The Wholeness Of Survival In Alice Walker’s Poetry

As one of the most eloquent black woman writer in America, Alice Walker, though best known for her most famous novel The Color Purple, is a versatile and productive writer in poetry, novel, essay and short story. Walker’s poetry, the beginning of her literary career, brings a wide array of historical and cultural information to her work.Based on the study of Her Blue Body Everything We Know:Earthling Poems, 1965-1990 Complete (1991) and Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth (2003) the thesis aims to discover the Walker’s thought of the wholeness of survival in four aspects: Individual survival; Gender politics; Racial survival and the vision of survival.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is the introductory part, containing the introduction to Alice Walker and her poetry, literature review and the structure of the thesis. The second chapter presents the living condition of the black individuals from children to grown-ups, and their desire to find their way to gain a proper survival in the society in order to reveal Walker’s reflection on the African American individuals’survival. Walker holds that black individuals might gain their way to survival through resisting the cold violence with a reversed attitude or to cherish everything belongs to themselves, even though it might be looked down upon.; The third chapter focuses on the Walker’s womanism which includes the current conditions of black women who are regarded as the mule in the world and their longing and efforts for salvation. Only through self-actualization and masking efforts to fight for themselves can they find their own way to survive; The fourth part goes to Walker’s voice for the racial survival of the whole race of African Americans in American society, which reveals Walker’s reflection that the survival of the whole race needs to be realized through the efforts of everyone of the race as well as the firm belief; the fifth chapter mainly discusses the vision of survival-two places which bear the best wishes for living and survival-Africa, where the racial roots lie and the American South, homeland for African Americans in American society. The last part of the thesis is the conclusion part. The thesis discusses the wholeness of survival from the individuals to the whole race, and also the vision of survival. The race of African Americans have endured immeasurable misery, but still tough enough to hold firm belief and best wishes for the wholeness of survival.