is distracted and daydreaming during her wedding, the images and thoughts shared by the narrator vary between being sharply focused and merely vague impressions. While it's possible her husband genuinely loves Roselily and cares for her and her children, and might even be anxious about the marriage, his thoughts are not directly revealed. Instead, they are inferred by Roselily through his attire and demeanor. This narrative viewpoint centers the story on Roselily, emphasizing her emotions during the brief moments of the ceremony. Walker's aim is not to detail the events of a wedding or what follows, but to capture the voice of a woman at a pivotal moment in her life.

Setting

A story's setting encompasses the time, place, and the social and economic context of its characters. "Roselily" is set in the rural town of Panther Burn, Mississippi, likely during the 1960s, as Roselily's child with a civil rights activist is not yet two years old. The town's residents are predominantly poor and black. Roselily's father made a modest living trapping animals and selling their skins to Sears, and Roselily herself has picked cotton and now supports three children by working as a sewing machine operator in a clothing factory. The highway is filled with cars driven by white individuals.

Most people born in this small town remain there due to a lack of opportunities to leave. Roselily has lived there her entire life, alongside the girls she grew up with. Her family, including her mother and grandparents, are buried in the town. They are all Christians but hold onto remnants of traditional beliefs in ghosts and curses. Roselily is intelligent, yet not well-educated. Her language is considered not "good enough" for her Harvard-educated lover, and her interests do not align with those like Bach and chess. Crucially, she is unfamiliar with the Northern world. She assumes New England is vastly different from Mississippi, but she lacks certainty. Her only knowledge of Illinois is that Abraham Lincoln once lived there. The prospect of moving to a completely new environment both excites and terrifies her.

Narrative

The term narrative typically refers to the recounting of an event or a sequence of events. These events can include actions, conversations, or other plot elements interconnected by cause and effect. While details are often arranged in chronological order, this order may be altered for specific effects. "Roselily" does not fit the traditional narrative mold. There is no direct action or dialogue, except for the minister's ritual speech. The story's "present" may span only five to fifteen minutes. Although the wedding party and guests are likely conversing and moving around, the only actions revealed to the reader are those Roselily recalls from the past or envisions for her future. This non-narrative format makes "Roselily" more akin to a poem than a typical short story.

Stream of Consciousness

The term for this story's non-narrative structure is stream of consciousness. This style aims to reflect how the human mind truly operates: not in a logical and sequential manner, with complete sentences and coherent paragraphs, but through a flow of interconnected thoughts, impressions, and memories. By reading the entire story, a sequential narrative of Roselily’s life can be assembled, though the details are not presented in chronological order. Roselily’s transitions from one thought to another are prompted by the minister's words, external sounds, physical sensations, and memories linking to other memories.

One of the main techniques used to highlight Roselily's disconnection from her surroundings is the story's rhythmic shift between her internal monologue and the preacher's wedding intonations. Even as the preacher is "joining" Roselily and her husband in marriage, her thoughts reveal that she views the marriage as more about separation and escape than union. Physically, this marriage signifies her departure from Mississippi to Chicago. On a deeper level, it represents a break from a painful history filled with unfaithful men and illegitimate children. Additionally, her husband's religion will create a divide between them, both in the church setting and through the distinct roles Islam assigns to men and women. Roselily is also concerned that her children might lose their cultural roots. While the marriage offers Roselily an escape from her past, it fails to provide her with new roots or connections.

1. In what ways do Roselily's concerns about marriage mirror those of other women? Are her anxieties solely related to her socioeconomic status as a poor African American woman?

2. How can it be argued that Roselily's emotions and position are distinct to her personal circumstances? Conversely, how might her emotions and position be seen as representative of women's broader experiences?

3. What role does memory play in Roselily's life? How does her recollection of the past enhance her feeling of connection to the world around her?

4. How are men depicted in Roselily's environment? In what ways is her depiction accurate, and how might it be considered inaccurate?

5. What significance does religion have in Roselily's life? How does it impact the lives of her husband and the preacher officiating their marriage?

"Roselily" tells the tale of a poor Black woman from the South who is about to marry a Muslim man. This marriage will take her from Mississippi to Chicago, marking the start of a new chapter. Although the story unfolds during the wedding ceremony, the real focus is on Roselily's quest for self-identity. As the preacher recites the vows, the reader gains insight into Roselily's inner thoughts, worries, and aspirations. It becomes evident that this marriage is yet another step in her challenging journey to discover who she is and to gain respect in a society that inherently undervalues her.

The timing of the story—the beginning of the wedding ceremony—is crucial because weddings are traditionally seen as pivotal moments for young women. This is when a woman leaves her family to form a new, socially recognized family unit with her husband. For Roselily, however, the ceremony's start prompts her to reflect on her future and new identity. As she contrasts her future life with her past, she grows anxious that she might be exchanging one unwanted identity for another.

