Stripping Bark-Alice Walker's Poetry in confronting the taboo - Page 3
© Dorothy Harris
Considering that the friend Gloria, in the above poem "saves her" from her relationship with the therapist, for example, it is difficult to ascertain whether the suffering was because of the therapist or the issues she carried to the therapist. She also perceives that her life has been "shredded by an expert." On the other hand, her friend's interpreted response, that "other women have already done this sort of suffering" for her, implies, once again, that African American women have no need, not only for therapy, but for the type of suffering that brought her to therapy in the first place.
Walker re-creates the complexities of handling the stresses of being a woman, and of being an African American woman, and of the succumbing to the pressures of prescriptions and limitations of dealing with these pressures in this poem.
After the Shrink
Without my melancholia I am lonely dazed. Under the doctor's care I can remember nothing very long that is sad. Round and round I travel enduring my comfort.
The character in this poem is also revealing a duality in her perception of her relationship to therapy. She starts out by indicating that she misses her melancholia. The ambiguity in the poem, however, is most evident in the next few lines. "Under the doctor's care, I can remember nothing very long that is sad." This can be interpreted in several ways. I read it in two ways. Under the doctor's care I can remember nothing very long. The character may not be able to remember sad things any longer, under the doctor's care. Or the character may not be able to remember anything because of (or under) the doctor's care... which is very sad. The short poem ends with the character moving in a circular motion, enduring her comfort. The circularity connotes lack of progressive movement. The phrase, "enduring my comfort" indicates that the comfort is something that is, ironically, not necessarily comfortable, but needs to be endured.
Walker's characters dare to step out of restrictions that are set for them as African American women; often finding themselves involved in more complications. They must confront the stereotypes that are perpetuated in their own environments as well as those that are imposed by external arenas. For her characters in her poetry, their only solutions are often to find answers within themselves. Walker demonstrates this in the following poem.
On Stripping Bark From Myself
Because women are expected to keep silent about
