Long and short summary of the novel meridian by alice walker
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The first major event is Meridian's teenage pregnancy. She gets knocked up by a dude named Eddie and they get married. Hurray? Not so fast. It isn't long before Eddie leaves her out of the blue. That same day, Meridian watches a news story about the firebombing of a house that held a voter registration drive. Oh no. This is actually a good thing though, because it gets Meridian involved in the Civil Rights Movement.
Although Meridian was kicked out of school after getting pregnant, she gets a second chance when she's offered a full ride to Saxon College. There, she meets Anne-Marion, who becomes a new BFF and fellow protester. She also gets closer to Truman, a good-looking (and smart) activist whom she met before moving to Saxon. Times are tough, but things are certainly looking up.
Then, almost as quickly, everything goes bad. First, Truman dumps Meridian so he can date white exchange students (how exotic). Then, the Sojourner (a legendary tree on campus) is destroyed, which bums Meridian out to no end. Finally, after Meridian falls deathly ill for several days, Anne-Marion announces that they can't be friends anymore. What a drama queen. Although Meridian sticks around for a few more years, she ultimately decides to go work among the people in the small, poor communities of the South.
Time passes. Truman marries one of the white exchange students named Lynne; they move down to Mississippi to do their part. Meanwhile, Truman continually visits Meridian, who is traveling between towns as her health worsens. After the death of Truman and Lynne's daughter, Camara, and the crumbling of their marriage, Meridian manages to bond with both spouses.
Suddenly, Truman is overcome by a change. After going on voter registration runs with Meridian, he decides to join her quest. Meridian's health is restored and she leaves to go to a new town. Truman remains and has a fainting spell—just as Meridian once did. In that state, he imagines that Anne-Marion will arrive someday to follow in his footsteps, just as he did with Meridian.