In Alice Walker’s response essay, “In Search of our Mother’s Gardens” to Virginia Woolf's essay, “What if Shakespeare Had Had A Sister?” is a particularly obscure and an intriguing one. Alice Walker draws various instances where women of color encountered oppression and instances which her grandiloquent poetry shines. Walker appears to be displeased that Woolf did not include/focus the struggles that women faced who weren't white. This begs the question: What is the importance of including women of color in discussions of gender? We shall delve into the dark depth of the perception of feminism, feminist issues, and beyond. Disclaimer: the following contains my opinion, biases, and my own perspective on the matter at hand. I’ll do my best to dissect the topics of gender and race by articulating my thoughts that are both insightful and engaging. In order to understand Walker’s response, we must also understand Virginia Woolf's essay, “What If Shakespeare Had Had A Sister?”. First, Woolf describes a fictitious scenario in which Shakespeare had…show more content… It begins with Jean Toomer, an African American poet, who discovers that the lives of black women have been disheartened by society and by themselves, and wishes to reel in hope for the black women. Alice Walker refers to the black women as our “mothers and grandmothers”, which draws sympathy from the reader as the reader would picture their meek and loving mother and grandmother being taunted by the ruthlessness and humanity during the 18th century. She lists the few vulgar names and insults that have been directed towards our “mothers and grandmothers”, such as “Matriarchs,” “Superwomen,” “Mean and Evil Bitches,” (50 Essays, 452) and so on. She points out that Woolf didn’t specify the distinct difference between how women of color than white women were treated
