Alice Walker and Shirley Ann Grau

F. Alice Walker and Shirley Ann Grau

As the authors ‘ background is one of important factor on determining the outcome of the story and the characters in both novels, it is also important to give a brief explanation about Alice Walker and Shirley Ann Grau as the author of the

Alice Walker was born and raised in Georgia. When Walker was eight years old, her brother accidentally shot her with a gun, made her blind in one eye. This injury played a great role on building her self-conscious, and she started writing poetry. In Georgia where people would call a girl ―womanish‖, Alice Walker captures the spirit of the ―womanist‖—the term she created herself, where she reflects it through her fictional characters. She defines her own black feminism and use the color purple to symbolize her feminism, which is depicted on her novel The Color Purple . In the 1965, after graduating, she went to Mississippi and joined the Civil Rights Movement. Her participation in the Civil Rights Movement more or less influenced her political and social views which she expresses it through her literary works. This does not only influence her thoughts on racial issues, but also develop her interest of her root in Africa, which is well reflected through Nettie ‘s description in The Color Purple. Alice Walker ‘s first novel was published in 1970 and her second one in 1976. Both books dealt with the Civil Rights Movement. The Color Purple which is published in 1982 is her most successful work and made her an important American writer.

According to Lena M. Ampadu on Black Women Writers as Dynamic Agents of Change: Empowering Women from Africa to America , she states that: Alice Walker has four-pronged definition of womanist:

1 —womanist—from ―womanish‖. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, or willful behavior.

2 —Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender

Her concept of women as described above is reflected on her many literary works, and The Color Purple is a good example. These concepts are reflected on her black woman characters, Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery, and Sofia.

2. Shirley Ann Grau

Shirley Ann Grau is a white Southerner writer, who mainly deals with blacks and its culture. She mainly writes about sex and gender, and most of them have the same setting in Deep South. She was ―raised in Alabama and Louisiana during the middle years of the century —a period when the races were segregated by law—Grau has written some of the most accurate portrayals of African-American life ever produced in American literature ‖ (Allen-Taylor, 1998, para. 10). Her work style may

be best described as ―tough, cold, and realistic‖ (Eisinger, 1999, para. 2). Although mainly she takes the first point of view on her novels, she is pretty well-known for her non-sentimental style and she maintains distance from her characters, and depicts them as objective as possible. She already writes six novels and many short stories and most of them are set primarily in Deep South –including the blacks and Hispanics.

Her best work to today is The Keepers of the House which received Pulitzer Prize in 1965. Upon describing her black characters, Grau does not look at them as white ‘s servant, rather they have their own life (Allen-Taylor, 1998). As stated by Her best work to today is The Keepers of the House which received Pulitzer Prize in 1965. Upon describing her black characters, Grau does not look at them as white ‘s servant, rather they have their own life (Allen-Taylor, 1998). As stated by