C. White", Ms. Magazine. September/October 1999. BookBrowse. 3 Dec. 2007 http://www.bookbrowse.com/author_interviews/full/index.cfm?author_number=314 Sources Source 1 . Art Praxis Bios By Name By Date By Location By Axes of Affiliation Critique All Critiques Review: Fiction Review: Nonfiction Review: Poetry Review: Childrens Lit Interpretation Multimedia Interviews Our Project Awards Credits Contact Us Permissions Contribute Contributors Artist Biographies Critique For Classes and Teachers Interviews & Media Links Classroom Classroom Research Student Writing Syllabi Essays and Experiences with VG Resources The Attic VG Blog Conferences & Calls for Papers The Kitchen Links VG Home » Bios » Walker, Alice    Alice Walker b. 1944 permissions info At the moment of crisis I realize that, because my hands are bound, I can not adjust my glasses, and therefore must tilt my head awkwardly in order to locate and focus on a blue hill. . . . I notice there is a blue hill rising above and just behind the women and their naked-bottomed little girls, who now stand in rows fifty feet in front of me. In front of them kneels my little band of intent faces. Mbati is unfurling a banner, quickly, before the soldiers can stop her. . . All of them--Adam, Olivia, Benny, Pierre, Raye, Mbati-- hold it firmly and stretch it wide. RESISTANCE IS THE SECRET OF JOY! it says in huge block letters. There is a roar as if the world cracked open and I flew inside. I am no more. And satisfied. --Possessing the Secret of Joy Jump to: Biography and Criticism | Selected Bibliography | Works in Languages other than English | Related Links | Contributor(s) Biography - Criticism Born in 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia, to sharecropper parents, Alice Walker has become one of the best-known and most highly respected writers in the U.S. Educated at Spelman College and Sarah Lawrence College, Walker, in a commencement speech at Sarah Lawrence years later, spoke out against the silence of that institutions curriculum when it came to African-American culture and history. Active in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in the South, she used her own and others experiences as material for her searing examination of politics and black-white relations in her novel Meridian (1976). Beginning with her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Walker has focused on a matrix which includes sexual and racial realities within black communities as well as the unavoidable connections between family and society. For exposing the former, she has been criticized by some African-American male critics and theorists; for exploring the latter, she has been awarded numerous prizes while winning the hearts and minds of countless black and white readers. Perhaps her most famous work is The Color Purple, brought to the attention of mainstream America through the film adaptation by Steven Spielberg. In that novel of incest, lesbian love, and sibling devotion, Walker also introduces blues music as a unifying thread in the lives of many of the characters. Refusing to ignore the tangle of personal and political themes, Walker has produced half a dozen novels, two collections of short stories, numerous volumns of poetry, and books of essays. Though she has attained fame and recognition in many countries, Walker has not lost her sense of rootedness in the South or her sense of indebtedness to her mother for showing her what the life of an artist entailed. Writing of this central experience in her famous essay, “In Search of Our Mothers Gardens,” she talks about watching her mother at the end of a day of back-breaking physical labor on someone elses farm return home only to walk the long distance to their well to get water for her garden planted each year at their doorstep. Walker observed her design that garden, putting tall plants at the back and planting so as to have something in bloom from early spring until the end of summer. While not knowing what she was seeing at the time, the adult Walker names her mother an artist full of dedication, a keen sense of design and balance, and a tough conviction that life without beauty is unbearable. Selected Bibliography Works by the Author Fiction By The Light of My Fathers Smile (1998) Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) The Temple of My Familiar (1989) The Color Purple (1982) You Cant Keep a Good Woman Down (1981) Meridian (1976) In Love and Trouble (1973) The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) The way forward is with a broken heart (2001) Now is the time to open your heart (2004) The complete stories. (2000, 1994) London : Womens Press Finding the green stone. (1991) Juvenile audience Non-Fiction Langston Hughes, American Poet (1974, 2002) The same river twice : honoring the difficult (1996) Warrior marks : female genital mutilation and the sexual blindings of women. With Pratibha Parmar. (1993) Poetry Sent by Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit after the Attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (2001) Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful (1985) Revolutionary Petunias (1973) Once (1968) Her blue body everything we know : earthling poems, 1965-1990 complete (1991) Goodnight Willie Lee, Ill see you in the morning (1979) Absolute trust in the goodness of the earth : new poems. (2004) Essays Living by the Word: Selected Writings 1973-1987 (1988) In Search of Our Mothers Gardens (1983) Anything we love can be saved : a writers activism (1997) Visual and sound material A place of rage. Interviews: T Minh-Ha Trinh; June Jordan; Angela Yvonne Davis; Alice Walker; Pratibha Parmar. (1991), videocassette (52 min.) New York, NY : Women Make Movies My life as my self (1996) sound cassette (ca. 90 min.)Boulder, CO : Sound True Audio Voices of power, Bell Hooks; Alice Walker; Martha L Wharton; Valerie Lee (2000, 1999) : Videorecording (29 min.)Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Giving birth, finding form, Alice Walker; Isabel Allende; Jean Shinoda Bolen, (1993) sound cassette, Boulder, CO : Sounds True Recordings Alice Walker reads “Nineteen fifty-five”(short story). (1987) sound cassette (36 min.)Columbia, Mo. : American Audio Prose Library, Pema Chödrön & Alice Walker in conversation. (1998) videocassette (51 min.)Boulder, CO : Sounds True, Gardening the soul, with Michael Toms. (2000) 2 sound cassettes. Carlsbad, Calif. : Hay House Audio Alice Walker: Possessing the secret of joy. (2000, 1992) videocassette (51 min.).Princeton, N.J. : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, Alice Walker: everyday use, uncommon art. Bruce R Schwartz; Evelyn C White; Alice Walker; (2004) 2 videodiscs (46 min.)Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities, “This two-part series offers an in-depth study of Alice Walkers widely studied short story, Everyday Use, combining a poignant film adaptation with a focused interview of the author conducted by her official biographer, Evelyn White”--Container Works about the Author Allan, Tuzyline. Womanist and Feminist Aesthetics: A Comparative Review. Athens: Ohio UP, 1995. Butler-Evans, Elliott. Race, Gender, and Desire: Narrative Strategies in the Fiction of Toni Cade Bombara, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1989. Russell, Sandi. Render Me My Song: African-American Women Writers from Slavery to the Present. New York: St. Martins Press, 1992. Works in Languages other than English The Color Purple: El color púrpura. Transl. Ana Ma. de la Fuente. Barcelona : Esplugues de Llobregat : Plaza & Janés, Series: Gran parada. 1984. Spanish Màu tím. Transl. Nguyên Thi. Westminster, CA : Nguoi Viet, 1991. Vietnamese La couleur pourpre. Transl. Mimi Perrin. Paris : Éditions Robert Laffont. 1984. French Die Farbe Lila. Transl. Helga Pfetsch. Hamburg : Rowohlt. 1984. German Zi se jie mei hua. Transl. Chang Hui-chien (Zhang Huiqian ? same person?) Taipei : Crown. 1986; Zi se jie mei hua. Transl. Shi Jiqing. Taibei Shi : Yao Yiying : Da di chu ban she. 1986; Zi se jie mei hua. Transl. Lan Tsu-wei. Taibei : Yu zhou guang chu ban she, 1992. Chinese Zi yan se. Transl. Jie Tao. Beijing : Wai guo wen xue chu ban she. 1986 Chinese Zi se. Transl. Jianying Zhang. Changchun Shi : Jilin she ying chu ban she. 2001. Chinese Murasaki no furue. Transl. Yumiko Yanagisawa. Tokyo : Shueisha. 1985 Japanese Kara papuru. Transl. Yumiko Yanagisawa. Tokyo : Shueisha. 1986 Japanese A cor púrpura. Transl. Peg Bodelson, Betúlia Machado, Maria José Silveira. São Paulo : Editora Marco Zero. 1986 Portuguese Kolor purpury. Transl. Michal Klobukowski. Warszawa : Warszawskie Wyd. Literackie MUZA SA. 2003. Polish Barva nachu. Transl. Jirí Hrubý. Praha : Argo, 2001. Czech De kleur paars. Transl. Irma van Dam. Amsterdam : Rainbow Pocketboeken. 1986. Dutch ha-Tseva` argeman. Transl. Shulamit Kedem Tel Aviv : “Ladori”,1980-1986?. Hebrew 0 Kedves joisten. Transl. Dezsenyi Katalin. Budapest : Europa Konyvkiado. 1987. Hungarian Kollo popul. Transl. Han-jung Cho. Seoul : Kumtap, 1983. Transl. Kim Chung. Kwangmyong-si [South Korea] : Toso Chulpan Tongsim. 1986. Korean The Temple of my Familiar El templo de mis amigos. Barcelona : Plaza & Janes. 1990. Tramsl. Sofia Noguera.In Spanish Yoindul ui sinjon Transl. An Chong-hyo yok Soul T`ukpyolsi : Munhak Sasangsa 1990. Korean By the light of my fathers smile Por la luz de la sonrisa de mi padre. Transl. Miguel Martínez-Lage. Barcelona : Lumen. 2001. Spanish Chichi no kagayaku hohoemi no hikari de. Transl. Yumiko Yanagisawa Tokyo : Shueisha. 2001 Japanese Possessing the secret of joy En posesion del secreto de la alegria. Transl. Gemma Rovira.. Barcelona : Plaza & Janes. 1993 Spanish Yorokobi no himitsu. Transl. Yanagizawa Yumiko. Tokyo : Shueisha. 1995. Japanese Unmirhan kippum ul kanjik hamyo. Transl. Su-min Ch`oe Soul-si : Munhak Segyesa. 1992. Korean Meridian Meridian. Transl. Thomas Lindquist. Munchen : Frauenbuchverlag. 1984. German Meridian. Transl. Takahashi Chikako. Tokyo : Asahi Shinbunsha. 1982. Japanese Meridian. Transl. Maria Letizia Bertorelle. Milano] : Frassinelli. 1987. Italian In Love and Trouble Ai to kuno no toki. Transl. Kususe Yoshiko. Kyoto : Yamaguchi Shoten. 1985. Japanese De amor e desespero : histórias de mulheres negras. Transl. Waldea Barcellos. Rio de Janeiro : Rocco. 1998. Portuguese You Cant Keep a Good Woman Down Non puoi tenere sottomessa una donna in gamba. Transl. Roberta Rambelli [Milano] : Franssinelli. 1988. Italian The Third Life of Grange Copeland ha-Hizdamnut ha-shelishit. Transl. Sharonah `Adini[Tel-Aviv] : Kineret. 1989 Hebrew In Search of Our Mothers Gardens Auf der Suche nach den Gärten unserer Mütter. Transl. Gertraude Krueger München : Frauenbuchverlag. German. 1987 Zora Neale Hurston : Reader zum Auftakt der deutschsprachigen Edition der Werke Zora Neale Hurstons Zürich : Ammann. 1993. German Blicke vom Tigerrücken : Gedichte Englisch-Deutsch Alice Walker,. Gerhard Döhler. Reinbek bei Hamburg : Rowohlt. 1996. German Beim Schreiben der Farbe Lila und andere essays. Transl. Gertraude Krueger, Thomas Lindquist und Helga Pfetsch. München : Frauenbuchverlag. 1987. German Krasnye petunii : rasskazy. Transl. M. Tugusheva. Moskva : Izvestiia. 1986. Russian Works about the author in other languages Koenen, Anne. Zeitgenössische afro-amerikanische Frauenliteratur : Selbstbild und Identität bei Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Toni Cade Bambara und Gayl Jones. Frankfurt ; New York : Campus Verlag. 1985 German Pierre, Alix. Limage de la femme resistante chez quatre romancieres noires : Maryse Conde, Simone Schwarz-Bart, Toni Morrison et Alice Walker / 1995. Thesis/dissertation/manuscript French Related Links SALON: Alice Walker Interview A portion of an interview with Alice Walker in Salon, “an interactive magazine of books, arts and ideas.” Alice Walker--Anniina Jokinen A page on the author including biographical information and many links to related sites. [Alice Walker--Grolier Publishing]( Brief bio of the author. Alice Walker--Literature Database, NYU Contains pointers to annotations (summaries) of one or more of the authors texts. A Letter to President Clinton ...that Alice Walker wrote on the subject of his administrations policies toward the people of Cuba. In it, she rejects his invitation to the White House because of those policies. Living By Grace: The Life and Times of Alice Walker Contains a six-part biography, a bibliography, a listing of her complete works and writing influences, as well as a fact sheet about the author. Women Make Movies: A Film About Alice Walker Information about Visions of the Spirit: A Portrait of Alice Walker, a film by Elena Featherston. This page was researched and submitted by: Toni McNaron on 7/8/96. Bibliography of translated works was added by Maria Zavialova on 9/20/2004. Listed below are links to pages and sites that reference this page. » Bambara, Toni Cade from Bios Toni Cade Bambara was a writer, activist, feminist, and filmmaker. In 1982, in a taped interview with Kay Bonetti, Bambara reflected on her work: "When I look back at my work with any little distance the two characteristics that jump out at me i... 