Journal 1: Everything is a Human Being by Alice Walker

Alice Walker begins this piece by taking us through a whimsical journey through the forest. It seems to be a surreal world she talks about, comparing the branches on trees to arms on our bodies, comparing roots to feet, personifying every piece of a tree and drawing our minds to wander to a place where these trees speak to us and express their distaste in our species. This personification provokes sensation. It allows me to believe that these trees share the emotion we feel as humans when, as Walker explains, “loggers’ trucks, like enormous hearses, carry the battered bodies of the old sisters and brothers.”