The Flowers in Alice Walker’s Garden: Dialogues on Gender, Violence, and Belonging in Her Literary Work

Abstract

The present work aims to discuss the life trajectory of Alice Walker, based on her essay collection In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: womanist prose, and to explore her literary production through the works The Color Purple and The Third Life of Grange Copeland. With the intention of presenting an overview of the connections between her books and the social history of the United States, this article centers its discussion on three major thematic axes: (i) gender issues — portrayed through her female characters; (ii) racial violence during the segregationist period; and finally, (iii) the sense of belonging to the land and the community built through the Black Southern experience. From a sociological perspective, I adopt trajectory analysis and content analysis to explore the literary and social elements that may contribute to the field of the sociology of race relations and culture. Finally, I also highlight the role that the life trajectories of the Black women around her played in her professional and political development and in her literary practice.