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Walkers creative vision is rooted in the economic hardship, racial terror, and folk wisdom of African American life and culture, particularly in the rural South. Her writing explores multidimensional kinships among women and embraces the redemptive power of social and political revolution. Walker began publishing her fiction and poetry during the latter years of the Black Arts movement in the 1960s. Her work, along with that of such writers as Toni Morrison and Gloria Naylor, however, is commonly associated with the post-1970s surge in African American womens literature. Biography Alice Malsenior Walker was born in Eatonton on February 9, 1944, the eighth and youngest child of Minnie Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker, who were sharecroppers. The precocious spirit that distinguished Walkers personality during her early years vanished at the age of eight, when her brother scarred and blinded her right eye with a BB gun in a game of cowboys and Indians. Teased by her classmates and misunderstood by her family, Walker became a shy, reclusive youth. Much of her embarrassment dwindled after a doctor removed the scar tissue six years later. Although Walker eventually became high school prom queen and class valedictorian, she continued to feel like an outsider, nurturing a passion for reading and writing poetry in solitude. In 1961 Walker left Eatonton for Spelman College, a prominent school for black women in Atlanta, on a state scholarship. During the two years she attended Spelman she became active in the civil rights movement. After transferring to Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Walker continued her studies as well as her involvement in civil rights. In 1962 she was invited to the home of Martin Luther King Jr. in recognition of her attendance at the Youth World Peace Festival in Finland. Walker also registered black voters in Liberty County, Georgia, and later worked for the New York City Department of Welfare. Two years after receiving her B.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence in 1965, Walker married Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a white civil rights attorney. They lived in Jackson, Mississippi, where Walker worked as the black history consultant for a Head Start program. She also served as the writer-in-residence for Jackson State College (later Jackson State University) and Tougaloo College. She completed her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland, in 1969, the same year that her daughter, Rebecca Grant, was born. When her marriage to Leventhal ended in 1977, Walker moved to northern California, where she lives and writes today. Walker has taught African American womens studies to college students at Wellesley, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, Yale, Brandeis, and the University of California at Berkeley. She supports antinuclear and environmental causes, and her protests against the oppressive rituals of female circumcision in Africa and the Middle East make her a vocal advocate for international womens rights. Walker has served as a contributing editor of Ms. magazine, and she is a cofounder of Wild Tree Press. Walkers appreciation for her matrilineal literary history is evidenced by the numerous reviews and articles she has published to acquaint new generations of readers with writers like Zora Neale Hurston. The anthology she edited, I Love Myself When I Am Laughing ... and Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader (1979), was particularly instrumental in bringing Hurstons work back into print. In addition to her deep admiration for Hurston, Walkers literary influences include Harlem Renaissance writer Jean Toomer, black Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks, South African novelist Bessie Head, and white Georgia writer Flannery OConnor. Poetry The poems in Walkers first volume, Once (1968), are based on her experiences during the civil rights movement and her travels to Africa. Influenced by Japanese haiku and the philosophy of author Albert Camus, Once also contains meditations on love and suicide. Indeed, after Walker visited Africa during the summer of 1964, she had struggled with an unwanted pregnancy upon her return to college. She speaks openly in her writing about the mental and physical anguish she experienced before deciding to have an abortion. The poems in Once grew not only from the sorrowful period in which Walker contemplated death but also from her triumphant decision to reclaim her life. Many of the narrative poems of her second volume, Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973), revisit her southern past, while other verses challenge superficial political militancy. The collection won the Lillian Smith Book Award in 1973. Good Night, Willie Lee, Ill See You in the Morning (1979) contains tributes to black political leaders and creative writers. In addition to a fourth volume of poetry, Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful (1984), Walker has compiled her previously published verses in the collection Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems 1965-1990 Complete (1991). In a review of Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth: New Poems (2003), Publishers Weekly highlighted the volumes spiritual and ecological topics and added that Walker "explor[es] and prais[es] friendship, romantic love, home cooking, the peace movement, ancestors, ethnic diversity, and particularly admirable strong women, among them the primatologist Jane Goodall." Walkers most recent volume of poems, A Poem Traveled Down My Arm, was published in 2005. Short Fiction and Essays One of Walkers earliest stories, "To Hell with Dying," captured the attention of poet Langston Hughes, who included it in his 1967 anthology, The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers. In the tale, which is based on actual events, the joy and laughter of children rescue an old guitar player named Mr. Sweet from the brink of death year after year. The narrator—a girl at the start of the story—returns home as a young woman to "revive" Mr. Sweet, but with no success. After his death she inherits the bluesmans guitar and his enduring legacy of love. "To Hell with Dying" was reprinted in Walkers first collection of short fiction, In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973). The thirteen stories in this volume feature black women struggling to transcend societys narrow definitions of their intelligence and virtue. Her second collection, You Cant Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories (1982), continues her vivid portrayal of womens experiences by emphasizing such sensitive issues as rape and abortion. In 2000 Walker published a third collection of stories, The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart. She has also written four childrens books, including an illustrated version of To Hell with Dying (1988) and Finding the Green Stone (1991). Walker has published several volumes of essays and autobiographical reflections. In the 1983 collection In Search of Our Mothers Gardens: Womanist Prose, she introduced readers to a new ideological approach to feminist thought. Her term womanist characterizes black feminists who cherish womens creativity, emotional flexibility, and strength. Womanism is further used to suggest new ways of reading silence and subjugation in narratives of male domination. The collection won the Lillian Smith Book Award in 1984. Other essay collections include The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult (1996), which features Walkers account of her struggle with Lyme disease during the filming of The Color Purple, and Sent by Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit: After the Attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon (2002). Novels Like her short stories, Walkers six novels place more emphasis on the inner workings of African American life than on the relationships between blacks and whites. Her first book, The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), details the sorrow and redemption of a rural black family trapped in a multigenerational cycle of violence and economic dependency. Walker also fictionalizes a young civil rights activists coming-of-age in the novel Meridian (1976).  The Color Purple (1982) has generated the most public attention as a book and as a major motion picture, directed by Steven Spielberg in 1985. Narrated through the voice of Celie, The Color Purple is an epistolary novel—a work structured through a series of letters. Celie writes about the misery of childhood incest, physical abuse, and loneliness in her "letters to God." After being repeatedly raped by her stepfather, Celie is forced to marry a widowed farmer with three children. Yet her deepest hopes are realized with the help of a loving community of women, including her husbands mistress, Shug Avery, and Celies sister, Nettie. Celie gradually learns to see herself as a desirable woman, a healthy and valuable part of the universe. Set in rural Georgia during segregation, The Color Purple brings components of nineteenth-century slave autobiography and sentimental fiction together with a confessional narrative of sexual awakening. Walkers harshest critics have condemned her portrayal of black men in the novel as "male-bashing," but others praise her forthright depiction of taboo subjects and her clear rendering of folk idiom and dialect. In 1985 the novel was adapted into a film, directed by Steven Spielberg. The musical stage adaptation premiered at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in 2004 and opened on Broadway in 2005. Literary scholars often link The Color Purple with Walkers next two novels in an informal trilogy. Celies granddaughter, Fanny, is a major character in The Temple of My Familiar (1989), and the protagonist of Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) is Tashi, the African wife of Celies son. In Walkers novel By the Light of My Fathers Smile (1998), strong sexual and religious themes intersect in a tale narrated from both sides of the grave. The novel features a family of African American anthropologists who journey to Mexico to study a tribe descended from former black slaves and Native Americans. In Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart (2004) the main character, Kate, embarks on a literal and spiritual journey to find a way to accept the aging process. Walker says that Kates search is necessary because the territory is largely "uncharted," and "people seem to lose their imagination about what womens lives can be after, say, 55 or 60." Reflecting on the unique perspective and versatility of her literary career, Walker says, "One thing I try to have in my life and my fiction is an awareness of and openness to mystery, which, to me, is deeper than any politics, race, or geographical location." With elements of ancestral fable and spirituality, womanist insight, literary realism, and the grotesque, Walkers writing embodies an abundant cultural landscape of its own. Suggested Reading Erma Davis Banks and Keith Byerman, Alice Walker: An Annotated Bibliography, 1968-1986 (New York: Garland, 1989). Harold Bloom, ed., Alice Walkers "The Color Purple," Modern Critical Interpretations series (New York: Chelsea House, 2000). Ikenna Dieke, ed., Critical Essays on Alice Walker (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999). Henry Louis Gates and K. A. Appiah, eds., Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present (New York: Amistad Press, 1993). Maria Lauret, Alice Walker, Modern Novelists series (New York: St. Martins Press, 2000). Evelyn C. White, Alice Walker: A Life (New York: Norton, 2004). Donna Haisty Winchell, Alice Walker (New York: Twayne, 1992). Additional Resources  The Color Purple, writ. Alice Walker and Menno Meyjes, dir. Steven Spielberg (Burbank, Calif.: Warner Bros., 1985). Qiana Whitted, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut Updated 2/13/2006 Printable Version •Atlanta University Center •Literature: Overview •Townsend Prize for Fiction •Twelve Great Works of Georgia Fiction •Voices from the Gaps: Alice Walker •CNN: Alice Walker Interview •Famous Georgians: Alice Walker The NGE is not responsible for the content of external Web sites.     Home | Whats New | Index | Quick Facts | About NGE | Help | Contact Destinations | Galleries | Features RSS Feeds A project of the Georgia Humanities Council, in partnership with the University of Georgia Press, the University System of Georgia/GALILEO, the Office of the Governor, and the Georgia Department of Technical and Adult Education. Copyright 2004-2007 by the Georgia Humanities Council and the University of Georgia Press. All rights reserved. Source 3 .     Welcome, Visitor! Member? 