Alice Walkers a woman is not a potted plant

Calloway, Ayasha Eng 102 - 010          Feb - 19 - 04 Explication of Alice Walkers "a woman is not a potted plant" Walker writes this poem using a potted plant as metaphor describing a woman's role in the 20th century. The speaker in Walker's poem describes the great depression of women during this point in time, by unfolding the difference between a potted plant and a woman. The 20th century was a time in which women were expected to …

…women so different than men when we eat the same foods, drink the same water, cry the same tears and bleed the same blood? In order for the traditional role between man, country and mother versus woman to evolve, a change in society must occur. Walker says " a woman / is wilderness / unbounded," and this line of poetry shows a woman's freedom of self, independence, individuality and equality to man, mother, country and sex (ll.29-31).