Cite favorite passages with page numbers and discuss. Post your reflections and respond to other student responses. Don't forget to indicate your name and class time.
I handed out copies of the Literature Circle assignment, along with a copy of the English 1A rubric and a copy of Checklist for global revisions from Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers pp. 26-27 (5th edition).
Homework this evening is to read the MLK III assignment and be prepared to discuss it and write a brief reflection in class incorporating direct quotes and using MLA to cite the source in a brief works cited.
I handed out copies of the Literature Circle assignment, along with a copy of the English 1A rubric and a copy of Checklist for global revisions from Diana Hacker's Rules for Writers pp. 26-27 (5th edition).
Homework this evening is to read the MLK III assignment and be prepared to discuss it and write a brief reflection in class incorporating direct quotes and using MLA to cite the source in a brief works cited.
posted by Professor Wanda's Posse at 8:20 AM
49 Comments:
Rudy Gonzales
Mon.-Thurs. 8-9am
Pg. 64 The last part of Chapter 9
The passage begins, "Driven to the depot by her father, Alice left Eatonton..."
There was so much compassion and passion in this last section. I was overjoyed that the elders her in community collected $75 to help out Alice with college expenses. They truly believed in this little girl and they did as much as they could to make sure that nothing could hold her back. The compassion for each other was astounding.
When was the last time that you saw a community come together for the benefit of something/someone they believe in?
Alice's mother gave her "'three things she never owned herself'" (64). I felt the typewriter symbolized her freedom to write as much as she could, the sewing machine was to keep her a well groomed lady, and the suitcase "gave [her] permission to travel" (64).
What do you think these items sumbolized, if anything?
Or what 3 things would you get from your mother once you leave?
I also felt that the ending scene where Alice had to move to the back of the bus because a white woman wanted her seat at the front of the bus was a dramatic turning point for Alice's life of activism. As we have already read, "Alice was always real serious about her issues," (53).
Angelica Watson
English 1A 8-9am
February 4,2008
Sanford remembered, “We were in my parents’ car and Alice started talking about how unfair it was that we had to walk to school while the white kids had a bus; about how they constantly had their foot on our necks. I (Sanford) said we just had to accept it and there was o use in complaining. Alice got so mad at me that she demanded to be let out of the car. She dragged Tug out with her, telling him he should be ashamed to ride with me and they walked the rest of the way to work.
At that time Sanford being her boyfriend she was very upset that he would say something like that. She felt that black people shouldn’t have to put up with what the white people put out. I would have to agree with her being angry at him. When you are pouring your heart out about something that bothers you the last thing you want is for some one to give you negativity. Reading about Alice you already know that she is a very strong minded person. She wanted people to understand where her views came from. If she felt like someone was being ignorant she would also voice that too
Deon Johnson
English 1A 8-9
Chapter 2, page 9. “Few blacks spent much time discussing hatred of white people…” I chose this passage because I can relate to it, today. I feel like even today, blacks along with me spend much time discussing white people, and the negative energy they send towards blacks. Just the other day, my god-parents and I were walking through the mall, and this one white lady laugh and smile while saying, “I didn’t know blacks shop here;” we talk about that lady all day, we just could stop. The department store was Nordstrom’s, and the last time I check it wasn’t a white’s only store. I use to work for Nordstrom, and I started to think later on that night, I wonder did my white customer think I was there slave?
Is there any race, other than your own, that you discuses a lot, for whatever reason?
Dominique West
English 1A
Sabir 8-9
February 4, 2008
(Pg.50) In regards to Alice's eye after the surgery people could tell that her confidence went straight up. Not only was she it, but she was "hot stuff." You could tell that she felt so much better about herself even though everybody already felt as if Alice was still pretty even with the issue with her eye. What I think the surgery was about was self-esteem. Even if she was pretty by everyone else's standards she needed to feel it through herself. The only way she was going to be the same was if she felt it. And sure enough she did. Her confidence went right back up to where it was supposed to be if not higher.
(Pg. 59). It discusses the freedom that Alice was permitted due to do basically whatever she wanted in a sense because she was the last one to leave home. In my case I was the 1st one to leave home and I was able to do things I wasn't ordinarily able to do. Which is why I picked that passage. Being able to have the freedom you wanted for so long is wonderful in a sense.