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First Impressions Members read and review books often months before theyre published. See what they think in First Impressions The Critic by Peter May (Nov/07) Signed Mata Hari by Yannick Murphy (Nov/07) Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill (Nov/07) More First Impressions Reviews       Best Recent Reader Reviews Someone Knows My Name (The Book of Negroes) 12/5/2007: This book starts slowly but quickly you are drawn into a tale, sometimes intriguing, sometime terrifying, of one... read more   The Flamenco Academy 12/1/2007: I was very excited when I started reading the book. The description of the dancing and the rhythm. Her words were so... read more   Tree of Smoke 11/26/2007: I have read quite a bit of Vietnam fiction and non fiction, but Ive never read anything that seems to capture the... read more   On Chesil Beach 11/22/2007: McEwans On Chesil Beach is a wonderful story of expectations, maturity, communication, and lost chances. At the same... read more   more reviews            Author Interview Browse an author interview and biography of Alice Walker. Plus: Book summary, excerpts and reviews at BookBrowse.com. Alice Walker Recommended at BookBrowse: By The Light of My Fathers Smile (1999) Read Biography Interview Alice Walker: On Finding Your Bliss Interview by Evelyn C. White (This conversation is reprinted from a interview originally printed in Ms. Magazine in September/October 1999.) "You look like youre dressed for summer," says Alice Walker, skeptically, to a shorts-clad visitor who arrives at her majestic, 40-acre retreat in northern California. For Walker, who grew up in the blistering heat of rural Georgia, the mid-60s isnt anywhere close to her idea of warm. Indeed, bundled up in a black and gray striped shirt, crimson V-neck sweater, black pants and boots, Walker looks as if shes ready to curl up in front of a roaring fire. A friend from Hawaii, tanned and bright-eyed, is similarly attired except that her pants are a dazzling green; a green that mirrors the rolling, tree-blanketed vista that extends for miles outside the window of Walkers luxuriant kitchen--which is where she and I settle after her friend excuses herself. Sipping cups of ginseng tea, we sit at a gleaming wooden table that is adorned with a vase of peach-colored lilies. The petals of the flowers are fully open, making them appear as if theyre flirting with a tall, leafy banana tree in an adjacent corner. "Im going to put it outside on the deck," says Walker, about the tree. "Maybe itll coax some heat over here." Heat? The woman wants heat? Well, she can count on fire. Because fiery emotions are sure to be evoked in readers of Walkers stunning new novel, By the Light of My Fathers Smile (Random House). A passionate, richly detailed celebration of sexuality, By the Light... is by far Walkers most erotic novel. Moreover, the complex, multinarrated story, which is set in Mexico, features a ghost father who, from his spiritual perch, watches the rapturous lovemaking of his daughter. As such, Walker knows that By the Light... is likely to provoke a riot of Bible-thumping outrage. But if anythings clear after examining the life of the Pulitzer prizewinning author of The Color Purple, its that shes no shrinking violet. In fact, readers and reviewers could have predicted what was to come by taking a close look at Walkers first book, Once, a collection of poetry published in 1968. The title poem features a stanza that reads: One day in Georgia Working around the Negro section My friend got a letter in the mail --the letter said "I hope youre having a good time fucking all the niggers." "Sweet." I winced. "Who wrote it?" "mother." she said. Considering her literary beginnings as a black woman writer who came out of the block breaking taboos, is it any surprise that thirty years and twenty-two books later, Walker, one of the most censored writers in the U.S., still gets people upset? People like a reviewer of her 1989 novel, The Temple of My Familiar, who denounced the book, calling it a "pantheistic plea, lesbian propaganda, a hootchie-cootchie dance to castration." On that note, heres a bit of advice for folks wishing to spare themselves grief: Alice Walker is never going to conform. Youd best get with the hootchie-cootchie. The youngest of eight children, Walker was reared by struggling tenant farmers who, she says, themselves never uttered an off-color remark, despite the indignities they suffered in the Jim Crow South. She entered Spelman College in Atlanta on full scholarship in 1961 and later transferred up north to Sarah Lawrence in Bronxville, New York, graduating in January 1966. Continuing the civil rights activism that marked her college years, Walker returned to the South, where she was involved in voter registration drives and campaigns for welfare rights and childrens programs in Mississippi. While there, she met and later married a white civil rights lawyer. Upon taking their vows, they became the first legally married interracial couple in Mississippi--a union that brought them a steady stream of taunts, harassment, and murderous threats from the Ku Klux Klan. Undeterred by burning crosses and firebombs, Walker continued to pen groundbreaking literature that chronicled the condition of black women--novels and books of poetry such as The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Meridian, and Revolutionary Petunias. Divorced (amicably), and the mother of daughter Rebecca, Walker worked in New York as an editor for Ms. before moving to northern California in the late 1970s. Already a prolific and highly respected writer, she became internationally known in the 1980s with the publication of The Color Purple and its subsequent film release. The calm, contemplative life Walker has created (typical days will find her tending the artichokes, strawberries, and collard greens in her magnificent garden) has given rise to an ever-expanding cornucopia of novels, stories, essays, and poems. In recent years, she has turned her eye to topics as varied as the Million Man March, Michael Jackson, female genital mutilation, Winnie Mandela, Native American rights, and the injustice of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. Indeed, speaking recently about her admiration for Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Walker proclaimed: "Whats not to like about the man? If Fidel could dance, hed be perfect!" As evidenced by her new novel, Alice Walker, at age fifty-four, is a sassy, sensuous woman who maintains a passion and hopefulness about life that she seeks to impart to all who cross her path. Witness the neighbor who arrives midway through our conversation. A native of Alabama, the woman is also dressed in long pants and immediately launches into a lament about the "chill" in the air. Hoping to lift her spirits, Walker directs the woman to her kitchen window, from where they both gaze longingly at a huge