All posts by a.croftmoore

Alice Walker “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens”

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Alice Walker argues and proves the artistic abilities of oppressed Black American mothers, grandmothers and daughters during their enslavement and also within her own community growing up. Alice uses a lot of imagery within her text to prove the artistic ability of the slaves, and also what held them back from it. The abuse the women of the time endured, “…forced to bear children who were more often than not sold away from her-eight, ten, fifteen, twenty children” in addition to the lashing and rape, Alice asks the question of how? How could it be that the after all of this the Black American woman survived, to show her strength and artistic ability? Alice uses Phillis Wheatley as an example. She briefs us on her life, and the very few free years she had to express her poetic gift without a white man dictating what she did. Instead her priorities must be elsewhere, with her children. Even though, at the time her work was not considered great by any means, Alice proves “Its is not so much what you sang, as that you kept alive, in so many of our ancestors, the notion of song.”

Alice related her own life with her mothers duties within and outside of their home to that of the life of a slave. She doesn’t do it directly but there is a comparison that she is trying to make. Her mother worked long hours, made sure her children went to school and “made all the clothes we wore, even my brothers’ overalls.” This is her moms ways of not letting the world and others oppress her. “In the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., there hangs a quilt unlike another in the world. …it portrays the story of crucifixion. It is considered rare, beyond price. Though it follows no known pattern of quilt making…it is obviously the work of a person of powerful imagination and deep spiritual feeling…a not that says it was made by “an anonymous Black woman in Alabama, a hundred years ago”” This here explained that even with the little to no support and even materials she had she still expressed the artistic ability she had, just the same as Alice’s mother did. This, the power of courage and spirt, was what kept the poetry, song and artistic ability alive in the Black American woman after all this time. Well, that, and hope, hope that someday things would change, and there would be a way to express themselves for who they were.

Ghalib and his relationship with God

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Ghalib is a very emotionally centered poet. He will express his love but then, contradict his feelings with those of the “divine”. He seems to know what it is he wants, and feels, but yet he knows that his feelings are almost unacceptable by this divine or godly individual. His feelings and poetry can be compared to Emily Dickinson’s in this sense.Ghalib refers to god in his poetry in a similar was that Emily Dickinson does.He and Dickinson go back and forth between the notion that god is there, and he isn’t at the same time.

Ghalib is in a limbo between what he thinks he knows and his wants. Specifically in, “I’ve made my home next door to you,” version I, it is labelled the secular version. When comparing the secular and the sacred, we can see the difference with him speaking to that of a divine person and him speaking to a woman. He uses different pronouns in each. “She says to me: “Since you don’t have the power of words, how can you tell what’s in someone else’s heart—without a word being said”” and then in the sacred version “He said to me: “Since you don’t have the power of words, how can you tell what’s in someone else’s heart—without a word being said”” Both are the same, but so different at the same time. In the secular version it is as if he is being asked the question, not so much looking for an answer. In the sacred version however, the question and context surrounding it seems to be a question that needs pondering. It’s a question that we can interpret being asked by this divine figure. We can gather evidence just by the second version being titled “sacred.” The word sacred itself mean worthy of religious worship. Therefore we can make that connection between he and the divine figure in the poem.

Similarly to Dickinson, she goes back and forth between the idea of god in her society, such that in poems 712 and 465. In poem 712, “Because I could not stop for death—He kindly stopped for me.” She refers to death as a person, who we could easily mistake for god, in the hour of death that is taking her in a carriage to her eternity. In 465, “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—” She makes death a theme, one that we would think to be frightened by. What is ironic is that she plays it off in a humorous way. Her society at the time has influenced her religiously but she can’t make a true argument about god.