Pg. 94) David DeMoss one of Alice's boyfriends make a comment basically saying that she felt enclosed at Spelman and that she needed something more. Alice was this carefree spirit who did and said what she wanted. No one was to oppress her or keep her down. And David felt like Spelman was doing just that to such a wonderful person. Alice needed to be somewhere where she didn't feel limited in what she was trying to do. Or in what she wanted. Spelman may have been a good school, but it wasn't where she needed to be in order to make take those huge steps she needed to take in order to make for a better her, community, culture and everything else that was going on at that time.
Deon Johnson
Respond to Rudy G.
My community, along with some others, came together to stop the killing, by paying guns back; it was around the MLK hoilday.
The 3 things that my mother would send me off with is:
1. Credit Card: For emergencies only.
2. A car: For me to travel back and forth, indicating that she wants to see me.
3. Pictures: cause she always joke, when i'm gone more than two days, that i better get back home before i forget how she and my family looks.
Rudy Gonzales
8-9am
Response to Deon J
Deon, I cannot believe that in today's day and age that people would still say such segregating comments that you mentioned. Once I read your posting, I immediately conjured all the images of the "Whites Only"/ "Blacks Only" signs before the Civil Rights Movement.
The quote that you typed goes against what you did all day. After reading the quote/passage in the book, blacks probably did not talk about the hatred of white people so much because they already had these preconveiced notions about them, "It was understood tgat tget were--generally-- vicious and unfair..." (9).
On the contrary, I am glad that you discussed it with your family, because if we do not try to understand why people say such comments we cannot go about changing the mentalities/attitudes of such people.
I am sorry that you had to hear such a degrading comment. Moreover, I shop at Nordstroms sometimes, and I am hispanic, i.e. a person of color, I also see asains shop there and many other nationalities. This store is not an "Only" anyone store, because if they were tayloring to a certain demographic I believe they would lose lots of profit.
Damien Jones
English 1A
9am-10am
In chapter 2 I found a passage that really hit home.Page 9 Said "Few blacks spent time discussing hatred of white people..". I think that at the time black people had more to talk about with eachother in order to improve the quality of life for all. Even today this is true. We all should spend less time talking about negative topics and focus on possitive ones.
Damien Jones
English 1A
9am-10am
Sanford remembered, “We were in my parents’ car and Alice started talking about how unfair it was that we had to walk to school while the white kids had a bus; about how they constantly had their foot on our necks. I (Sanford) said we just had to accept it and there was no use in complaining. Alice got so mad at me that she demanded to be let out of the car. She dragged Tug out with her, telling him he should be ashamed to ride with me and they walked the rest of the way to work." I can understand why she got so mad here.Everyone was dealing with the same problems and injustices so Stanford should have showed a little more compassinon because he too was part of the loop plus that was his girlfriend.
Damien Jone
English 1A
9am-10am
In response to Rudys' entry, Alice's mother gave her "'three things she never owned herself'" (64). I felt the typewriter symbolized her freedom to write as much as she could, the sewing machine was to keep her a well groomed lady, and the suitcase "gave [her] permission to travel" (64). All these things that seem so small now mean a whole lot when someone tells you you can't have it.To Alice I think it meant that times were changing and if she had these materials that at one time she couldn't dream of having it would show her ability, as well as other blacks ability to do the same things the white people said black people would never do.
Chris Flagg
English 1A
9am-10am
"...And daddy said 'My little girl's been hurt and I need to take her to the doctor.' The man gave daddy a dirty look and just drove off..." This quote is from the fourth paragraph on chapter 1,pg 7. It is a shame that people would turn away from some one who could be dying, but this is how out hospitals treat American citizens that don't have health insurance and wont be able to cover the bill right then.
Erica Marshall
English 1A M-Th 9-10
They say you are not for me,
and I try, in my resolved but
barely turning brain,
to know "they" do not matter
these relics of past disasters
in march against rebellion
of our time
They will fail;
as all the others have:
for our fate will not be this:
to smile and salute the pain,
to limp behind their steel boot
of happiness,
grieving for forbidden things.
This poem really touches base with me. It is so eloquently written, with such truth and meaning behind it. I'm the product of so called "forbidden" love; and my father a product of the same. "Forbidden" describes the fight that it takes to be with someone you truely love, regardless of nationality, race, religion, culture, or whatever else someone may have to say to you to make you double think being in love. I am really ecstatic that we're reading a book about someone who is so open and non-judgemental. It means a lot to know yourself well enough to know that others aren't going to affect the way you live your life. It takes a self-actualized being to be in such a situation...even in today's age. I really admire Alice Walker, as she's lived her life the way I strive to live everyday.
