Analysis Of Alice Walker 's ' The Rights Of Equality, Opportunity, And Freedom

The short story, “Everyday Use,” by Alice Walker takes place in 1960’s America, at the height of the Civil Rights movement. The story centers on an African-American woman and her relationship with her two daughters, mainly her oldest, Dee. In “Everyday Use,” Dee and her mother struggle to understand each other's differing views on what it means to be black in America. When we first meet Dee, she gets out of the car with her friend, Asalamalakim, tells Mama and Maggie, “Wasuzo-Teano,” and reveals that she has a new name.

Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.

Through out history, Americans have fought for the rights of freedom in their country, freedoms that have been passed down through dozen’s of generations. Freedom’s such as religion, speech, press, slavery and the right to vote. Americans, though very aware of their freedoms, often take them for granted and forget the struggles that their ancestors went through to obtain them. One example of this struggle is a woman’s right to be treated and looked upon by the government as equals. This was not an easy battle to win, and it took a strong few to begin to bring the struggle that women had faced for centuries to an end.

In today’s society, people believe women have the same rights as men, especially after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, which outlawed “discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin” and was amended in 1975 to include the word “sex”.(“Teaching With Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission”). The word “sex” was added at the last moment. America does not promise an equal outcome for everybody, but America was founded on the idea that everybody should have an equal opportunity to achieve their dreams. America is the home of freedom, the home of many opportunities, and the home of equality, but we are not where we should be? Many citizens of America are unaware of the unequal

Looking back with a historical lens, it’s evident that the fight for women’s rights has progressed in a step wise process. The nineteenth amendment opened a new door of opportunities for women to take advantage of. In modern times, the continued push for equal rights is evident through the fight for reproductive rights and equal pay. Even with the right to vote, women are still being under represented and out of control when it comes to their reproductive rights and in the workplace. Opposing beliefs regarding feminism have prevented the progression of more gender equality in the United States. What originally started as a plea for a political voice helped to shape the history of the nation. Women’s suffrage paved the way for countless groups and further feminist

In the early 1800’s, when the new nation was beginning to form, the young nation’s founding fathers began to shape a new country to free the oppressed Europeans who found a taste of freedom. However that freedom only went so far, for our founding fathers and authors of the U.S Constitution, managed to create a gender biased society and only managed to exclude an entire gender from the new hope they created. By this time, the development in the young country and the expansion of the American economy had begun. This meant that there were jobs available for people who wanted to earn a living to feed their families. Unfortunately, due to the law and what it represented, only Caucasian men could work outside of their homes to bring back some income to feed their families. Unfortunately for the next 200 years, several of the nation’s mothers, sisters and wives were engaged in a battle against society and social norms, as they begun to turn against the status quo, by demanding equal rights, such as the right to vote. Their eyes opened to the oppression around them and they sought change. However they faced obstacles such as social rejection. They were considered too frail and less intelligent to handle jobs and involvement in the government, which were considered ‘a man’s work’. Several influential women such as Alice Paul thought differently and made it their goal to encourage society to rethink about the role of a woman.

Gender inequality has engulfed the United States and placed copious varying roles onto the male and female sexes. According to Leila Aboulela, Minaret, “All through life there were distinctions - toilets for men, toilets for women; clothes for men, clothes for women - then, at the end, the graves are identical.” Discrimination places women into different roles and takes away numerous privileges. However in America today after more than a century of struggles by dedicated activists who fought to alter these ideals and gain further rights, the perception of women in society and their contributions to society have been greatly transformed.

Sexism in the United States has affected the country greatly. The idea that the world is a “man’s world” has been apparent since the writing of the Declaration of Independence. In The Declaration of Independence, it states that all people “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”(Declaration of Independence). By this, the framers were hopeful that all humans would get these “unalienable Rights”, yet because of sexism women do not get these rights. In The Grapes of Wrath, women are shown to be less than men. It is stated that “Women and children knew deep in themselves that no misfortune was too great to bear if their men were whole” (Steinbeck 4). By this statement, the reader is told that as long as the men were okay,

     Alice Walker is an African American essayist, novelist and poet. She is described as a “black feminist.”(Ten on Ten) Alice Walker tries to incorporate the concepts of her heritage that are absent into her essays; such things as how women should be independent and find their special talent or art to make their life better. Throughout Walker’s essay entitled “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” I determined there were three factors that aided Walker gain the concepts of her heritage which are through artistic ability, her foremothers and artistic models.

Since the dawn of American culture, women have been oppressed. Due to inequalities in the hierarchy of social power, women have been targeted for discrimination. However, women have not sat quietly and let the “man” dictate their lives. Through movement raised through women of all cultures, change has come to all American women. Racism, homophobia and classism created hardships for the American women who rebled through reproductive justice organizations, anarcho-syndicalism, and embracement of their sexual orientation. These helped efforts created the foundation that we live in today and continues to inspire and mold the environment .

Despite having changed the views on women in war and women in medicine, Dr. Walker has received little recognition for her role in the Women’s Rights Movement. In honor of Dr. Mary Walker’s service to both women and our country, I propose a monument to be erected in remembrance of this female physician and women’s rights enthusiast. Dr. Mary Walker paved the way for female physicians as the second female to graduate from Medical School in the United States and she challenged the societal norms that confined women to certain jobs and to certain clothing. Dr. Mary Walker remained true to her values and is worthy of remembrance for her service and her legacy. I propose a statue to be created in remembrance of this female figure to

Sojourner Truth’s “Ain't I A Woman” Speech is a very symbolic address to women’s rights of her time. Among the eyes of many, women were not held to the same standards as men when it came to working, voting, and property rights. Truth felt this speech would be a great way to get people to accept women as being equal to all others. Truth’s speech highlights how the people’s understanding of what a woman can do is very limited and the many different context in which women lives are different. Truth wants the world to know that women are just as intelligent and strong as everyone else (men), and they should be held to the same standards and have equal rights. Although women's rights have progressed over the years, optimism regarding the furtherment of women’s rights is still prevalent among communities.

Alice Walker's short fictional story, "Nineteen Fifty-five", revolves around the encounters among Gracie Mae Still, the narrator, and Traynor, the "Emperor of Rock and Roll." Traynor as a young prospective singer purchases a song from Mrs. Still, which becomes his "first hit record" and makes him rich and famous. Yet, he does not "even understand" the song and spends his entire life trying to figure out "what the song means." The song he sings seems as fictional as certain events in this story, but as historical as Traynor's based character, Elvis Presley.

Walker tells a story of a young African American woman from Mississippi who is about to escape poverty and disgrace by marrying a man she barely knows, a Muslim from the North. Roselily has three children already when she marry 's her husband. Walker describes her as a woman with respect and compassion. This analysis will talk about Roselily during her poverty times, her marriage, and how she came to understand the changes in her life. Roselily did not understand a lot of things, however as time passed, she developed into a beautiful woman who came from poverty, and moved out of poverty by making some strong and powerful decisions. Decisions that made her life a better one. Throughout Roselily, Alice Walker uses mood, time and place in the setting to craft her story eloquently and effectively. This analysis will analyze the setting and the theme.

Throughout the U.S history, women have fought a long journey in order to be treated fairly and equally. When women arrived to this country, they were seen as housewives who only served their families, nothing less and nothing more. As time progressed, many women started to disagree with the idea of being just housewives and believed they were capable of many great things such as having the right to vote, and being able to work outside of home. Eventually, it started to create inequalities of the legal statuses of men and women. Around the mid-nineteenth century, the women’s right movement started bringing controversial