On the Narrative of "Things" in Alice Walker’s Meridian
School of Foreign Languages, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China
| Abstract: | Meridian employs a "patchwork quilt" narrative technique, recounting the life journey of the Black woman Meridian from oppression to resistance against the backdrop of the American Civil Rights Movement. The novel abounds with descriptions of "things," which participate deeply in the process of Meridian’s self-remaking. Drawing on thing narrative theory and employing close reading as its research method, this paper focuses on key object-images in the novel, such as the "Sacred Serpent," "The Sojourner," the "Tank," the "Reservoir," and the "Black Church," with the aim of examining the narrative functions and agency that "things" exert in the growth of the Black woman Meridian. The study unfolds along three dimensions. First, it analyzes the cultural symbolic function of "things," revealing how they bear the history of racial oppression and the collective memory of ethnic suffering. Second, it explores the agency of "things," elucidating that rather than serving as passive background, they actively stimulate and propel Meridian’s real-life resistance in the Civil Rights Movement through their own agency. Finally, it returns to the ontological reality of "things,"demonstrating that as tangible material existences, they prompt Meridian to accomplish a thorough spiritual awakening and identity reconstruction. By analyzing the "thing-human" interactions within the text, this paper not only reveals the undeniable propelling significance of "things" in the growth of a Black woman, but also opens up a new interpretive discourse for understanding the predicament of racial inequality and other adversities faced by Black people and other ethnic minorities in the contemporary world. |
| Keywords: | Alice Walker; Meridian; Cultural Symbol; Agency; Realism |
| DOI: | 10.57237/j.ssrf.2026.05.001 |
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Received: 16 July 2026
Accepted: 17 August 2026
Published Online: 7 September 2026
Funding
| 1. | 武汉工程大学第十七届研究生教育创新基金 (No. CX2025515) |
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