Walker takes it a step further, however, using hooked cows and the stares of beaten dogs to reinforce the main themes of her story” (Christian 185). Walker is a writer who, with her writings, manages to touch not only African Americans, but also those who never knew what it meant to live and grow up in those types of conditions. Walker in his writings showed what it meant to be enslaved; he wrote from the perspective of trying to imply that love overpowered whatever position they were in. Alice Walker is vital to the ideas of literary traditions because she is a writer who talks about how she feels. He writes from what he knows, not from what he has learned. Walker, in her stories, expressed the problems that may have prevented a group of people from achieving what they wanted in life, but she still managed to show that these people still had joy in their lives. His works should continue to be incorporated into college level literature in order to maintain for those who do not understand the story of African Americans the struggle they faced. He is a powerful force in literature who can hold his own with the likes of Shakespeare because he presents his works in a way that makes the reader think about what life is and what is truly important. All three of these accounts support the main thought of this essay because Walker, as a writer, wrote from what she knew; she grew up in a culture where African Americans seemed to be slaves to their race which, in turn, constrained them