Roselily's initial motivation for marriage is not love but rather a desire to escape her previous life. She admits to herself that she is unsure if she loves her husband. Standing at the altar, she realizes she accepted his proposal as a means to flee a life of hard work as a single mother and seamstress, and to distance herself from the indifferent fathers of her other children and the stigma of being an unwed mother.

However, her anticipated role as a Muslim wife begins to unsettle her. Although she understands she should now feel like a married woman, she instead feels "like a rat trapped, concerned, scurrying to and fro in her head." She views her future not as liberation but as a new form of captivity. Despite her hope to leave her current life behind and reinvent herself, she fears that her journey will not bring the freedom she desires. Instead, she envisions herself "dragging herself across the world." Initially believing marriage would offer a break from labor, Roselily now sees her future bound by "ropes, chains, handcuffs, his religion." She imagines herself veiled, with her children distanced from her and their past.

Roselily primarily perceives the impending loss of a crucial aspect of her identity—her freedom. She is already apprehensive about her husband's Islamic faith, as she hasn't fully considered how it might affect her sense of self. She now understands that "she cannot always be bride and virgin, wearing robes and veil." She worries about what will become of her identity once she is compelled to remain hidden, never again feeling the sun on her skin. Although she is relieved from the demands of working as a seamstress and the stigma of single parenthood, she realizes she has entered a new form of bondage. Her hands will be occupied with children instead of a sewing machine, leaving her to wonder if she has merely exchanged one form of torment for another.

Roselily's quest for identity is similar to a journey faced by many women, especially impoverished black women. Like other minority women living in poverty, Roselily has only known the dual oppressions of racism and sexism. Her life, much like her wedding, is marked by oppression, particularly from men and generally from white individuals who trample over her at will. She has always belonged to others, never to herself. Now, she yearns to find her identity, yet she continues to seek it through others. Her efforts have primarily involved men who subsequently become indifferent fathers. As she enters marriage, Roselily realizes her identity will be confined behind a veil, with her life depicted in stark black and white. She worries about her children and whether they, too, will lose their identities by entering this unfamiliar world: "She wonders how to make new roots [and finds] that it is beyond her."

Throughout Roselily's internal reflections, the preacher's voice occasionally echoes her concerns as he recites the traditional wedding vows: "Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God to join this man and this woman in holy matrimony. If there's anybody here that knows a reason why these two should not be joined together let him speak or forever hold his peace." The ultimate irony is that Roselily herself recognizes the doomed nature of the marriage. Despite this awareness, she proceeds with the ceremony in silence, never voicing her objections, perhaps unable to do so after a lifetime of silence.

1970: Alice Walker first discovers Zora Neale Hurston, an African-American writer from the Harlem Renaissance who had been largely forgotten. She admires Hurston’s ability to articulate the experiences of poor black women and resolves to read all of her works. Today, thanks to the efforts of Walker, Hurston biographer Robert Hemenway, and others, all of Hurston's writings are available in print, widely included in anthologies, and taught in educational settings.

1973: The United States Supreme Court rules that prohibiting abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy is unconstitutional. Before this decision, abortions were illegal and often performed in unsafe "backalley" conditions. Walker herself had undergone such a procedure, which was largely inaccessible to most women.

Today: Abortions in the United States are safe and accessible for women who wish to control the size of their families. Additionally, contraception is affordable and readily available.

1967: Walker's husband, attorney Melvyn Leventhal, is among many educated Northerners who travel to Mississippi to join the Civil Rights Movement. Walker publishes an essay titled "The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It?"

Today: While laws that protected the interests of wealthy whites have been abolished, institutional racism persists. Although some African Americans have achieved economic success, significant poverty remains in many black inner-city areas. There has been no movement comparable to the Civil Rights Movement to address the ongoing issues of race and class.

1967: When Walker and her white husband relocate to Jackson, Mississippi, it is illegal for an interracial couple to live together, even if they are married.

Today: Mississippi's population is about two-thirds white and one-third black. Segregation laws have been eliminated, and while racial relationships have improved, they remain somewhat strained.

Alice Walker has drawn inspiration from numerous authors, including Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The influence of Zora Neale Hurston is also evident in her work, as Hurston vividly depicted the lives of rural black southerners. A common thread in both Hurston's and Walker's writings is the oppression faced by black women at the hands of men. In "Roselily," the reader perceives that Roselily is trapped, moving from one form of persecution to another without finding a way to better her situation. Similarly, in Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God, the character Janie, despite her beauty and relative privilege, endures similar hardships. After marrying young and being forced to toil like a mule in her first husband's fields, Janie escapes with a charming man who makes grand promises. However, Janie's second husband, much like Roselily's first, places her on a pedestal, demanding little in terms of work. Yet, Janie continues to feel like the old mule her husband cruelly beats, as she too becomes a possession, displayed on a pedestal, isolated from the townspeople. Janie's challenging journey through unsatisfying relationships mirrors Roselily's struggle.

