Psychological Case Study
Ayatollah Grant and Willie Lee Walker in Eaton, Georgia. Her parents were sharecroppers and her mother worked as a maid to help to supplement the family income.
She was the youngest of 8 children. At the age of 8 years old, one of her brothers accidentally shot her in the right eye with a 88 gun while playing a game of Cowboys and Indians. She became partially blind and developed scar tissue in her eye.
She was teased by her classmates and felt misunderstood by her family, which caused her to become a why and withdrawn young lady. (New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2012) “For a long time, I thought I was very ugly and disfigured,” she told John O’Brien in an interview that was published in Alice Walker: Critical Perspectives, Past and Present.
“This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults and slights that were not intended. ” (Biography. Com) It was then that she became fond of reading and writing poetry.
SIX years later doctors removed the scar tissue from her eye and she later became high school prom queen as well as her class valedictorian. Although she didn’t feel quite as embarrassed about her eye, she still felt like an outsider and continued to find solace in reading and writing. (New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2012) In 1961 she received a state scholarship to Seaplane College in Atlanta and while in attendance became active in the Civil Rights Movement.
After 2 years at Seaplane, she transferred to Sarah Lawrence College in New York.
There she continued to be involved In the Civil Rights Movement and received her BAA degree In 1965. She also worked as social worker In New York as well as registered black voters In Liberty Town, Georgia. (New Georgia Encyclopedia, 2012) In 1967 Alice married white civil rights attorney, Melvyn Roseanne Elevenths. They lived in Jackson, Mississippi.
In 1969 they had daughter, Rebecca Grant. This was the same year that she completed her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland. Lice’s marriage ended in 1976 and she left Mississippi.
