Mother-Daughter Relationships In Alice Walker's 'Drenched In Light'

This essay will explore the relation between feminism and how it corresponds with race. ​Clare, an African American character in Nella Larsen’s Passing, referred to a comment made by her racist white husband, saying that “everything must be paid for” (Larsen, 71). Throughout the book, this comment was especially poignant in terms of passing. Crossing the color-line has always been risky. Passing, explores many facets of this hazardous practice. One critical aspect approached by this book is the gender differential that takes place in terms of crossing this color line. It easy to overlook this differential but a closer analysis reveals that the social and psychological costs of passing are higher for women than for men.

Marita’s inspiration for writing this book was from her mother telling her to not play in the sun in order to not get darker. This is a common phrase used within the black community that insinuates that having dark skin is not ideal. By telling her personal experiences of colorism, Marita gets the point across that colorism is real. Many of Marita’s friends are women with light-skin and by interviewing them, she finds that colorism not only affects dark-skinned women but also light-skinned women. Due to light-skinned women being preferred by men, some may feel that they are better than dark-skinned females.

In the short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the narrator commands a list of orders to her preadolescent daughter in one single sentence. The author includes figurative language to emphasize her points and demands upon her daughter. Although the mother is stern throughout the entire short story, it explains the type of relationship she shares with her daughter and the expectations she holds for her future. Kincaid expresses her expectations for her daughter through strict similes and powerful themes, in order to impact readers and deliver the importance of femininity.

In “Girl”, by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother is warning her daughter about what to expect, and how to act, in society. The story represents a time when the daughter knew that her mother loved her enough to spend the time to give her the advice, but is also emotionally distant. I believe this to be representative of Kincaid’s life, and how after her brother’s were born she felt that her mother did not have enough time for her.

The early 1900s was a very challenging time for Negroes especially young women who developed issues in regards to their identities. Their concerns stemmed from their skin colors. Either they were fair skinned due mixed heritage or just dark skinned. Young African American women experienced issues with racial identity which caused them to be in a constant struggle that prohibits them from loving themselves and the skin they are in. The purpose of this paper is to examine those issues in the context of selected creative literature. I will be discussing the various aspects of them and to aid in my analysis, I will be utilizing the works of Nella Larsen from The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Jessie Bennett Redmond Fauset,

To be a feminist is such a broad classification therefore it is divided into various subsections, in which Ruth Nicole associates herself with a group of feminism known as hip-hop feminism, in which I will thoroughly discuss within this essay. Ruth Nicole is a black woman that categorizes herself as a girl, by her definition a girl is far from independent. As well as a detailed discussion about the lived experiences of being and becoming in the body, which has been marked as youthful, Black, and female, along with the memories and representations of being female. As a result, Ruth Nicole wrote Black Girlhood Celebration in order to share her personal and political motivations of working with black girls within the community. A conversation

In the short story “Drenched in Light” by Zora Neale Hurston, the author appeals to a broad audience by disguising ethnology and an underlying theme of gender, race, and oppression with an ambiguous tale of a young black girl and the appreciation she receives from white people. Often writing to a double audience, Hurston had a keen ability to appeal to white and black readers in a clever way. “[Hurston] knew her white folks well and performed her minstrel shows tongue in cheek” (Meisenhelder 2). Originally published in The Opportunity in 1924, “Drenched in Light” was Hurston’s first story to a national audience.

Alice Walker is a very well-known and well respected author, she worked as a teacher, social worker, and lecturer, and took part in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Alice Walker’s life greatly impacted her monumental writing style, many of her stories have a young female character who is learning and maturing through different experiences such as the concept of death. Taking part in the Civil Rights Movement shows her bravery and that she will fight for what is right under all costs. This shows in her writing because her protagonists and usually very brave and strong through difficult times. Two famous short stories of Alice Walker are “The Flowers” and “To Hell with Dying”, although these stories have developed different

Drenched in Light” by Zora Neale Hurston, hints at several reasons for being to minstrelsy for the Harlem Renaissance, mainly because Isis embodies entertainment and stereotypes. The little girl, Isis, has a personality that hooks readers into the story. Everything about Isis is a way to keep the readers and everyone included in the story captivated. Thus, causing people to believe Isis is simply a puppet being controlled by the need to entertain everyone around her.

