Flowers & Quilts: Metaphors Of Black Woman Culture In Walker's Short Stories

Alice Walker is one of the most influential figures among American black women writers. With various styles and profound motifs, her works have strong power. As an integral part of her creation, her short stories on one hand continue Walker's novel creation through penetrating into the inner world of the black women struggling in adversity, and on the other hand condense Walker's ideas about black woman culture and show her praise for the creativity of black women and her concern for the African black tradition.The creativity of black women is mainly embodied in the "silenced" artistic forms of planting flowers, collecting herbs, and making quilts. Walker's short stories describe these rich and colorful traditional activities vividly and uncover the metaphysical connotation in these forms on purpose for search of the matrilineal tradition in black literature. "Flowers" and "quilts" are two central metaphors in many stories. "Flowers" is often used to symbolize the black women of different ages and characteristics. They can intercommunicate with nature represented by flowers, which bestows black woman culture with special magic power. "Quilts" is another typical embodiment for black woman culture with profound meaning. These activities represented by quilting, display fully the extraordinary creativity of black women and the artistic quality of black woman culture.The thesis tries to probe into several of Walker's short stories, focus on the two central metaphors of "flowers" and "quilts" in order to reveal Walker's ideas of black woman culture.