Black Woman's Quest For Wholeness

As a spokesperson for black women, Alice Walker is an important American black woman writer. She portrays her ideology of womanism in the novel The Color Purple (1984). Meridian, as Alice Walker's second novel, suggests the original shape of the philosophy of womanism.Meridian is one of her early works on the basis of her experience in the Civil Rights Movement. Walker created a black image, Meridian Hill, to explore the relationship between social change and personal growth. Meridian embodies the basic womanist ideas of anti-racism, anti-sexism, Afro-centrism and Humanism.This thesis consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, the thesis briefly introduces Alice Walker and her major achievements. The theory of the thesis is clearly defined. In the second chapter, the thesis mainly discusses the loss of womanhood of the heroine, Meridian Hill from the aspects of her conflicts with her family and the social movement. In the third chapter, the thesis analyzes Meridian's quest for wholeness in the Movement. It analyzes from four aspects to show the development of the heroine in detail. Chapter four is an analysis of the influence of womanism. Meridian, the womanist image, had influenced other people around her to come to the way of wholeness.The conclusion is that Meridian is a womanist image. Meridian not only demonstrates the relationship of personal growth and the social movement, but also suggests the original shape of womanist philosophy of Alice Walker.