Alice Walker changed my life three years ago when I first read her book ,The Color Purple. In this novel, Celie is a poor uneducated teenager living in Southern America at the height of racial tension in the 1900s. This book is composed of letters she wrote to God about her situations in life. She is impregnated by her father and then her babies are taken away from her. She’s sold to a new husband and forced into raising his children. Throughout the years Celie grows and learns more about the world and its operations. She is reunited with her long lost children once she’s an adult. After reading Walker’s world renowned novel, I was inspired to read many of her works. The novels I read turned out to be just as good as Celie’s story. Alice Walker has been the epitome of a novelist and a poet for decades. She continues to publish and write today, which is even more inspiring.
When I first read By The Light of My Father’s Smile, my perspective on sex, life, and death shifted. Alice Walker gets right into the matter of sexuality in the first couple of chapters. Love scenes between different partners is a frequent in this novel. One of many narrators, Magdalena is beat and shamed for having sex by her father, who’s unsure of his own self. She spirals downhill after this experience and becomes determined to be
sexually free, while holding on to childhood resentment. Her sister Susannah, sexually expresses herself throughout the entire novel. Life and death is a strong theme throughout this book. Characters both alive and dead, tell their sides of stories which compiles to be an amazing narration. Although certain characters aren’t alive on earth, they still exist and go through a change of life like no other.
Alice's Life 