In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

ACTIVITY: “Page to Screen: Alice Walker and The Color Purple Film Study”

In this activity, students will analyze the film version of Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple and evaluate how it contains aspects of Walker’s philosophy as presented through the essays in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.

The film version of The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg, was released in 1985 and stars Oprah Winfrey, Whoopie Goldberg, and Danny Glover. You will watch this cinematic adaptation of Walker’s novel and evaluate the ways in which the film demonstrates Walker’s philosophies and themes as developed in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens.

• Analyze and evaluate how the unit themes appear in the film.
• Consider how characters are portrayed and how the setting is presented.
• Reflect on how the film adds to and/or contrasts with Walker’s essays and ideas.
• Collaborate with a small group to present your information to the class. This presentation may take the form of a slideshow, a poster, original artwork, or an engaging activity.

This activity will culminate in a seminar-style discussion in which you and your peers process the various thematic interpretations presented to the class. Keep in mind that the point of a seminar is to collaboratively uncover meaning and walk away not only with a deeper understanding of a text but also more questions. To this end, consider drafting comments and questions in advance that may help propel a conversation.

Teaching Suggestion: It may be helpful to pause the film two or three times during viewing to allow students to gather their thoughts and process the content with their peers. In many ways, this activity builds off the previous Discussion/Analysis Prompt: Consider reviewing the messages students identified during that task prior to beginning the film. This may help refresh students’ memories, sharpen their focus on important sections, and help them make connections between ideas/mediums.

Differentiation Suggestion: For students who need support with organizing their thoughts, consider providing a graphic organizer for note taking while watching the film. It may be helpful to note the themes of this unit on the graphic organizer and provide space for students to take notes when they recognize these themes in the movie. English language learners and students who are not auditory processors may appreciate subtitles during the film. If the class as a whole struggles with memory, attention, or time management, consider assigning each of the first three bullet points to a different section or group of students; this may help them focus on and accomplish tasks more efficiently. Students might then consolidate notes after the film, which could encourage collaboration and strengthen peer relationships.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. As she discusses in her essays, Walker is guided, taught, and influenced by a variety of artists and activists. 

• How do various diverse figures act as teachers or mentors for Walker? (topic sentence)
• Analyze the ways in which different artists and activists act as teachers for Walker. Refer to three different people mentioned in Walker’s essays and compare and contrast how they influence her philosophies.
• In your concluding sentences, connect your thoughts to the development of the theme of How to be a Politically Engaged Artist.

2. In In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, the garden becomes a significant symbol. 

• What does the garden symbolize, and how is this symbol significant to Walker’s concept of womanism? (topic sentence)
• Analyze the symbolism of the garden in Walker’s essays. Cite evidence from three different essays to support your thoughts.
• In your concluding sentences, consider how the symbolic garden shows the connection between the themes of Feminism Versus Womanism and The Role of Mothers and Daughters.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. In many of her essays, Walker explores the idea of choosing one’s home. Consider how Walker reflects on the concept of home and the ways in which one is, or is not, able to choose it. What is the significance of the North versus the South? How do the people she discusses in her essays offer a sort of permission to return home, and what is the significance of needing this permission? As you compose your essay, cite evidence from three different essays to strengthen your points of discussion.

2. In her essays, Walker often grapples with topics such as disillusion and awakening. How does she explore the shortcomings of ideas, education, revolutionaries, and social progress? How does she arrive at an awareness of these shortcomings, and how does this awareness fuel her own philosophy and action concerning justice and activism? In what ways does this contribute to Walker’s personal awakening? Please provide and cite three pieces of direct evidence from Walker’s essays to support your thoughts. 

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following from “Saving the Life that is Your Own” best explains Walker’s purpose for writing?

A) “In the writing of it I felt joy and strength and my own continuity.”

B) “I write all the things I should have been able to read.”

C) “What I had discovered, of course, was a model.”

D) “In the end, it is the saving of lives that we writers are about.”

2. Which of the following passages from “A Talk: Convocation 1972” best demonstrates Walker’s point about the specific obstacles facing Black women writers?

A) “Any school would be worthless without great teachers. Obviously I have some great teachers in mind.”

B) “Ignorance, arrogance, and racism have bloomed as Superior Knowledge in all too many universities.”

C) “If she is black and coming out into the world she must be doubly armed, doubly prepared.”

D) “Your job, when you leave her—as it was the job of educated women before you—is to change the world.”

3. What meaning is conveyed about Jane Cooper when Walker compares her to a pine tree in “A Talk: Convocation 1972”?

A) She is steady and dependable.

B) She is caring and sensitive.

C) She is obtrusive and bold.

D) She is difficult and stubborn.

4. What best describes the role that Zora Neale Hurston fills for Walker?

A) An intellectual equal

B) A mentor and guide

C) A cautionary tale

D) A counter to herself

5. How does Walker describe her reaction to finding Hurston’s grave in “Looking for Zora”?

A) Easily categorized

B) Disappointing

C) Confusingly simple

D) Beyond articulation

6. Which of the following statements best articulates Walker’s view of the civil rights movement?

A) It was an unsuccessful attempt at achieving racial justice.

B) It created a bond between activists and was therefore invaluable.

C) It was effective in the beginning, but lost efficacy over time.

D) It was problematic and created more division than unity.

7. Which of the following is not one of Walker’s explanations of the role of the Black revolutionary artist?

A) To teach and reteach critical reading of texts

B) To create and also preserve what came before

C) To reject a past that is no longer relevant

D) To revere the wisdom of one’s predecessors

8. To what choice does the title of the essay “Choice: A Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.” refer?

A) The choice to stay in the South

B) The choice to pursue higher education

C) The choice to be politically active

D) The choice to live a life of service

9. What best describes Walker’s impression of how Coretta King changed between her first meeting with her and the interview in “Coretta King: Revisited”?

A) She is more cynical.

B) She is more optimistic.

C) She is more spirited.

D) She is more reserved.

10. According to Walker, from what emotion does she write her best poems?

A) Nostalgia

B) Sadness

C) Frustration

D) Hopefulness

11. What best describes the tone of the passage from “A Letter to the Editor of Ms.” when Walker reflects on Frederick Douglass and his newspaper?

A) Cynicism

B) Disappointment

C) Appreciation

D) Optimism

12. On page 298, in the story “If the Present Looks Like the Past, What Does the Future Look Like,” the word “adroitly” most closely means which of the following?

A) Clumsily

B) Creatively

C) Skillfully

D) Interestingly

13. How does Walker react to June Jordan’s response to the panelist telling Walker that she should stop trying to “carry” her mother?

A) She laughs.

B) She cries.

C) She blushes.

D) She sighs.

14. Who wrote the curse with which Walker opens her essay “Only Justice Can Stop a Curse”?

A) William Faulkner

B) Zora Neale Hurston

C) Margaret Walker

D) Jean Toomer

15. What finally helps Walker heal from the emotional wound left from her eye injury?

A) She is able to talk to her brother about the event.

B) She seeks out reconstructive surgery.

C) Her family recognizes the trauma of the accident.

D) Her daughter compares her eye to the world.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. In the essay “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” what Virginia Woolf text does Walker refer to, and what is the impact of Walker inserting her own words into quoted excerpts from that text?

2. What is Walker’s understanding of the complicated conflict between Israel and Palestine in her essay “To the Editors of Ms. Magazine,” and how is this understanding reflective of her identity as a Black woman?