She knows who she is, what she enjoys, and she refuses to lay down here beliefs for what society tells her to do. This poem let's me know that "they" really don't matter. I get all kinds of glares and people showing their obvious disapproval toward me, (I'm in an inter-racial relationship)whenever I leave to go somewhere with my family, and I remember as a child my mother and father getting even more boos from the people around us, and my father's parents were also considered an inter-racial couple. All of those ignorant glances and assumptions don't matter anymore. I'm glad Alice put it into perspective for me.
Eva Hopkins
English 1A 9-10am
The passage that starts on page 33 and starts at "There was Alice, sitting in bed, with this white cloth wrapped around her fae that covered most everythingexcept for one eye...The incident, as chronicled in the essay, would have a far-reaching impact on Alice's self-esteem and, ultimately, on her developement as a write. It would also lead to a painful breach fueled by the complexity of family dynamics and the vagaries of memory." is my favorite passege because it talks about how the incident happens and it explains the hardships that the injury ended up putting her through in the long run like being suicidal, depression, and other things. Some people may think that getting shot with a BB gun isn't all that serious but this passage shows that it can affect someones life majorly.
As I read Alice Walker: A Life I was amazed at the loving tolerance that met her challenge of systems and institutions which until her rebellion went unnamed in her household. I am speaking of overt racism in Jim Crow South, the type that made Walker's sister Mamie swear that she'd never return once she left, a system so humiliating it later crippled Walker and she had to leave also.
I loved the picture of Alice as a child reading books her dad rescued from the "from a trash heap at the white school in Eatonton" (58).
Though the young Alice's desire to paint and play piano was "stifled becasue her parents, on their paltry sharecroppers' income, could afford neither art supplies nor music lessons," they still paid for the lessons anyway until Alice realized how much the 50 cents for lessons crippled the budget (59).
There was a lot of love in the Walker household for their Alice and Alice unselfishly towards her parents.
Melissa Tinkelenberg
English 1A 9-10
“We white folk will let you colored folk have your nice little college…….And in return, you will not interfere with our way of life.” (68) This really stood out to me. Alice was accepted on scholarship into Spellman. Spellman, a college in Atlanta, was a school that was there to educate Black people. Even though the tuition was considerably lower then any other women’s college, it still was far more then most sharecroppers’ families could pay. It normally catered to the middle class black families. This quote is one that really shows the mentality of the white people of the day. I see this statement as saying, we are giving you your college to shut you up, now leave us alone. For a long time, this school only taught practical skills including printing, sewing, cooking, laundering, housekeeping and so on, with a basic course in reading the Bible, stuff that would be useful for a black women’s future as a homemaker. By the time Alice attended Spellman it had added courses in Liberal Arts, Mathamatics, Geography, Literature and English. Even though they finally started teaching these courses, the mentality was still the same.
Yolanda Gil
English 1A 9-10
2/04/08
Alice Walker showed an interest in learning at an early age. Her parents worked long hours and could not keep an eye on Alice at all times. Mrs. Walker asked Miss Reynolds if her daughter could join the first grade although Alice was only four years old. Mrs. Walker had to fight for her children education because white plantation owners believed in blacks had ��no need for education�� (15). Mrs. Walker replied to that believe ��You might have some black children somewhere,�� ��But they don��t live in this house. Don��t you ever come around here again talking about how my children don��t need to learn how to read and write.�� (15)
Reynolds accepted Alice in her class to stop the landowners from taking away Alice��s future.
If it has not been for Mrs. Walker strong determination to stop plantation owners from forcing the children to work instead of going to school, Alice might have not accomplished her dream to become a writer. What do you think?
