Medicine
Alice Walker has used the simile of medicine for art and literature. She asserts that art and literature can heal people just like a medicine. Art works as a cure for the wounds that are caused by social injustice, racial oppression and suppression by legal institutions. African Americans were prohibited from all means of expressions, but it was through art that they gave vent to their emotions. Walker has given the examples of Toni Morrison and few other African American writers who narrated the experiences of Black community in America in their writings. Alice Walker, herself got inspired by the arguments of Martin Luther King, Zora Neale Hurston and Flannery O'Connor and their views shaped her sense of dignity and passion.
Mother's Gardens
The metaphor of mother’s gardens or paradise has been employed to urge the African Americans to fight for injustice. Alice Walker has contrasted the ideal and real life by providing this metaphor. According to the author, in ideal life or in our Mother’s gardens, there is no oppression or racial injustice especially for the women. They are not treated as mere commodities but in real life they are not treated as human beings so they must strive to get their share of life. The African Americans in general and the Black women in particular must stand against the prejudice that they face on daily basis in America. Alice Walker’s sense of self was also affected by the racist attitudes. She suffered from inferiority complex in her childhood just because of the superiority complex of the Whites so she has used this metaphor to instill a desire to search for the paradise.
Self
The author has used the metaphor of ‘self’ for all the disenfranchised, oppressed and socially neglected Black people. The experiences of the Self are a metaphor for the experiences of Black Americans. The experiences are not confined to past, but they have extended to present and future despite of the abolishment of slavery. She asserts that one is treated according to his/her appearance by the outside world and being black in color means that one would not be treated as a normal human being. If a community holds a low opinion of a person, it will automatically affect their own sense of self-worth. The author knew that she could become a good writer, but the society didn’t allow her to propagate her views. Her story represents the struggles of almost all the Black females. The systematic injustice perpetuates in a society and halts the members to excel in their lives. Alice Walker has insisted on the need for change through this metaphor of self.
