Many black women have long been stereotyped as angry, weak mothers who have too many children that aren’t properly taken care of. In a well-known article published in 1974, Alice Walker explores this perceptive struggle of the African American female. Within the piece, she argues:
Black women are called, in the folklore that so aptly identifies one's status in society, "the mule of the world," because we have been handed the burdens that everyone else - everyone else - refused to carry. We have also been called "Matriarchs," "Superwomen," and "Mean and Evil Bitches." Not to mention "Castraters" and "Sapphire's Mama." When we have pleaded for understanding, our character has been distorted; when we have asked for simple caring, we have been handed empty inspirational appellations, then stuck in a far corner. When we have asked for love, we have been given children.
This powerful, and for some debatable, statement could potentially lead to many questions. Such might include, is this true: are black women “the mules of the world” and still suffering from subjugation? If so, in what ways is this affliction still a predominate theme in modern feminine black literature?
To answer these …show more content…
First of all, this is a paradox, since an autobiography cannot and should not be written or told by anyone else but the protagonist him- or herself. In addition, the fact that Xuela is trying to write an autobiography of a person that she has never met or known makes the title even more complex relationship between Xuela and her mother…suggesting that it is Xuela herself who is her mother’s biography: “the one who describes becomes the one who is described”…the autobiography is a result of the very strong bond between Xuela and her mother. She creates the autobiography and imagines her mother’s life as it might have been, and [it is] thus also her own
Black women are called, in the folklore that so aptly identifies one's status in society, "the mule of the world," because we have been handed the burdens that everyone else - everyone else - refused to carry. We have also been called "Matriarchs," "Superwomen," and "Mean and Evil Bitches." Not to mention "Castraters" and "Sapphire's Mama." When we have pleaded for understanding, our character has been distorted; when we have asked for simple caring, we have been handed empty inspirational appellations, then stuck in a far corner. When we have asked for love, we have been given children.
This powerful, and for some debatable, statement could potentially lead to many questions. Such might include, is this true: are black women “the mules of the world” and still suffering from subjugation? If so, in what ways is this affliction still a predominate theme in modern feminine black literature?
To answer these …show more content…
First of all, this is a paradox, since an autobiography cannot and should not be written or told by anyone else but the protagonist him- or herself. In addition, the fact that Xuela is trying to write an autobiography of a person that she has never met or known makes the title even more complex relationship between Xuela and her mother…suggesting that it is Xuela herself who is her mother’s biography: “the one who describes becomes the one who is described”…the autobiography is a result of the very strong bond between Xuela and her mother. She creates the autobiography and imagines her mother’s life as it might have been, and [it is] thus also her own