Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Paule Marshall :: essays papers

Zora Neale Hurston, Alice baby-walker, and Paule MarshallAlice Walker, through her essay In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, and Paule Marshall, in Poets In The Kitchen, both write about the African-American women of the bygone and how these women have had an impact on their writing. Walker and Marshall write about an identity they have found with these women because of their exposure to the African culture. These women were searching for independence and freedom. Walker expresses independence as found in the creative spirit, and Marshall finds it through the spoken word. Walker and Marshall celebrate these womens lives and they see them as inspirations to become pitch-black women writers.Zora Neale Hurstons Sweat embodies some aspects that are found in Walkers and Marshalls essays. Delia, the main character, has an identity that is found through her hard work and spirituality. She also finds her freedom and independence in her home.It is essential to first analyze Walkers and Ma rshalls essays through from each one of the themes of identity, independence, and inspiration, respectively. Then these themes will be drawn out of Hurstons work to show the similarity between each of these writers works.Walker and Marshall write about an identity that they have found with African-American women of the past. They both refer to great writers such as Zora Neale Hurston or Phillis Wheatley. and more importantly, they connect themselves to their ancestors. The see that their writings can be identified with what the unknown African-American women of the past longed to say but they did not have the freedom to do so. They both admire many literary greats such as Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, and Jane Austen, but they appreciate these authors works more than they can identify with them.Walkers and Marshalls identification is link to the African-American culture that they have been exposed to throughout their lives. Walker states that Therefore we must pull o ut of ourselves and look at and identify with our lives the living creativeness some of our great-grandmothers were not allowed to know. I stresssome of them because it is well-known that the majority of our great-grandmothers knew without even knowing it, the reality of their spirituality, even if they didnt recognize it beyond what happened in the render at church (Walker, 1996 2318-2319). Walker delves into the subconscious and ever-present spirituality that is found in African-American women and she believes that it is important to identify with this.