swimming pond in the meadow below. "Do you think its going to get hot enough for us to go in?" asks the woman in a plaintive voice that belies her fifty-plus years. "Honey, yes," Walker replies assuredly, "were going to be peeling off these pants soon." By the Light of My Fathers Smile is your first novel in six years. What prompted such an overtly sexual theme? At the end of the novel theres a poem that says "When life descends into the pit / I must become my own candle / willingly burning myself / to light up the darkness around me." Because theres no sense of safety anywhere, no place we feel we can go thats not polluted or poisoned, for a lot of people life has pretty much fallen into the pit. When I was working on my last novel, Possessing the Secret of Joy, I realized that sexuality is the place where life has definitely fallen into the pit for women. The only way well ever change that is by affirming, celebrating, and acknowledging sexuality in our daily lives. Women must begin to write more truthfully about the profound mystery of sex. I think that race is also a mystery. Which is to say that neither can be fully comprehended except as deeply mysterious expressions through which we can learn profound lessons about life. It is almost impossible not to learn something about yourself in the sexual act. So its important for women to be alert to the spiritual growth and self-discovery they can attain by paying close attention to their sexuality. I was also thinking about how organized religion has systematically undermined and destroyed the sexual and spiritual beliefs of millions of indigenous people. There have been people on earth who didnt think about sex the way white, Western men do. It is very painful to think that the "missionary position," which reinforces patriarchal, male dominance over women, was forced upon people who once loved having women freely express their sexuality, whether they were on the top or bottom. Given the prevalence of patriarchal repression of female sexuality, what was the process you had to go through to get to the extremely erotic language in your book? I think the process started with wanting myself. Women have to understand that regardless of who does not want us, we have to want ourselves. Then we can begin to see and appreciate other women and the amazing possibilities of self-love and acceptance we can find in our union with each other. We can sit back and wait for men to love us until we are blue in the face, but since I loved women already, I decided, why wait? There is also a place of humility that comes from really understanding that we have all entered this plane through the legs of a woman. And that it is a holy place. My love of women intensified during all those years I researched female genital mutilation and thought about women holding down other women and girls to destroy that holy and profoundly sacred temple. I feel this novel is connected to Possessing the Secret of Joy because after writing about the debasement and sheer hatred of female sexuality, my spirit needed to write about the joy, the pleasure, promise, and growth. And I wanted to show how women can grow in a relationship with each other. By no means am I saying that such a relationship is smooth sailing. It definitely isnt, but there are some incredible lessons that can be learned. What did you learn about yourself while writing the novel? That I am completely scandalous, rebellious, and stubborn! All my parts were telling me to write this book because it feels like a medicine for the times. Now, I could be terribly wrong. But with AIDS, weve reached a point where sex is scary for most people. We have lost the sexual spontaneity that most of us thought would be ours forever. That is a major loss. The youth are scared to make love and scared not to. With all the taboos about speaking openly of the sexual experiences of black women, was there also immense satisfaction for you in crossing this boundary? Yes, breaking out is probably what I do best. it seems to me that there is so much joy going on between women that is happening as we live, simultaneously, in a death-dealing culture. It is very joyful to write about this reality. This novel will probably turn you into a sex guru. Are you prepared for that? (Laughs) Yes. What is some of the advice youd offer to women searching for sexual bliss? Self-love is the first and hardest rule to stick by. Women need to not abandon themselves in their quest for bliss and love. You can love yourself spiritually, physically--in almost any way that anybody else can. I think that anatomically this is the reason were constructed the way we are. There are many years when women get caught up in reproductive sex. Its my experience that in their late forties and fifties, women arent that crazy about reproductive sex because its generally too late for us; its not that easy to conceive. But theres something at that point that Ive decided to call evolutionary sex. Its a sexuality that can be with women, men, or yourself. Its about exploring and expanding your bodily love and spiritual awareness. Thats a form of sex that is within the reach of everybody. You have an extraordinary reach and ability with characterization in your novels. Where did the characters in By the Light... come from? I do a lot of spiritual preparation, so the characters evolve from what feels like a state of grace. I also have a home in Mexico, and being there had a lot to do with it. Going there and trying to learn the language and meeting dark-skinned Mexicans got me thinking about African Americans and American Indians who came to Mexico to find freedom. I was really struck at one point that, while I dont live in Mexico all the time, Id done the same thing. I had been chased to Mexico to find peace and freedom. Id always wanted to go deeper into what it means to be black and Indian. In the novel, I create a band of people, the Mundo, who are neither African nor Indian, but a blend. The spirit I had to go by in creating this culture is essentially mine. Its a reflection of how I think things should be rather than how theyve been. Because when we look at the mess the patriarchy has made of the planet, its clear that were on the wrong path. We know that matriarchal societies existed before. Its important that we start thinking about ancient future ways, because this way is not working. On the other hand, it may be that the whole world is gasping its last breath. As one of the characters in the novel says about black and Indian people, the dominant Western thought has been that were all vanishing. And