Answer:
(This isn't mine, these were two somewhat essays I found and put together, changing a few words. Depending on your grade level and level of writing change around the words to make it as if you wrote it.)
Throughout Alice Walker's literary works she uses her characters and her stories to help show the strength of women as they overcome the abuses men and society place on them. Walker shows this theme through her diction, literary devices, and imagery. These women have suffered physical and verbal abuse from men and from society. They have been discriminated against for the color of their skin and also for being females in a male-dominated society. Walker uses this theme to comment on social injustices during that time. Not only are blacks considered to be the lowest in society, but women are even lower than black men. Walker comments on the mistreatment women deal with, they are used to sex and pleasure, raising children, keeping the house, farming the land, cooking meals, and are also punching bags for men. Women were expected to do what they were told and keep quiet. They were meant to be seen working but never heard. Women did not have a voice during this period in society, but Walker showed the reader what women really wanted to say during their lives. This story is a prime example of how women are oppressed by men in this society and far from discussing their strength and bravery it shows how they just become pedestals for the men in their lives and useful only to ride like kids riding a wooden rocking horse until the men are satisfied.
Word Count : 238
