In the essay "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens", Alice Walker created a sense of literary tradition among black women by providing wisdom for the past, with her discussion of artistic role models. This essay has a lot interesting of themes such as spirituality, creativity, oppression of black women, and respect. Black women have shown to be highly spiritual and creative but society has oppressed them by not giving them the freedom to create art. They have suffered because of unfulfilled potential and their sorrow supports Walker's perspective of black women's treatment by society. She though that black women sang, told stories and gardened in order to express their spirituality because they were impeded to perform art on a greater level.
             Walker starts this essay with a quote from Jean Toomer's writing. This quote showed that men were aware of black women's artistic talent and that they were hold back just to serve men and have low statuses. In Toomer's quote he states, "I talked, beautifully I thought, about an art that would be born, an art that would open the door for women the likes of her. I asked her to hope and built up an inner life against the coming of that day" (128). Toomer agrees that black women can become artists because they all have talent and invites them to hope and never give up because sooner society's roles for black women will expand with better opportunities.
             Black mothers and grandmothers needed to stop listening to men and society and start listening to each other if they wanted to fulfill their artistic potential. Walker's essay shows various types of oppression. Toomer agreed that women were seen as the mule of the world and couldn't show their talents to the world because they weren't allowed to. He said "They stumbled blindly through their lives: creatures so abused and mutilated in body, so dimmed and confused by p...