Marty Burgess
English 1A
M-Th, 9-10AM
Much like my grandmother, Alice Walker’s mother apparently had a knack for gardening and enjoyed raising many beautiful flowers. On pages 56-57 in Alice Walker, White states that “the influence of Mrs. Walker’s gardening and reverence for flowers is found throughout Alice’s work.” The examples that follow show Walker’s use of flowers in combination with death and struggle. I am deeply touched in instances where this imagery is used. I don’t know why imagery in combination with a story touches me more than someone just telling a touching story, but it does. Somehow, the emotion in a story seems to communicate more thoroughly through symbolism and imagery. Unfortunately, symbolism is often lost on readers who are unfamiliar with its use. Poets tend to use different types of imagery to get a point across and Walker is no exception. Flowers are great symbols to use in stories because there are so many different kinds and each communicates a different emotion or point. Flowers are soft but their thorns can be sharp. They represent sorrow, love, hope, joy, and renewal. A single flower can brighten a room but a bouquet of dead flowers can bring a feeling of lost hope instead. Put a flower in a glass of water, even if it only lasts a few days, and you may find yourself smiling more often with an extra bounce in your step.
Yolanda Gil
English 1A 9-10
2/04/08
After Curtis and Bobby persuaded Alice to tell a lie in regards to how she got an injured eye; the two brothers felt guilt and ultimately told the truth. Curtis recalled that him and Bobby “got a mild reprimand and that was the end of the BB guns.” Eventually, “everything went back to normal” (36). However, everything was not back to the way it used to be. She did not consider herself beautiful as she was before; consequently, she was miserable, feeling a rejection from the most important people in her life (her parents and siblings). At the same time, Alice could not understand why her brothers left to run free and her punishment was to live with such an ugliness appearance.
Alice could not see the love her family and friends had for her. She was more concerned with what they thought of her every time they saw her.
Makda
9-10
Eng 1a
When I came across what Alice has said "It's love that makes me look at what i can't stand. When you love deeply, you can stand to see a lot more." on page 8, She put to words, for me, what I have in thoughts. If we are too consumed with hate we lose our pupose.We can't see past out hate and enjoy what life has in store for us. It's only when we love that our mind is open, free and peasefully at rest. We don't miss out on the beautiful little things in life. What ever we set our minds to we'll see that it reaches it's goal. Or at least try to!
On page 10 it shows how the "white people's" hate for black people has blinded them. The only thing they could focus on is how to make us, black people, feel less and be less than they are. They were So consumed in their hate they fail to see how barren, inhuman and empty their society has become. There were two of everything one for whites and another for blacks. How wasteful indeed! This is how Lucy Montgomery described its impact, page 10, "White people were so fixated on maintaining two of everything, that we didn't have one good anything. The result has been an affliction of ignorance, mediocrity and backwardness that is still cripling the South today."
Yolanda Gil
English 1A 9-10
Response to Chris Flagg comment
Chris Flagg, I agree with your comment in regards of how hospitals deny service to uninsured people. I was reading Alice Walker: A Life when I read the first chapter, I stopped to think of how people of color have been in disadvantage in this country. I have a friend that works in a clinic in an area where the majority of patients are Hispanics and poor and some of them are not legal immigrants. She has told me stories of how they are treated, as if they are worthless and ignorant just because they do not speak English and they can not seek service in a private clinic due to lack of health insurance. This type of mistreatment makes me sad
Aiko Nillo
English 1A
9-10
"Mamie's rebukes...left them feeling at best guilty; at worst, inferior, ineffectual, and unrefined, Alice said."(61) When I read this it made me mad. Mamie, the second oldest of the Walker family, should have understood that being in the south and her parents not having an education, it was a struggle to live. Mamie too, had lived in the south and endured the racism and just because she had an education she shouldn't have made her parents feel "inferrior." Being the oldest daughter, she should have tried to help her parents out. Her parents couldn't have done anything in the south. They had to worry about other things; they had to raise eight kids and provide them the things they needed to survive.
Dung Le
9-10am
Jan. 4, 2008
Chapter six was very interesting to me, it talks about the way people thought and treated others. The first quote that caught my attention was “The boys, ages ten and twelve, had BB guns that had been purchased for them by their parents. Because she was a girl, Alice, age eight, did not get a gun and was “instantly relegated to the position of Indian” with only a bow and arrow.” (Alice Walker: a Life, page 34). This passage caught my attention because it shows that even at a young age, kids were influenced that there’s sex priority. Starting at such a young age, already being taught that one sex is better than the other tells us that there’s something wrong with our society and that it needs changes and improvements.
“Because they lived in the city and didn’t have to deal with outhouses and slopping hogs, they thought they were better than us.” (Alice Walker: a Life, page 38) Shows that people were not only judge by their nationality, but also by the location of which they lived.
