The Contrast of Virginia Woolf and Alice Walker Essay

Events in history have influenced writers’ style, and the importance in their stories. Alice Walker wrote a novel which was very much subjective by the time period of the 1940’s. There was a great deal of bigotry and tyranny during that time, particularly for Women of color. Women were mentally and physically abused and belittled by man purely because of their race and femininity. Women were considered as ignorant individuals that simply knew how to handle housework and care for the children.

    I chose to compare and contrast two women authors from different literary time periods.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) as a representative of the Victorian age (1832-1901) and Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) as the spokeswoman for the Modernist (1914-1939) mindset.  Being women in historical time periods that did not embrace the talents and gifts of women; they share many of the same issues and themes throughout their works - however, it is the age in which they wrote that shaped their expressions of these themes.  Although they lived only decades apart their worlds were remarkably different - their voices were muted or amplified according to the beat of society's drum.

Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on the twenty-fifth of January, 1882. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen and her mother, Julia Princep Stephen, were both previously married

Virginia Woolf and Frederick Douglass are two significant writers who suffered from inequalities. Specifically, in, “A Room of One’s Own”, Virginia Woolf focuses on exposing the unequal treatment of women to the eye of the public, and in “A Narrative of the Life of Frederick” Frederick Douglass wrote an autobiography, which revealed the unjust of society toward African Americans and hoped to achieve more rights. Frederick Douglass and Virginia Woolf both lived in a white male dominated society which restricts opportunities for African Americans and women. The severity of their inequities made these two writers dealt with their situations differently. Although, aiming to help two unalike groups of individuals, Frederick Douglass and Virginia Woolf were able to find a way to fight for a similar cause. Therefore, these two influential writers were able to use their talent in literacy to expose inequalities in their society and spread information to their readers in order to create a change in the way people are perceived.

Walker chose not to include whites in this poem, though african americans are not explicitly mentioned either. She leaves it up to the reader to understand the racial context of the poem. Absent are all but the group she refers to in her opening couplet, “They were women once/My mama’s generation.” By only introducing the reader to one agent the author makes clear her intention; to depict the agency of black women living under Jim Crow. Walker sets out to depict black women as resilient, and noble warriors for a just cause.

All the authors were talking about a common problem, which is racism. Each of the writer’s had his own unique way of showing how people got abused just by their sex or by their skin color. Woolf talked about racism against females in the 1700’s by telling her readers to imagine Shakespeare’s sister at that time. Back in that time, females were prohibited to be creative what so ever, and their jobs were to raise kids and care for their husbands only. When Women disobeyed that they were beaten and considered as shameful and that they are bringing disgrace to their families. When women tried to be like men, and write books or be actresses like Shakespeare’s sisters, they ended up facing problems emotionally and psychologically. Furthermore, most

Adams, Timothy Dow, Mary A. Blackmon, and Holly L. Norton. “Alice Walker.” Critical Survey ​of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-10. Literary Reference Center. Web. 11 Feb.​​ 2017. In a biographical essay written Alice Walker, Timothy Adams speaks on the idea ​that change and personal triumph are possible despite the odds is central to all of Walker’s ​writing. The author states that Walker work focuses directly or indirectly on the ways of ​survival adopted by black women, usually in the South, and is presented in a prose style ​characterized by a distinctive combination of lyricism and unflinching realism.​Walker uses her writing to

Also, what is interesting is the similarities of their grammatical writing styles. As Walker describes the women of the post-Reconstruction South, she uses many literary devices. One abnormally short paragraph, "Our mothers and grandmothers, some of them moving to music not yet written. And they waited" (Walker 695), which seems very incorrect as far as grammar is concerned, leaves me as a reader puzzled at why she writes this paragraph so isolated. It has some meaning to it without a doubt. "Moving to music not yet written" is a powerful way to stress how ahead of their time some of these women

As an African- American novelist, short–story writer, essayist, poet, critic, and editor, Alice Walker’s plethora of literary works examines many aspects of African American life as well as historical issues that are further developed by Walker’s unique point of view. Writers like Alice Walker make it possible to bring words and emotions to voices and events that are often silenced. Far from the traditional image of the artist, she has sought what amounts to a personal relationship with her readers. She has also taken positions of passionate advocacy, most notably in her campaign against ritual genital mutilation of young women, a practice still institutionalized in many parts of the world, as well as

The most striking thing about this well-known passage is how single minded Woolf is when it comes to different perspectives. Throughout the novel Woolf describes how women have been suppressed by men in their lives, in politics, and in society. Yet, the only avenue she discusses this through is literature. I understand that is her format, but she seems so condescending towards those who are barred from education. She claims that genius never touches the poor, or does in only rare occasions. That phrase lead me to believe that she thinks these people do not need to be provided education because of their class status. Woolf discusses “different perspectives”, but she is talking strictly about the different perspectives of white, upper-middle

Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen on the twenty-fifth of January, 1882. Her father, Sir Leslie Stephen and her mother, Julia Princep Stephen, were both previously

Alice Walker wrote the poem “Women” in honor of her mother, which is why I chose it as my subject. Walker writes about the strength of her mother and all women in her generation in the face of hardship and unfairness. The poem focuses on women who face adversity and danger for school segregation to end in the south. Walker uses imagery and paradox to help emphasize the importance of the poem.

“In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” written by Alice Walker refers to three points in the essay: the first is black women writers, second is the Civil Rights Movement, and the third is her own advice for future generations of women. Walker uses the poem from Jean Toomer as an example to show the black women from Reconstruction of the South time period. The women are slaves and kept in their places. They have little hope of their own freedoms of choice, speech, or livelihood. Phillis Wheatley is an example of how women can overcome their situations and indeed have freedom of creativity. She chose writing and the women that have learned

Virginia Woolf’s personal approach to her essay engages the audience with a first-hand experience of women’s writing. Through the narrator she creates, Mary Beton, she describes events that many women can relate to. When Mary is at Oxford, she finds herself “walking with extreme rapidity across a grass plot. Instantly a man’s figure rose to intercept me” (Woolf, 2017). This interaction signifies the interruptions that women have to face in order to be successful writers. The man who stops her is a symbol of all the people who think that men are better writers than women. Even if women cannot directly relate to being put down as a writer, they can relate to being a woman in a male dominated society. Woolf’s audience is all women schools so the kairos of the situation is that she is speaking to young women who have

Women artists were not given much respect for their artwork, despite its excellence or level of expertise, during the 19th century. Society placed stigmas and restrictions on women, preventing them from rising to the top and receiving the credit that they truly deserved. Virginia Woolf, one of the most gifted modernist writers, wrote a book titled Shakespeare’s Sister where she details the struggles and encounters that gifted women faced during this time. In this novel, Woolf attempts to shed light on talented women and bring them to the center in a world that had restricted them to preset margins. In response to Woolf, African American novelist Alice Walker wrote In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens to offer a theory of black female creativity. Though Walker agrees that all gifted women faced troubles when attempting to express themselves creatively, she argues that African American and Caucasian women faced different types struggles due to their race. Nevertheless, though they sometimes differ and are sometimes similar, Woolf and Walker both offer an in depth analysis of a gifted woman, struggling to share her talents with the world.