Alice Walker
Alice Walker is internationally renowned as a remarkable author, distinguished poet and
enthusiastic activist. She has written many books that include seven novels, four short-stories
collections, four books for children, and essays and poetry volumes. Walker is best recognized
for her 1983 novel, The Color Purple. This extremely incredible novel won her the Pulitzer Prize,
making her the first African American woman to be successful in winning the Pulitzer Prize
(Fiction). She was also triumphant in winning the National Book Award. In 1985, the high-
quality, prized novel was also adapted for a film by Steven Spielberg. Later, the novel was also
staged at Broadway Theatre (New York) in 2005. The life of Alice Walker is extraordinary not
only for the reason that she became the first black female to win the prestigious Pulitzer Prize,
but also because her accomplishments are simple reflections of a bright and diverse vocation
made from early gloomy years in rustic Georgia (White).
Alice Walker was the youngest child among eight children. She was born in 1944. Her
father was Willie Lee Walker and her mother was Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant. Lee Walker earned
bread and butter for his family through dairy farming, and sharecropping (Lazo 13). Her mother,
on the other hand, worked as a female servant for rich white people to supplement the family
income. It was Alice’s mother who supported her education throughout the initial years and later
at college as well. Alice had an inclination to writing when she was just eight.
In 1952, one of Walker’s brothers accidentally shot and wounded her from a BB gun in
the right eye. As there were no means of transportation, Walker could not be taken to a hospital
immediately. The family managed to take her to a doctor after a week. However, Walker’s right
eye had become lastingly blind till that time. This incident made Alice embarrassed, insecure,
and devastatingly timid. This was because she was stared at and taunted due to the formation of a
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scar tissue layer over her injured eye. This made her feel awkward like a pariah. Although the
tissue was removed later, she had adopted reading and writing poetry as a consolation method by
then (Lazo 25). Soon after the tissue removal, she became a popular girl and queen at her school.
However, she considered her traumatic wound valuable as it allowed her “really to see people
and things, really to notice relationships and to learn to be patient enough to care about how they
turned out” (as qt in Winchell 5).
In 1961, Walker attended Spelman College (Atlanta) where she attained education on a
full scholarship. Later, she was transferred to New York’s Sarah Lawrence College from where
she graduated in 1965. She developed an interest in the United States Civil rights movement,
influenced by her Spelman College professor, Howard Zinn. She has participated in activist
campaigns during her college life. Continuing the tradition, Walker went back to the South and
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