“All new children and teachers and that awful school with the imprint of the electric chair. I was not known. My disfigured eye was all the new children saw.” (page 38-39). Shows that people are easy to judge, and that it is always easier to see the faults of people rather then who they really are.
Congregation and poverty played a big part in this chapter. People are quick to judge, not just by your nationality but also the location of where your live or come from.
Erica Marshall
English 1A M-Th 9-10
page 91 Paragraph 2
About what he now refers to as Alice's "memorilization of my arrogance," Merrill said, "She is honest. 'If I had carried a gun, I would have shot him,' is one of the lines I remember from her poem. Alice felt patronized and she let me know about it in no uncertain terms. She never compromises to be polite or nice."
This paragraph describes yet another example of Alice Walker's enduring nature. As angry as we get, and as passionate as we sometimes feel about a subject, we still have a very hard time putting those thoughts and emotions into terms that someone who thinks otherwise can comprehend.Alice was able to take a well-meaning but ignorant man and put him in the shoes of an offended and very aware woman. That's quite a feat! And all of this is done with the power of words. If Alice Walker were a lawyer (thank God she's not!) she would never lose a case. She has the ability to find the meaningful among the meaningless and bring it to light for all to see.
Erica Marshall
English 1A M-Th 9-10
Rudy!!;)
Hey I liked your response and am feeling the same way as you (overjoyed) when it comes to seeing community come together. You're totally right with the fact that we don't it see that much, if at all anymore! That's our diminished social capitol. We need more community leaders and non-corporate hangout spots...anything that will bring us together to actually get to know each other so that we can support those who show that extra talent. Glad you're enjoying the book, too. Later.
Nadia Hassan
English 1A
8:00am-9:00am
The quote that i was interseted in was pg(4) when Bill asked the white boy "Are you gonna loan me the money or not?" Bill recalled saying, as he calmly stuffed the rag back to his pocket. "Yeah," Dickie grunted, adding "Damn these niggers..." as he walked out of his garage. i thought this quote was very touching towards Bill becuase he wanted to help his sister get hepled and didn't want her to suffer but the at least the white boy offered to loan him some money even thou he was being mean saying "Damn these niggers.." which wasn't okay for him to say to him.
The other quote that I thought was very interseting was pg(21) "Grandpa Grant really loved anthor women," she explained "But for whatever reason, he didn't marry her, so he took out all his frustrations on Grandma Nettie. This is true to some people being in love with someone else while you're married to someone you're not in love with and treat the person you're married to like there nothing to you and put them down.
Dung Le
9-10am
Jan. 4, 2008
(Rudy)
Great passage! It definitely shows how important Alice was and how the community has great expectation for her. To answer your question, I can't really think of an occasion where the community is working together to help people out at least not in my community, but i'm sure there's other out there.
The third passage really shows the racial superiority. Makes you think how many people take their rights for granted nowadays.
Sean Watson
English 1A 9-10
Feb. 4 2008
The passage that I chose to write about is on Pg. 57 second to last paragraph. The paragraph begins” It was Mrs. Walker’s loving smile and the coziness she could bring to even the most derelict sharecropper’s cabin that comforted Alice when she came home...”. This passage, to me, reflects the loving and positive home environment that Alice Walker was raised in. A loving, and positive home environment despite the constant adversity, and hatred that blacks were subjected to in those times. Today my problems seem “gold plated” when compared to the problems faced by the blacks during the days of segregation. I can only hope that in the face of my own struggles, obstacles, and challenges, that I can provide a positive and loving environment for my children.
Yolanda Gil
9-10
Response to Sean Watson comment
Sean, the last sentece in the comment "I can only hope that in the face of my own struggles, obstacles, and challenges, that I can provide a positive and loving enviroment for my children" to me it is basically the bottom line to keep family members toghether through difficult challenges.
Alice was very fortunate to have strong parents that did not allowed people to put them down.
faraj fayad
9-10 am
Deon J. Your quote about the lady sayin that she didn't know black people shoped at Nordstrom, was probably one of the most racist comments i ever heard. I thought this is the time that people where supposed to conceal racism and dislike for other races. For her to say such a comment knowing you heard it is sad, because its about time people got over that. I could go on forever giving my opinion on how the government gives African American and other non-whites a nasty immage but lets not go there. I found out reasently that a person begins to hate a whole color/race just for the actions of one person who happens to be that color/race. One way we should start eliminating racism is by not being one our selves.
