American Women Writers

This blog is a cooperative study aid created by UCLA students in English/Women's Studies M107A American Women Writers in Fall, 2007.

In Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall we see that Avey and her family have probably asked too much of everything and they would look...

In the short story The Moths by Helena Maria Viramontes the 14 year old finds herself really dissapionted at her mom becaause everything tha...

The title of the Color Purple has a significant meaning to the novel. The color purple reperesents bruses that Celie receives. It also rep...

In the Color purple by Alice Walker we have Shug called Queen honeybee. Queen might be refered as the most important, honey represents her ...

This happens in Seventeen Syllables. Mr. Hayachi burns the honor that Mrs. Hayachi was given for her writing. The burning of the photo is im...

Sofia is Harpo's wife and a character from Alice Walkers The Color Purple. Sofia comes from the word philosophy and means wisdom and tha...

Terminology: Chicano Spanish Text: „But Chicano Spanish is a borer tongue which developed naturally‰ (pg. 55) Is the creation of a clash bet...

In Praisesong for the Widow, Avey, and her husband Jerome move to North White Plains after Jerome becomes successful. The move to North Whit...

Okeh Records is mentioned in Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow. In the novel it is stated that Jerome Johnson’s father had been a sc...

“Double-telling” is a term that was coined by UCLA professor King-Kok Cheung. Double-telling is when a writer includes a secondary story beh...

This is seen the story Parisesong for the Widow by Paul Marshall. Avey Johnston’s pocketbook becomes part of who she is and her identity. He...

Jerome Johnson represents the assimilation into the American culture. Before Jay became the obsessed money maker, he was a cultural man that...

At the end of Seventeen Syllables, Mrs. Hayashi implores her daughter to promise her that she will never get married. After suffering a gre...

In Voodoo, Legba is one of many intermediary gods through whom followers can communicate with God. He is a trickster god who is at once lam...

In Hisaye Yamamoto’s Seventeen Syllables, the Japanese ideals of Enryo and Gaman enter into Yamaoto’s descriptions about gender relations as...

Bursting with life and vitality, Abuelita’s house is a place of growth in The Moths. In stark contrast to the violence and alienation she f...

In Sandra Cisnero’s “Woman Hollering Creek”, Cleofilas moves to Texas from Mexico with her new husband, where she dreams and hopes for a bet...

In Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, the main character Avey reflects on her past after she abandons the cruise ship she was on, th...

He would grab my arm and dig his nails into me to make sure I understood the importance of catechism This passage is from “The Moths’ by Hel...

Felice in Sandra Cisneros "Woman Hollering Creek" is the optimistic force towards the end of the story. She helps Cleofilas when n...

In The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston struggles to find her own voice in her family’s history of talking-story. She has developed her ...

In Alice Walker's novel, "The Color Purple," Celie demonstrates a strong commitment to sisterly love through her quilt making....

In the Color Purple by Alice Walker, there is one particular scene in which Celie is so upset with Mr.____, she grabs a razor to cut his thr...

The Ibos arrival on the Landing comes from Praisesong for a Widow by Paule Marshall. The scene comes from the narrative in which Great Aunt ...

In the story, "The Moths" by Helena Viramontes, the hands show a transformation from: "bull hands," "clumsy hands,...

A literary term, Iconicgraphically refers to the method of reading for visible representations. Reading iconicgraphically is particularly us...

A theme present in "The Moths," a short story by Helena Viramontes, trans-migration refers to the passing of one element to anothe...

This name refers to Shug Avery in Alice Walkers’s, The Color Purple. Like the queen bee that has all male bees working for her, Shug gets a...

In the story, "The Moths" by Helena Viramontes, the moths themselves are representative of the conflict with modernity. In one asp...

A figure found in Helena Viramontes' short story "The Moths," a corandera is one who performs healing rituals. In "The Mo...

In the story "Seventeen Syllables" by Hisaye Yamamoto, Rosie is the daughter of Mrs. Hayashi. The name Rosie is symbolic of her yo...

In the story "Seventeen Syllables" by Hisaye Yamamoto, Mrs. Hayashi is an avid writer in a form of poetry called Haiku. Haiku cons...

Bildungsroman- According to Dictionary.com, it is a type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protago...

In the book, "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, the quilts that the women make are representative of the 'sisterhood' bet...

Juan Pedro is the husband of Cleofilas in "Women Hollering Creek", a marriage that was arranged by her father. The nature of such ...

In the book "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, there are many symbols of purple such as the flowers which Celie and Shug walk by,...

Colors possess symbolic value in Alice Walker's "The Color Purple." Most notable are the colors red, blue and of course purple...

Ghosts Ghosts are a recurring motif in the memoir, Woman Warrior. Author, Maxine Kingston tells the story of how her mother informs her of ...

In "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" Gloria Anzuldua describes her experience as a Chicana. Anzuldua explains that chicanos, or American...

Jay Johnson is Avey Johnson's husband in Praisesong for the Widow. Jay is the husband that she misses, and she is saddens by her lack of...

Jerome Johnson is Avey's dead husband in Praisesong for the Widow. Jerome is what Avey called her husband after he "changed" i...

Women Silence In Maxine Kingston’s, Woman Warrior women silence is a recurring theme that impacts the main protagonist, Kingston as a youth....

To Gloria Anzuldua language is useful beyond mere communication. In "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" she argues that language is a tool...

“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strength to e...

'Tabula Rasa' is a Latin term which stands for a new beginning, or a fresh start... some might even go so far as to refer to 'Ta...

White Tiger In Maxine Kingston’s Woman Warrior, the chapter “White Tiger” tells the story of a fictional woman warrior named, Fa Mu Lan. Ki...

In Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall Avey as Avatara embodies the new form of the African deity Legba. This is acknowledged by the...

In Praisesong for the Widow by Paule Marshall, Avey's life is held together by this symbol of her life. Avey herself has become fairly ...

Praise songs are used during rituals for funerals and initiations. In relation to Paule Marshall’s Praisesongs for the Widow, Avery Johnson ...