In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

by Alice Walker

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Analysis

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“In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” by Alice Walker is a personal essay. However, the essay goes beyond the genre, with its author employing a variety of techniques to enrich her reflections and create an intricate network of multiple literary forms.

From meaningful quotations, paraphrases, and allusions to intriguing symbols and analogies, Walker utilizes a wealth of literary tactics to speak to Black women's simultaneous suffering and creative strength.

Generally, a personal essay presents the author's life experiences and, perhaps more importantly, the lessons they have learned. Walker’s essay reflects (at least to a point) on her life experiences as a Black female writer. However, she also looks at those experiences from a broader angle, namely, the shared experiences of Black women through time. The lessons she learns are those taught by her ancestors and applied to her own creative endeavors.

As she constructs her essay, Walker employs multiple literary forms. Most of the essay is in prose, but that prose is not all alike. In fact, Walker includes exposition, vivid description, analysis, and anecdotes to bring her prose to life.

Exposition reveals something that remains unclear to most readers' eyes and imaginations. In this case, the author exposes the condition of Black women, both historically and in her era, showing how they have been—and remain—oppressed by their systemic suffering.

Throughout this exposition, Walker uses vivid descriptions to display the nature and intensity of the oppression of Black women. They are “exquisite butterflies trapped in evil honey,” she says. Yet, they are also “crazy, loony, pitiful women,” misunderstood, burdened, and “driven to a numb and bleeding madness by the springs of creativity in them for which there was no release.” These images help readers envision and perhaps even relate to the women Walker describes. Such intense language draws people in and connects them to the exposition, making it personal and engaging.

The author also makes good use of analysis to enhance her prose. Analysis breaks a topic down into its pieces and carefully examines each piece in order to get a better idea of the whole. Walker analyzes Phillis Wheatley and her work in this essay. She notes, for instance, how Wheatley ironically describes Liberty as a golden-haired “Goddess” when, in fact, the poet was first a slave and later experienced a “penniless, friendless ‘freedom’” that ruined her health and immersed her in suffering.

By looking at these parts of Wheatley’s story (along with others), Walker can better present a picture of an oppressed Black woman who struggles to usher her creative nature to the world, though she desperately longs to.

Lastly, Walker includes many anecdotes to enliven her prose. Prominent among these is the story of her mother, who worked hard yet still found time to grow stunningly beautiful gardens. Walker’s mother’s story inspires her daughter and is intended to inspire readers, drawing them into the life of one woman who stands as a model for a whole class of people who suffered yet stood firm.

Prose, however, is not Walker’s only literary form in this essay. She also intersperses poetry throughout the piece, adding further interest and providing examples of the creativity she claims for Black women. She quotes a piece of Wheatley’s poetry, for instance, but also poetically paraphrases a poem by Okot p’Bitek, showing how one poet can rewrite the work of another to give it even greater meaning and expression.

Walker even includes a poem of her own toward the end of the essay, one written in tribute to her mother. It is simple in construction but rich in imagery and admiration. Women like her...

(This entire section contains 958 words.)

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mother, the author asserts, were like “Headragged Generals” leading their armies of children across “Booby-trapped / Kitchens” and the minefields of life to get them to the place they needed to go, a better place with greater opportunities. This short yet rich poem offers yet another way of viewing and admiring the lives and struggles of Black women.

Throughout her essay, Walker expands her own ideas with quotations, paraphrases, and allusions. She opens with a quotation from poet Jean Toomer, setting the stage for her claims about Black women. Later, she interacts closely with quotations from Virginia Woolf, using them to illustrate her points but also interjecting her own commentary into Woolf’s words, expanding on them, making them her own, and showing their unique application to Black women.

Walker not only quotes other authors but also paraphrases and alludes to them. For instance, she paraphrases the poem by p’Bitek, retaining its meaning but taking a certain ownership of it as she uses it to express the cry of oppressed Black women. The author also alludes to authors like Zora Hurston, Nella Larsen, Frances Harper, and Elizabeth Catlett to show that some Black women did get a chance to use their creativity. Even still, they all shared the same heritage of millions who were not so fortunate.

Finally, Walker fills her essay with intriguing symbolism and analogies. Her mother’s garden, for instance, is a symbol of hope, for it shows how Black women can overcome all odds and find outlets for their creative drives even in the most ordinary—yet extraordinary—ways. The exquisite quilt Walker mentions is another such symbol.

Creative analogies and comparisons accompany these symbols to help readers develop a clearer (or at least more imaginative) vision of black women. When Walker says, for example, that these women are “Saints,” she refers to their deep spirituality but also the emptiness that creates a space for the spirit to grow even in the midst of pain and confusion. They persevered and continued to dream dreams and see visions, always reaching out for something larger than themselves.

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