it seems as if millions of us are being wiped out every minute. But that doesnt mean that the white men are going to be happy by themselves. Because what theyll have left is a planet that theyve ruined, with no idea of how to heal it. In the novel, the ancestral spirit father witnesses and comments upon the sexual blossoming of his daughters. How did this narrative approach come to you? Again, its my belief, based on my own self, that what women want most is to be blessed in our sexuality by our parents. As women, I believe wed especially like to be blessed by our fathers. In that blessing, wed like the father to know everything about us, just like when we were born, and to love us still. We want them to love what we love and bless what we bless. The only way to show that clearly was to have him witness the sexuality of his children. In the culture of the Mundo, whatever mess youve made during life, you have to come back and deal with after you die. So in coming back, the father gets to witness his daughters sexual behavior. Dont you think a lot of people are going to think this is heresy, given the sexually abusive role some fathers have played in their daughters lives? Well, its time for the fathers to deal with the hypocrisy of their own sexual behavior and to extend themselves to their daughters in a positive way. The worst fear many of these men have regarding their daughters sexuality is that the young women are having a great time. And Im here to tell you that many of them are. So get over it, and be there for them. Any words for the forces that might want to continue the tradition of trying to ban your books? Actually, I started to put a message in this one telling those people not to even let the children see it. Its O.K. with me. I know there are going to be people who will have a fit. But these are the selfsame people who every day for the last six months have been reading about the presidents semen on this young girls dress. The hypocrisy of it is astounding. When women get to be adults and elders, its time for us to speak honestly about the issues that have been shrouded in hypocrisy and murkiness. Is that how you see yourself now, as an elder? In the ancient Cherokee tradition, you become an adult when youre fifty-two. I see myself as being between that point and the beginning of the elder state. Im definitely in the place of speaking on these issues. There is nothing more important than looking at sexuality with honesty and open-heartedness. Our children are continuing to get pregnant when theyre very young. Theyre having unsafe sex--we know this because theyre having babies. The HIV rate among young black people is climbing rapidly. I feel that the heart of our dilemma as a culture and as a people is sex. I think that many fathers have not known that they could have a positive role in sanctioning their daughters sexuality. How do you think your novel will help such fathers? They need to know how deeply their daughters are wounded by their apparent incomprehension that their daughters have sexual feelings. I think young girls are hurt when they come to understand that just because they are female, their fathers dont believe they have sexual passions or interests. Meanwhile, they get to watch their brothers be encouraged to go out and sow wild oats and be affirmed in their manhood. Its a painful place for young women to be. Because we live in a patriarchal system, most men havent thought much about what they can do to deal with this, other than to try to keep their daughters home; to make them feel really bad for going out and having a sexual life. I think they should be made aware of the tenderness that is required from fathers in raising daughters. They should embrace the whole female child in a way that makes her feel affirmed in her body. Do you think the reason more fathers dont relate to their daughters in this way is because of the fears of being accused of sexual impropriety, especially because there have been so many instances of that? The fathers have to assume that these girl children, to whom theyve given birth, inherit intelligence and can understand what is said to them. It then becomes imperative for fathers to talk to them about sexual matters and to be honest, loving, and patient. Fathers need to teach young women what is out there. The reason you see so many women become the victims of doggish men is because their fathers have not told them anything except that if you go out and do such and such, youre a slut and no daughter of mine. That is not helpful. At this late date, it also encourages disease and death. My novel is really a call to fathers to stand with their daughters and help protect them in a world where they are vulnerable. If a child has a strong mother, shes very lucky. But barring that, she gets faulty information and easily becomes a victim. What role should mothers or the female partners of men play in this? Both parents should talk to both genders because what happens now simply upholds the patriarchy. The man gets to tell the boy to be the aggressor. The system has already told the woman that she is to submit. We need to break this. Parents need to understand that they made their children together. One is male, the other is female, but they are not that different spiritually. All this talk about how a man cant talk to his daughter about menstruation...well, please. By the time men have slept with women for say, thirty years, theyve seen as much menstrual blood as the women have. So again, get over it. Dont try to hide behind that one. You recently made your fourth trip to Cuba. How was that? I first went to Cuba in 1978 with a contingent of artists, writers, and musicians. Some of the older white Cubans retained racist feelings that were conveyed to us with a certain condescension and stiffness. We asked about the treatment of gay people in Cuba and were told that they werent allowed to teach or become doctors. This was very upsetting. It was as if youd met this really beautiful person who had one aspect of them that wasnt, and it just made your heart ache. But these feelings were something we knew we could work with them on, and we have. Gay people in Cuba arent subjected to that discrimination now. I remember the people of color being full of life. Ive since returned to bring medical aid. I could see at one point how the economic embargo had brought poverty to the people and made them down-hearted. It was the closest to defeat Id ever seen the Cuban people and it wasnt clear that theyd survive. But it was clear that if they went down, theyd do so with