Roselily by Alice Walker - Two Stories in One In the story "Roselily", Alice Walker tells two stories in one. The most obvious story is that of the black American woman Roselily, who stands at the altar, on the verge of marrying a Muslim, as she thinks about her past, wonders about the future, and wonders if she is making the right choice. The other hidden story is the story of black American women in general, their history and their ongoing search for something better. As I understand the tale, Roselily's story is, as presented to the reader through Roselily's thoughts as she is in the midst of her marriage, a reflection of the plight of black Americans (and women in particular) around the '60. Right now, blacks are free Americans with the same rights as other Americans, in theory. Roselily is an independent woman of her time, but as a single mother of four, working long hours for a most likely terrible wage in a sewing factory, she is far from free. Black people are no longer slaves in the cotton fields, they are now paid slaves in the refining industry. Roselily is very aware of her situation and is willing to leave her past and start a new life with a new man. She has probably been looking for a better life for a long time, being with different men, who could give her a child, but not a new life. I feel in Roselily the need to move forward, symbolized by all the machines described in the story: they constantly move from one place to another, they give you mobility, they prevent you from getting stuck where you don't want to be. Roselily knows that she doesn't want to stay in the factory sewing, she knows she wants to move on to something better, but she doesn't know what is better, and she certainly doubts that what she chose will be better than what she had. His split personality is like the different groups of blacks in the civil rights movements. Some blacks wanted segregation, some wanted their own nation, some wanted to be more African, some wanted to live like white Americans, some were Muslims, and some were Christians. Everyone agreed that their current situation was not acceptable, but they didn't know how to improve it.