Human Rights and Diginity: A Quest – Study of Walker’s Novel Meridian

Name of Author : Dr. T. T. Lasitha

Abstract: Afro-American literature claims special administrative and critical attention in the 20th century. The rise of the African American novel in the 19th century is both a social and a literary phenomenon important for understanding the boundaries the novelists have confronted and the ways in which these boundaries have been crossed. Alice Walker belonged to a society which censured individual expression for women. Inspired by Martin Luther King, she went back to Mississippi where she found fragmentation in her people and wrote the novel Meridian to conform her faith. This paper focuses on the journey of the title character, Meridian and her mother, Mrs Hill who being human fought for their rights in order to live a dignified life by overcoming all the oppressions and suppressions. Walker feels that the greatest value a person attains is humanity which is possible only for those who struggle to seek the wholeness towards the end.

Keywords : Alice Walker, Feminism, Feminist, Civil Right Movement, Women Empowerment, Economical Oppression, Social Suppression

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