ALICE WALKER

This story is about a black girl who grew up in Poultry Street. She lived with her mother, but she never knew her father. Her mother worked as a maid for white families. She worked all the time and was often tired. The girl grew up in a poor black neighbourhood. It was awful. Girls were often raped. The girl was raped herself at 12 years old. One day her mother took her with her to work in a white family’s home. She liked it there. Everything was clean. She played. The next day, the man who lived in the house she picked her up after school. He raped her. Afterwards he gave the girl some money. The girl wasn’t feeling comfortable. She wanted to kill him. He continued to pick her up after school and give her money after he had raped her. The mother still didn’t know. One day her mother came earlier than usual to clean the house. She saw them together. She became sad and angry at the same time, and beat her daughter. The girl was now 16 years old and she was still with the man who also was a lawyer. He gave her compliments and presents. The girl started to hate her mother. They argued all the time. Her mother wouldn’t let her meet the man. But she did it anyway. Her mother was taken to an insane asylum. In the asylum she was given shock treatment and she became insane. The man was glad that her mother was finally out of the way. All of a sudden, the girl realised what was happening. She told the man to get her mother out of the asylum, but he would not do it. After a while her mother died, and then the girl killed the man. He had a gun in his office and once when they were there, she took it and shot him. The police thought burglars had shot him, since all his money was gone from his safe. But it was the girl who had taken it. Now she could afford to go to college.