Jerrell Young
Sabir
English 1A
2/4/08
One of the passages in the book that compelled me to smirk in interest was this one:
"Once made a fairy rooster from
Mashed potatoes...
Green onions were his tail
And his two legs were carrot sticks
A tomato slice his crown...
Knew Hamlet well and read into the night
And coached me in my songs of Africa
A continent I never knew...
But learned to love...
Who read from Prose and Poetry
and loved to read "Sam McGee from Tennessee"
On nights the fire was burning low...
Who walked among the flowers
And brought them inside the house
Who smelled as good as they
And looked as bright."
It was interesting because it was simple, but vague at the same time, making you think for a bit about what she throws into her poetry. It seems to me she is talking about a person who learned and gained knowledge and took that in, her brain being the house and the flowers which was the knowledge. That's what I think it is at least.
Michael Dacoron
English 1A
9am-10am
(Bill)”But it kind of threw me for a loop when Alice took him to Georgia and I got word about how people responded to them down there. To Alice, David was just another guy, but for people in Eatonton, well, the whole town was blown away. You don’t just go to a small southern town with a white man and walk the streets with him and go into shops and restaurant and act like he’s just as black as you are…
(Pg 82)
Alice is such a strong woman to pull something like this. Especially in that time and in Georgia too interracial dating is still stirs up controversy but not as bad as it was a long time ago. Wow I don’t think I could of done it, too much drama and to much at risk. But at the same time if you love a person to death you wouldn’t give a damn what people think or say.
faraj fayad
9-10am
Rudy G. you asked what I thought the three things Alice's mother gave her meant...
The typewriter, meant that she wanted Alice to write and send letters.
the sewing machine meant that she could sew her own clothes.
The suitcase to put her most important belongings in such as family pictures.
"I was completely unaware," declared Williams, author of 'The Rabbits' Wedding,' "that animals with white fur, such as white polar bears and white dogs and white rabbits, were considered blood relatives of white human beings." This quote by author, Garth Williams shows how terrible prejudice and discrimination was because segregationists were even against animals with different colored fur being united as equals not even being related to human beings. They were rabbits! And they had issues with two innocent opposite colored rabbits getting married, which is pretty unfortunate.
Christina Thoss
English 1A 9-10A.M.
Page 10 Ch.2
"I was completely unaware," declared Williams, author of 'The Rabbits' Wedding,' "that animals with white fur, such as white polar bears and white dogs and white rabbits, were considered blood relatives of white human beings." This quote by author, Garth Williams shows how terrible prejudice and discrimination was because segregationists were even against animals with different colored fur being united as equals not even being related to human beings. They were rabbits! And they had issues with two innocent opposite colored rabbits getting married, which is pretty unfortunate.
Ali Hassan
8-9
resonse to Rudy
The 3 things that my mother would send me off with is:
1. A cell phone so I can stay in contact with friends and family and for emergencies.
2. A car so I could get to places faster and be more comfortable then riding the bus.
3.A suit case that has my cloths and shoes and my credit card.
Sushil Pathak
English 1A(8-9AM)
chapter1 Page3,
"Why you wanna waste $250 getting your sister's eye fixed? she's just gonna end up marrying a no good niggar like you."
In the paragraph,Dickie Stribling,owner of auto repair shop, is quoted using extremly offensive and equally hurting words to Bill walker, brother of Alice Walker, who was requesting a loan of $250 for the treatment of his sister's eye.
I am really suprised by the responce of Dickie Stribling. Its really shocking that a person who was requesting loan from his owner for a genuine reason was responded in such a cruel way. The owner did not think at all about his words that would hurt somebody.
For me its really hard to believe how people can be such rude and offensive to someone who desperately needed help.
Faraj Fayad
English 1A
9-10am
My favorite quote I read over so far is when a white plantation owner told Mrs. Walker that she should send her children to work on the fields because black had “no need for education” and she replied, “you might have some black children somewhere, but they don’t live in this house. Don’t you ever come around here talking about how my children don’t need to learn how to read and write.” As I was reading it I thought she couldn’t have been more specific about how much her children’s education meant to her, especially at that time. The family was poor and in need of money, yet they wanted their children to go to school rather than work.(Chapter 2,Page:#15)
Reid remembered Alice always reading something, and she would ask her “why on earth do you read all the time?” And Alice looking at her seriously would reply “the more you read the more you know.” For a girl of her age to have that much knowledge is too impressing. It must have been her parent’s hunger for education that led her to being this smart. I believe that the reason she was into reading and learning was because of her families interest in education.
