The thesis of Walker’s essay »Am I Blue?« is that animals possess the same emotions as human beings and in this sense should be looked upon at the same level as human beings.

Walker’s essay »Am I Blue?« is a meditation on the shared qualities between animals and humans, thereby affirming a common foundation for all life. Through an analysis of the emotions of the horse Blue, Walker draws comparisons between her own introspective look at her emotions and the emotions maintained by Blue. Walker concludes from this interpretation that there is a common bond between humans and animals and therefore we need to re-think our classifications and some of our prejudices.

In her essay »Am I Blue?« the author Alice Walker meditates on the qualities, especially emotive qualities, of humans and animals. Her methdology is that of comparison. By looking at the horse named Blue, she tries to seek out emotions displayed by the horse which are also reflected in her own emotional state. Hence, when Blue is deemed to appear sad and lonely, this is a fundamental human emotion that is often experienced. This destroys the boundary between animal and human, as these are no longer emotions exclusively reserved for humans, but now apply to other forms of life. The essay forces us to re-think some of our most common and ubiquitous prejudices about human beings and our relation to the other forms of life around us. At the same time, Walker’s essay could also be looked at as a critique of racist and dehumanizing ideologies, which elevate one group of humans over another, an important point considering Walker’s background as a woman of color, a minority in two senses. Walker’s essay is thus an assertion of shared commonalities between all living beings, as opposed to supporting divisions.