Am I Blue By Alice Walker

Alice Walkers’ book is titled, “Am I Blue?” the story is about a horse living on a few small acres of land not far from the authors’ home. Though the story seems quite simple and trivial, it gains momentum as it converts from a story of a horse to a comparison between animals and humanity. Alice Walker’s purpose in this piece is to convince the readers that animals can teach us many life lessons as well as, the different forms of pain and suffering that one can endure. She convinces us of this through her eloquent story of Blue. Alice Walker feels animals, especially horses, possess emotions similarly to that of human beings. She demonstrates this point by expressing, “[…] I had forgotten the depth of feeling one could see in a horses’ eyes” …show more content…
Walker pursues in showing how animals, specifically horses, should be viewed as more than heartless creatures, and humans should empathize more with them. She feels as though humans should be to view animals as having equal suffering capabilities as human beings. Walker indicates that humanity is not so different than animals and this is conveyed though the title Am I Blue?. On the surface, this can be interpreted as “Am I Sad”, but as the piece continues it becomes much clearer what the true meaning of the title Am I Blue? “Blue” is the lonely horse that she interacts with every day, and the beginning of the piece describes his actions of loneliness. As Blue’s world becomes immensely better with the arrival of his new mate, she not long after conception is taken from the meadow causing substantial destruction in his eyes. “If I had been born into slavery, and my partner had been sold or killed, my eyes would look like that […] It was a look so piercing, so full of grief, a look so human […]”(225). Walker creates a degree of empathy for “Blue” by relating “Blue’s” feelings to historical events such as slavery. Furthermore, she wants readers to understand that pain is felt by all living things