User:Thealexjr100/Meridian (novel)

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In Alice Walker's "Meridian" you see the challenges a woman who is of color faces and a woman in general faces. Upon getting pregnant out of wedlock in Meridians teenage years she is expelled from school and forced to give up her education. Meridian after a few years decides to give up her son Eddie Jr because she realizes that Eddie Jr had paralyzed her dreams and ambitions. Meridian chose to give up her son because she did not want to repeat what her mother had done- her mother too had given up her teaching career upon having children. In Meridian we also see other young girls who were forced to give up their education due to teenage pregnancies. Meridian's friend Nelda is also forced to give up her education upon getting pregnant. "The Wild Child" who was a girl that had been living on the streets and became pregnant was under the care of Meridian but due to "The wild child running out on the street while heavily pregnant was hit by a car and lost her life. Another example was a thirteen-year-old girl, who killed her child and was in prison for that crime. While visiting the girl Meridians sympathies are not with the girl's murdered child but rather her sympathies are with the young mother who killed her child.  These girls had dreams which became paralyzed by their teenage pregnancies.  In Alice Walkers "Meridian" we see that women are expected to get married and have children.  If they were working or had careers prior to getting married and having children -it has to stop once they have children.  Meridian goes through a lot of depression whether it was post-partum depression or if it was depression that was not related to post- partum depression is not clarified, but nevertheless Meridian is going through a lot of depression where she has thoughts of killing her child and when has to wake up in the night to attend to Eddie Jr. she is comparing that to slavery. Walker is telling the readers that "motherhood" is not for everyone despite almost all women being equipped and expected to have children. Meridian also knew that her mother was not someone who wanted to become a mother but following past generations of women in her family she too chose to become a wife and mother. However, In Walker's "Meridian" we see Meridian go against the norms of society; she gives up her son Eddie Jr for adoption to pursue her education and becomes an activist in the civil rights movement.

Context: Walking the Red Road: Mobility, Maternity and Native American Myth in Alice Walker's Meridian by Lindsey Tucker

Meridian feels guilty, regarding her own birth as a theft to her mother's life.

Meridian's immobility, derived from her status as both mother and daughter, is in part expressed by means of the numerous examples of pregnant women in the novel, all of whom become victims of entrapment. There is Nelda, Meridians childhood friend, who, pregnant at fourteen, surrenders both education and mobility, but achieves in return the status of the good daughter. There is the Wild Child, and abandoned girl whose lifelong survival alone on the streets is terminated by pregnancy. Escaping Meridian's care and "running heavily across a street, her stomach the largest part of her," she is finally killed by a car (Meridian 37).

There is the thirteen-year-old child - murderer Meridian visits in prison, whose awful act engenders in Meridian more sympathy for the mother than the murdered child.

Context: Natural Woman, Unnatural Mother: The Convergence of Motherhood and the “Natural” World in Alice Walker’s Meridian By Sampada Chavan1 Reference

When Meridian gets pregnant at the age of seventeen she marries Eddie, her child’s father, only to realize that this life is not perfect for her. When she returns from the hospital and has to care for her baby, Eddie Jr., she finds herself exhausted. When her son cries in the middle of the night, Meridian “lurch[es] toward his crib” and thinks to herself if this “is what slavery is like” (65). Either due to postpartum depression or just plain frustration, Meridian soon begins to fantasize about killing her own son because that would mean she is free again. At the tender age of seventeen, due to the “ball and chain” effect of her son, Meridian realizes that parenthood is a sexist job, where society’s expectations of a mother are very different from that of the father

After battling suicidal thoughts and dreams of wanting to kill her son, Meridian gives up Eddie Jr. for adoption and decides to attend Saxon College on a scholarship

References:

1.Natural Woman, Unnatural Mother: The Convergence of Motherhood and the “Natural” World in Alice Walker’s Meridian By Sampada Chavan1 Reference

2.Walking the Red Road: Mobility, Maternity and Native American Myth in Aice Walker's Meridian by: Lindsey Tucker

Lead(Theme)
=== Throughout Meridian you can see the power against racism, through Walker describing how Meridian and other activists were trying to fight against everyone. However Meridian thinks that throughout the protests that she is somewhat not ready to become fully radical. On the other hand you can see that Lynne is unable to spread her message to others, as if she was scared, due to Truman ruining it. But Meridian didn't give up and continue to fight, because she was sick of the racism, and wanted to fight for their rights, in which she did. ===

References:Walker, Alice. Meridian, Harcourr Brace Jovanovich, 1976
Context: Freedom Summer

After the monumental efforts of many to achieve the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Civil Rights Movement continued through the 60s and 70s through the organization of a new generation of young activists. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organized student sit-ins at segregated lunch counters and what became known as Freedom Summer--an effort to register black voters in Mississippi. Over a thousand volunteers, mostly white college students from northern cities, joined with Mississippians to go door to door. In addition, the SNCC also set up "Freedom Schools," aimed at educating black children. Volunteers were met with resistance and violence, most notably the fates of three men: two white volunteers from NY, Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman and a local black man, James Chaney. Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman were missing for over a month until their bodies were found murdered and buried in early August of 1964. Walker sets the novel during this time with her three main characters, Meridian, Truman, and Lynne, getting involved in this movement and meeting each other through it.

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Themes in the novel

Article body:
In Alice Walker's "Meridian" the theme of motherhood is very prevalent but is not highlighted in the traditional way. Meridian who becomes a mother really young has an experience with motherhood most would frown upon. In most cases mothers decide to stick with the child they birthed because that is what most people do but Meridian chose the opposite. Meridian does not take the traditional route of motherhood but instead she defies society rules and creates a life suitable for herself. She decides to give up her son to follow her desires of going to college and being a writer. In the book, the examples of motherhood around Meridian were very "heroic. " However, this "heroism" was not out of strenght it was out of necessity and Meridian sought to change that, with the action of giving up her child to pursue her dreams.

Reference:

 * 1) https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1791&context=jiws
 * 2) Chavan, Sampada (2015-01-30).https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol16/iss2/12Journal of International Women's Studies. 16 (2): 188–199. ISSN 1539-8706.
 * 3) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281060546_Heroic_Mothers_Troubled_Daughters_Re-defining_the_self_vis-a-vis_African-American_Motherhood_in_Alice_Walker%27s_Meridian