Reaction Essay - Alice Walker "In Search of Our Mother's Gardens" <Tab/>If we apply the principle of creative suffering to Walker's paraphrase, may the sadness caused by the loss of the young women actually heighten potential? In what sense does art exist because of slavery and patriarchy, not just in spite of them as Walker would have us believe? Clearly, the positive outcomes of suffering do not make the infliction …showed first 75 words of 692 total…

…showed last 75 words of 692 total…stories themselves, but something of the manner in which she spoke, something of the urgency that involves the knowledge that her stories--like her life--must be recorded." (2435) Walker regards the education of women as the essential element. Rather than merely regretting that black American women have not been able to "paint watercolors of sunsets, or the rain falling on the green and peaceful pasturelands" (2431) Walker emphasizes their achievements despite poverty, the burden of children and struggle.