their integrity and dignity intact. Recently, since Ive made a commitment to defend Cuba and educate people about the revolution and the countrys culture, I felt it was important to go to places I hadnt visited before. I asked writer Margaret Randall, who lived in Cuba for many years, to act as a translator for my partner, Zelie, and me. We were treated so sweetly by the people. Wherever we went there were performances. We visited Che Guevaras crypt and met his children and widow. I loved seeing the extensive organic farms the Cubans have cultivated. They are good models for small, developing countries that want to maintain an independent food supply. Im so grateful to see a place on the planet where there are people whose hearts havent been shriveled by hatred or greed. The Cuban Revolution made great strides in creating equality for women. What are your feelings about what appears to be a reemergence of prostitution in the country? I think the young women are extremely naive. They have been educated and protected by the revolution from such things. Consequently, many of them have an arrogance about their own bodies that perhaps makes them think that they are immune to and exempt from AIDS. I am very afraid for them. When I see older white men with these primarily young, educated women of color, it is hard on the spirit. The women are too naive and inexperienced to know that they are engaging in an ancient system that oppresses women. They think of what theyre doing as a lark because it enables them to get a new tube of lipstick or some shampoo. But its very dangerous for them. The governor of New Jersey has offered a huge reward for the return of Assata Shakur, who is in exile in Cuba. As you know, she was imprisoned in the U.S. in the 1970s for her alleged involvement in a shoot-out that left a state patrolman dead. What are your feelings about Assata? I take her word that she didnt kill the man. Cuba permitted her to have a life, but she is still unable to be with her family and friends. To put a bounty on her head is evil. Assata Shakur is a great human being. She should be left in peace and happiness. Any attempt to make her suffer is utterly demonic. What other passions do you have going on these days? Im eager to learn more about the sovereignty movement in Hawaii. People should know that Hawaii is a country and should be respected as such. Because it was forcibly annexed to the United States does not mean that it is the U.S., except by conquest. A masterpiece on decolonization has been written by Haunani Trask, one of Hawaiis most famous and fierce Hawaii-loving poets. It is called From a Native Daughter. This book is so powerful, it will change the way you think about Hawaii, and all lands seized by force, forever. Besides that, Im beginning to be very passionate about being a homebody. Im not going to be doing any more lectures or readings beyond the ones Ive already agreed to do. Im going to curtail my travel after this book tour. Ive also become very interested in heirloom seeds. These are seeds that are not artificial hybrids, but are open-pollinated, and that have been collected by people who are trying to preserve the seed pool. The seed companies are rapidly corralling all the seeds. By using heirloom seeds we make it possible for people to continue to grow fruits and vegetables without relying on the seed companies. Im also going to be initiating healing circles and womens and elders councils on the land. These circles wont be designed to solve any problems, but for us to connect with each other and get grounded. Each circle will eventually connect with other circles around the globe so that, over time, well get a stronger sense of who we are, as just regular people, in the world. Were not going to do any conflict resolution. One of the things we may have to acknowledge at this point is that the earth could be entering its death struggle. We will have to try to be present as loving, compassionate earthlings. I see the circles and councils as ways to share consciousness. This is an idea that many people are having at this time. It seems to be a spontaneous response to the situation were in. Many people are aware that we are in peril and that there is no trustworthy leadership. Its important to comfort and be with each other during this time because so many people are alone. That really shouldnt be, but thats where this culture has brought us, to loneliness and isolation. I see a lot of isolation among so-called successful people, especially among African American women. How do you think this came to pass? We integrated into a system where loneliness is the norm. In the past, we became part of the industrial revolution, and now in the present, part of the corporate era, both of which put money and jobs first. Weve sacrificed community. Thats what the circles can give back to us. We can "be" rather than "do," because we can see now that all the "doing" doesnt bring happiness. It just makes for exhaustion, depletion, loneliness, and fear. So its time to slow down, sit down, and meditate. And join with others from a place of centeredness and calm. Does this come from your Buddhist practice? For the last few years Ive studied Tonglen. It is basically a practice of breathing in pain, fear, and darkness, and breathing out what youd rather the world had. Im concentrating on this one practice because it is useful in opening the heart. Whats happening with all the heart disease is that peoples emotions are getting locked in a tight heart. We need help from the ancient teachings to show us how to stretch and open our hearts. Is it ever frightening to breathe in the fear and pain? Yes, it gets very scary. One night I thought I was dying because I felt as if a herd of horses was running over my heart. I made the decision to just stay with it, and keep breathing and relaxing my heart. I also accepted that they might just run over me and that I wouldnt get up. Id die. As it turned out, my heart was O.K. It opened wide. There are many ancient practices that we should avail ourselves of so that we can address whatever constrictions we might have. Buddhism has been especially helpful to me because it affirms the necessity for quiet; compassion over anger; being over doing. It encourages people to accept life in its totality, not just the good parts. Im sure there are those who look at your life and your literary career and cant imagine that there are many bad parts. The good parts are only really good because you have the bad parts. Otherwise, you wouldnt know the difference. You wouldnt be quite so a Read More