Alice Walker is perhaps most renowned for her novel The Color Purple (1982), which earned her the American Book Award and made her the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Walker is also celebrated for numerous other works, including The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), Meridian (1976), The Temple of My Familiar (1989), Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992), and By the Light of My Father's Smile (1998). While The Color Purple explored traditional themes of black female oppression through both sexism and racism, her subsequent books broadened her focus to encompass more universally feminist themes. More recently, Alice Walker released The Way Forward is With a Broken Heart (2001).

Walker's short story collections include In Love and In Trouble: Stories of Black Women (1973), To Hell With Dying (1988), and You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down (1981). Her earlier work primarily addresses the struggles of black women, while the latter two collections explore topics relevant to all women, such as the impact of abortion, a subject Walker wrote about following her own experience with abortion during her college years.

Beyond her novels and short stories, Walker has penned numerous essays and poems, including In Search of Our Mother's Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983) and Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism (1997). Her poetry collections feature Once: Poems (1968), Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems (1973), Goodnight, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning (1979), and Horses Make the Landscape More Beautiful (1984).

The Color Purple was adapted into a film in 1985, featuring Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, and Danny Glover. This movie, inspired by Walker's 1982 novel, follows Celie's journey as she discovers comfort and companionship among women after enduring years of mistreatment and domination by men. Despite facing criticism for its severe depiction of male characters, the film received widespread praise and earned multiple Academy Award nominations.

Sources

Bouise, Oscar A., Review of In Love and Trouble, in Bestsellers, Vol. 33, No. 14, October 15, 1973, p. 335.

Christian, Barbara, ‘‘The Contrary Women of Alice Walker,’’ in The Black Scholar, Vol. 12, No. 2, March–April 1981, p. 23.

Freeman, Alma S., ‘‘Zora Neale Hurston and Alice Walker: A Spiritual Kinship,’’ in Sage, Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring, 1985, pp. 37–40.

Hall, Mary Washington, ‘‘An Essay on Alice Walker,’’ in Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah, Amistad, 1993, p. 42.

Nyabongo, V. S., Review of In Love and Trouble, in Books Abroad, Vol. 48, No. 4, Autumn, 1974, p. 787.

Petry, Alice Hall, ‘‘Walker: The Achievement of the Short Fiction,’’ in Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah, Amistad, 1993, pp. 194, 205.

Pratt, Louis H. and Darnell D. Pratt, Alice Malsenior Walker: An Annotated Bibliography: 1968–1986, Meckler, 1988, pp. 51–58.

Smith, Barbara, ‘‘The Souls of Black Women,’’ in Ms., Vol. 2, February, 1974, pp. 42–43.

Walker, Alice, ‘‘From an Interview’’ [with John O’Brien], In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983, pp. 249, 251, 263–64, 265.

———, ‘‘Saving the Life That Is Your Own: The Importance of Models in the Artist’s Life,’’ in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, Harvest/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983, pp. 7, 13.

Winchell, Donna Haisty, Alice Walker, Twayne, 1992, p. 31. Wright, Mercedes A., ‘‘Black Woman’s Lament,’’ in The Crisis, Vol. 81, No. 1, January, 1974, p. 31.

Further Reading

Petry, Alice Hall, ‘‘Walker: The Achievement of the Short Fiction,’’ in Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and K. A. Appiah, Amistad, 1993, pp. 193–210. This is the first substantial critical evaluation of Walker’s short stories. Petry is quite critical of You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, as it fails to match the depth and insight of In Love and Trouble.

Pratt, Louis H. and Darnell D. Pratt, Alice Malsenior Walker: An Annotated Bibliography: 1968–1986, Meckler, 1988. Covering the years indicated in the title, this comprehensive annotated bibliography includes works by Walker and critical articles, biographical pieces, reviews, and essays about Walker and her literary contributions. The authors note that the annotations are descriptive rather than evaluative.

Walker, Alice, Banned, Aunt Lute Books, 1996. This book delves into some of the controversies that have surrounded Walker's fiction. It also includes reprints of the short stories ‘‘Roselily’’ and ‘‘Am I Blue?’’ along with the first chapter of The Color Purple, which have faced criticism or censorship.

Washington, Mary Helen, ‘‘An Essay on Alice Walker,’’ in Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives Past and Present, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and K. A. Appiah, Amistad, 1993, pp. 37–49. This essay explores Walker's focus on writing about black women. It provides a brief historical overview of the plight of black women in the United States since the eighteenth century, illustrating how Walker's fiction and poetry chart a psychological evolution from slavery to enlightenment.

Winchell, Donna Haisty, Alice Walker, Twayne, 1992. This comprehensive overview explores Walker's life and provides an analysis of all her published works up to The Temple of My Familiar. Winchell delves into themes of survival and the quest for completeness as central to Walker's writing, illustrating how these themes are presented in "Roselily."