Animals can communicate quite well. And they do. And generally speaking, they are ignored
Alice WalkerRead
All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. Girl, child ain't safe in a family of men, but I ain't never thought I had to fight in my own house. I loves Harpo. God knows I do. But I'll kill him dead before I let him beat me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the struggle of a woman in a male-dominated environment and her resolve to stand up against abuse.
Alice Walker's quote encapsulates the deep-seated struggles a woman faces within her own family, where fighting is a constant theme. It illustrates the painful reality of being surrounded by aggressive male figures and the fight for self-respect and dignity, especially in the context of love—where she expresses her commitment to Harpo yet recognizes the importance of self-preservation over tolerance of violence. The quote emphasizes the strength required to confront not just societal norms, but personal relationships as well.
Themes
StruggleLoveSelf-RespectAbuseFamilyStrength
In practice
Example use cases
In a women's support group, discussing the importance of standing up against domestic violence.
More from Alice Walker
All quotes →June Jordan, who died of cancer in 2002, was a brilliant, fierce, radical, and frequently furious poet. We were friends for thirty years. Not once in that time did she step back from what was transpiring politically and morally in the world. She spoke up, and led her students, whom she adored, to do the same.
Alice WalkerRead
On a spiritual level, it's as though with my sighted eye I see what's before me, and with my unsighted eye I see what's hidden. It's illuminated life more than darkened it.
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I think 'The Color Purple' is so bursting with love, the need for connection, the showing of the need for connection around the globe.
Alice WalkerRead
How long will it take the citizens of the United States, one wonders, to recognize that the house their country bombed in Iraq is the same one they were living in until it was foreclosed?
Alice WalkerRead
One white man on the platform in South Carolina asked us where we were going--we had got off the train to get some fresh air and to dust the grit and dust out of our clothes. When we said Africa he looked offended and tickled too. Niggers going to Africa, he said to his wife. Now I have seen everything.
Alice WalkerRead
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