An Analysis of Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"

Alice Walker's novel, The Color Purple, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982. This novel, in addition to her short story collections and other novels, continue to touch the emotions of a vast audience. This ability, according to critics, has "solidified her reputation as one of the major figures in contemporary literature" (Gwynn 462). Born to sharecroppers in Eatonton, Georgia, in 1944, Alice Walker's life was not always easy. Her parents strived to provide a home at a time when political and social unrest were at their highest. According to critic Barbara Christian, "[T]hat oppression fosters a sustaining spirit that appears in Walker's writing"

(Kimmich). Walker attended Spelman University in Atlanta, where she first became active in civil rights. She went on to graduate from Sarah Lawrence College. Her own experiences, including being blinded in one eye as a child and having an abortion...