I noticed that some went further on into the book and picked out quotes from later chapters but I wanted to stay in between chapters one and five because I thought they had amazing quotes and memories I haven’t used.
Melissa Tinkelenberg
English 1A
9-10
Chris Flagg, I agree with you about the hospitals turning people away because of a lack of money or insurance. That is a huge issue I could go on about all day. I think this quote is bigger then that though. This quote is about a white man refusing to drive an injured girl to the hospital because she and her daddy were black. Yes, though, that whole situation was wrong.
Melissa Tinkelenberg
English 1A 9-10
Makda, that quote was probably my favorite quote in the book. It is so important to realize the power that comes along with truly learning to love and letting go of hate.
Ali Hassan
8-9
For Bills parents, Minnie Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker, who were struggling tenant farmers were barely getting by, $250 was a lot to them because crop workers were not being paid enough especially if you were African American. Therefore paying such an amount was difficult, the walkers were lucky if they made $250 in one year. Bill knew that his parents could not afford to pay that sum of money to operate on Alice’s eye, not because they did not want to, but because they did not have it. Bill knew that he had to get the money, because he could not stand to see his little sister in so much pain. Bill turned to the only person he knew had that kind of money save up, and that person was Dickie the person that Bill works for. Dickie gave Bill the loan even though he was racist against African American. Alice Walker is lucky to have such a great older brother like Bill, who cared for his siblings so much. He knew that his parents did not have the money to pay for Alice Walkers eye to be treated, so Bill could not see his younger sister suffer so he took responsibility of paying for Alice Walkers operation on her eye. It is great how Bill looks out for his younger siblings.(Page. 4, paragraph 2)
This is a great passage because Bill shows us what being the oldest all is about. Knowing that being the oldest one has Responsibilities. Also makig good decisions for you and your family.
Rajiv Amatya
Sabir
Eng 1A 8-9am
02/04/08
Chapter-8 pg 51, 52
“Letting go
In order to hold on
I gradually understand
How poems are made…
They are the tears
That season the smile
The stiff-neck laughter
That crowds the throat
The leftover love.
I know how poems are made.
There is a place the loss must go.
There is a place the gain must go.
The leftover love.”
This poem really touches me. It’s very hard for person like me who cannot show their feelings towards others. It is the most painful situation when you have to let go someone you love but still you have the same strong feelings towards that person. No matter how hard you try to forget the person he/she still lingers in you mind. Your heart is filled with that person only. At that time tears come out and they become a part of your smile. You try to laugh but you feel suffocated. So, even though there is a loss there is a gain. In other words, every place is filled with something, there is no emptiness. When loss comes gain goes and so on.
Melissa Tinkelenberg
English 1A 9-10
Alice Walker Ch 6-12
“I’ll never forget being in that room because there were black people, white people, all kinds of people sitting in that room. Compared to Georgia, it was like being on another planet.” (46) This was a quote from when Alice Walker went to a hospital in Boston at fourteen yrs old to have her eye looked at again, after years and years of feeling bad about herself. First of all, I think it’s amazing the drastic difference between the north and the south. I know today the south is still like a totally different world, but the extreme differences, back in the fifties is amazing. My mother was born in the fifties in San Francisco, and she was never exposed to the kind of racism and segregation that went on in the south. I am glad that she was able to have this experience at fourteen, because I think it might of helped open her eyes to the fact that there was a better way to live.
Sean Watson
English1A 9-10
Response to Nadia
I was also touched by Bill’s loving efforts to help Alice. This act of love is yet another prime example of the Walker children’s upbringing. Not only did Bill want to help his sister , but he knew that his parents could not raise the money they needed. Bill went out on a limb for the good of his family. As I read later on about Bill bringing Alice to Boston, I couldn’t help thinking about the love this family has for each other.
On page 69 in "Alice Walker", after discussing one of Walker's former professors Howard Zinn, Evelyn White states that "Alice would later remark that Howard Zinn was the first white man with whom she'd ever had a real conversation". This statement brings to mind the several occasions in which I have heard people on TV as well as in person refer to their "black friend". The racial and cultural separation is still there today but I find it funny that some people still feel a need to point out what race their friends are.