“I love the way Janie Crawford left her husbands,” begins one of Alice Walker’s poems, alluding to the heroine of Zora Neale Hurston’s iconic Their Eyes were Watching God. Following the perspective of a black female in the 1930s and more importantly, written by a black female in the 1930s, today, Hurston’s work is one of the most influential books from the post-Harlem Renaissance. What ultimately makes the narrative so compelling is that her characters resonate with culture and complexity. Through the complex, deeply intimate narrative, Hurston writes about what is personal to her, making her novel— and thus, her values— personal for her readers as well.

African American writers are bringing this issue out in addition to the same current day issues within their writing. For instance, The Color Purple touches on the hardships of African American women such as rape, abuse, neglect, sexism and beauty. Patton notes, “As much of the literature on African American women and beauty, has pointed out, African American women have either been the subject of erasure in the various mediated forms or their beauty has been wrought with racist stereotypes” (Patton 26). African American women wanted the obliteration of these negative stereotypes. Black women have been stereotyped as being angry, sexually inhibited, or deviant. The African American women were being compared to white women and in result, African American women were looked upon as sinful. Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple touches on these sensitive issues that came in history in the early eighteenth and nineteenth century but that people of modern day are also dealing

Alice Walker, a feminist and theorist, who in her book titled, In search of our mother’s garden: a womanist prose, analyzes the modern feminist movement. She argues that white women have been focusing on oppression in terms of gender while disregarding the issues of race, class and sexuality. Due to this, Walker created the definition of a womanist; "a black feminist or a feminist of color, a woman who is interested in learning and questioning all things. A womanist is a woman who loves other women both sexually and non-sexually, a woman who appreciates and prefers women's culture, strength and emotional flexibility" (Walker, 27). The term “womanism” describes a separation present in the feminist movement in which more black woman stood to fight against the oppression of the image of the black women. In 1989, Kimberlé Crenshaw published an article in which she re-introduced the idea of “intersectionality,” arguing that the oppressions faced by black women can be “multiple and simultaneous” (Crenshaw, 139). The importance of intersectionality was also taken in note by Patricia Hill

For centuries, women have had the role of being the perfect and typical house wife; needs to stay home and watch the kids, cook for husbands, tend to the laundry and chores around the house. In her short story Girl, Jamaica Kincaid give us a long one sentence story about a mother giving specific instructions to her daughter but with one question towards the end, with the daughters mother telling her daughter if she had done all the instructions to become a so called “perfect” woman, what man would not want her. Kincaids structuring in “Girl,” captures a demanding and commanding tone. This short story relates feminist perspectives. The mother expects a great deal from her daughter to have a certain potential and she does not hesitate to let her daughter understand it. As a matter of fact, the story is two pages long, made into one long sentence - and almost the whole time the mother is giving her daughter directions to follow - sends a message to the reader that the mother demands and expects great potential in her daughter. The daughter is forced to listen and learn from what her mother is telling her to do to be the perfect housewife. Throughout the story, Kincaid uses the symbols of house and clothing, benna and food to represent the means of becoming a young girl to a woman and being treated like one in society.

     The essay “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens” by contemporary American novelist Alice Walker is one that, like a flashbulb, burns an afterimage in my mind. It is an essay primarily written to inform the reader about the history of African American women in America and how their vibrant, creative spirit managed to survive in a dismal world filled with many oppressive hardships. This piece can be read, understood, and manage to conjure up many emotions within the hearts and minds of just about any audience that reads it. However, Walker targets African American women in today’s society in an effort to make them understand their heritage and appreciate what their mothers and

When reading Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” and “Everyday Use,” it is evident that she writes about her life through her use of allegory. Alice Walker uses the events of her childhood, her observation of the patriarchy in African American culture, and her rebellion against the society she lived in to recount her life through her stories. Alice Walker grew up in a loving household in the years towards the end of the Great Depression. Although her family was poor, they were rich in kindness and perspective and taught Walker a lot about her heritage and life.