Meridian by Alice Walker

Author:Alice Walker [Walker, Alice]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Atlanta (Ga.), African American College Students, Voter Registration, Historical, Alternative History, Contemporary, Fiction, Literary, General, Southern States, African American women, Large Type Books, African American, classics, Feminism
ISBN: 9780156028349
Google: mX2UngEACAAJ
Amazon: B005DIB1H0
Publisher: Harcourt
Published: 1976-05-15T22:09:37.783000+00:00

The Recurring Dream

SHE DREAMED she was a character in a novel and that her existence presented an insoluble problem, one that would be solved only by her death at the end.

She dreamed she was a character in a novel and that her existence presented an insoluble problem, one that would be solved only by her death at the end.

She dreamed she was a character in a novel and that her existence presented an insoluble problem, one that would be solved only by her death at the end.

Even when she gave up reading novels that encouraged such a solution—and nearly all of them did—the dream did not cease.

She felt as if a small landslide had begun behind her brows, as if things there had started to slip. It was a physical feeling and she paid it no mind. She just began to take chances with her life. She would go alone to small towns where blacks were not welcome on the sidewalks after dark and she would stand waiting, watching the sun go down. She walked for miles up and down Atlanta streets until she was exhausted, without once paying any attention to the existence of cars. She began to forget to eat.

The day before her graduation from Saxon she suddenly noticed, as she looked at a rack of clean glasses in the dining room, that they were bathed in a bluish light. When she held up one hand in front of her face it seemed bluish also, as if washed in ink. Although Anne-Marion had moved in with her she did not mention the blue spells to her, and they would sit talking, eating the goodies she brought home from Mr. Raymonds and reading about Socialism.

Both girls had lived and studied enough to know they despised capitalism; they perceived it had done well in America because it had rested directly on their fathers’ and mothers’ backs. The difference between them was this: Anne-Marion did not know if she would be a success as a capitalist, while Meridian did not think she could enjoy owning things others could not have. Anne-Marion wanted blacks to have the same opportunity to make as much money as the richest white people. But Meridian wanted the destruction of the rich as a class and the eradication of all personal economic preserves. Her senior thesis was based on the notion that no one should be allowed to own more land than could be worked in a day, by hand. Anne-Marion thought this was quaint. When black people can own the seashore, she said, I want miles and miles of it. And I never want to see a face I didn’t invite walking across my sand. Meridian reminded her of her professed admiration for Socialist and Communist theories. Yes, Anne-Marion replied. I have the deepest admiration for them, but since I haven’t had a chance to have a capitalist fling yet, the practice of those theories will have to wait awhile.

But Anne-Marion, Meridian would say, that is probably exactly what Henry Ford said! Tell Henry I agree with him, said Anne-Marion.

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