The separations in cities where different races and cultures predominate does affect one's encounters with other races. Bay Area residents are fortunate enough to live in an area that is culturally diverse but it is still subdivided and the schools, particularly private, have less diversity. I went to a private elementary school myself and my class was mostly white. Only towards middle school did our class gain a more diverse group. That was nearly 10 years ago though.
Oops, the previous comment was by: Marty Burgess
English 1A
M-Th, 9-10AM
“For a long time I thought I was very ugly and disfigured. This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults and slights that were not intended” (43)
Alice Walker’s lack of self worth was caused by the felt betrayal from her siblings and parents and partially from the eye injury. Her injury alone could not have drowned her known optimistic spirit. The cause for her depression was that she was made fun of in school because of her blinded eye and she was isolated from her parents for a period of time. All these mix emotions really shaped her personality and mold her into a sensitive and vulnerable being.
“It is also the root of my need to tell the truth, always, because I experienced very early the pain of telling a lie” (40)
The source of Alice’s depression was perhaps taking the blame for her own eye injury caused by her brothers. Her brothers had made up their own story to absolve them from any blame, while Alice took the blame. Following her injury, she was forced to fabricate a lie to save her own brothers’ hide. Now as an adult, Alice has stressed to always tell the truth because she was forced to lie for others at an early age.
In response to Sushil Pathak
I empathize your sense of justice towards Dickie Stribling’s (owner of autoshop) racist and hateful remarks. I too strongly oppose Dickie’s attitude towards Bill Walker who desparately needed a loan to fix up his sister’s eye. However, society shapes the way we think through various factors including influence and peer pressure and so forth. The Southerners brought up during that era were taught to hate blacks and it was socially acceptable. So thus, an elder like Dickie who had been taught to discriminate blacks all his life is unlikely able to change his old ways.
Professor Wanda Sabir
Kenton Low, 1A
Alice Walker:”A Life” – Chapter 8 pg.52
“Letting go
In order to hold on
I gradually understand
how poems are made…
They are the tears
that season the smile
the stiff-neck laughter
that crowds the throat
the leftover love.
I know how poems are made.
The loss must go a place.
The gain must go a place.
“The leftover love.”
The poem talks that Alice had a hard live and a though life live one at that and by writing this poem it express herself in that how life was though and hard it thought me that life is not easy and not sample. Alice wrote this poem because at time where though it was hard and not as easy as the whites had it in life. For Africans Americans it was not easy because they had to watch out for the families, not get in the way, and not get into trouble.
Cited Source:
1.Chapter-8 pg 51, 52 and by Rajiv Amatya ( English 1A Student)
In repnse to this poem it is very much so that for the African American Community it was hard and had to put with the painful. It was not easly as an African American.
To: Dominique West, January 31.
So far what I've read I've enjoyed very much. What I instantly noticed whether i'm right or not is that her memories that were shared in the beginning of the book reminded me of "The Color Purple". In the story White says, "...Estella was a attractive,
high-spirited young woman who cared about Henry's heart,not his inheritenc(gone)...Nicknamed "Shug"
(short for "sugar", she loved to dance and carouse with him in jook joints, rowdy taverns set deep into
the back woods." I made a connection with the movie because I remember Shug and this storyline from the movie. Alice Walker seemed to have lead a very
interesting childhood to me. The things she said and did most kids her age weren't even capable of doing. Especially being it as she was a black child and extremely intelligent. She spoke poetry and truth at her young age. She was excited about learning and doing all types of things. In the story White recalls the story that was told to her about Alice and the picture of Booker T. Washington. " Within the same hour Alice had not only given a full report on a man I'd been looking at all my life, but had flat-out asked to take Booker T. Washington home with her..."
I thought that story was quite funny. Simply because she had walked in there, saw it, and asked to take him home with her. Which is something most kids do when they see something they like, know, and or want. Reading about the things that happened back then to her and her family is also something that I find interesting. How often do you get to read real
life stories on the struggles that someone one through and they are still alive today to tell it?
This also reminds me of my great-grandmother. She is 87 yrs old and I remember when she was maybe around 82 or so she sat and told me about the South and how she worked in the house of a white woman and she asked her to pick cotton or something along those
lines and she told them, "No I don't pick any cotton unless I want to, and right now I don't want to." These stories are all
amazing to me and all mean something. I look forward
to reading more on Alice Walker and finding out more
about her.
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