Alice Walker The Color Purple Analysis

Walker constructs a characterization of blues women (blues singers and single women) who continue defining their sexuality in The Color Purple that cast the characters in the role of conjure women who transform and redefine black female sexuality through the alternative view of womanhood. Blues women did not resist the 19th-century ideology but simply disrupted it for different values that overthrew the Puritan ethic. In the novel The Color Purple, the

“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society” (“Famous Angela Davis quotes - We have to talk about ….). Angela Davis no longer accepted the philosophies or ideas she could not modify within others, but worked to change the beliefs she could no longer accept. Davis aimed for her voice to be heard, so that her perspectives would perceive and taken into account by society. Davis is best known as a profound African-American educator, extremist for civil rights, and other advocate of other social issues. She realized about racial prejudice from her experiences with discrimination growing up in Birmingham, Alabama.

3.2 Female Character and Symbolism The Color Purple presents a story of Celie – an African American woman who fights for acceptance and feminine space in her marriage and as well as within her community. She is oppressed by racism and sexism at the same time which means that in the novel there are many scenes in which the dimension of intersectionality is easily noticeable. Confined by the patriarchal stiff rules, Celie gradually begins to make her voice heard. Obviously, it does not happen in the blink of an eye. Her self-development in a male-dominated community proceeds in a linear manner (Kristeva, 1986).

The mistress is proud of her sister Claire, but this doesn’t stop the mistress from taking a few shots at Claire anyway. She admires Claire’s accomplishments and even looks to Claire for approval. Claire’s view of the relationship between the mistress and her married professor is accepting. Claire says, “Just go for it, sister. If you can unhinge a marriage, it’s ripe for unhinging, it would happen sooner or later, it might as well be you.” Ironically, Claire’s lack of judgment makes her the better sister.

Anna Arnold Hedgeman’s legacy has served as a platform for many African-American women battling the obstacles of sexism, racism, and diverse forms of oppression. She resisted the social calamities common to Blacks nearing the end of the formal period of Reconstruction and endured the torments of Jim Crow. Hedgeman’s resistance to the social and racial persecution manifested in her protesting against the system that worked against the people of color. She used her education along with her influence to end the maltreatment of Blacks. According to the American National Biography Online, Hedgeman became the executive secretary of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC).

While Bethune was an ardent supporter, and frequently a part of the black leadership that defined key race issues and strategies, by 1928 she was extremely concerned about the lack of financial support from NACW members and African-American women that gave the causes and issues specifically related to NACW and also to black women. Racism was a big issue back in day for black women because they didn’t get recognize until this organization came into establishment. Bethune noted that black women spent an inordinate amount of time and raising money for male-dominated organizations and male-defined causes. Bethune 's focus on securing and maintaining a national headquarters brought her and her program into direct conflict with the old guard NACW leadership, which for years

Black women have been apart of social movements for over a hundred years. Black feminist have made efforts to work with organizations as well as create organizations to improve the life and liberty, and pursuit of happiness for African American women in America. Black feminist participated in these movements in hopes of helping with nationalism, racial and ethnic struggles, also to broaden humanistic and nurturing problems, finally to protect women’s rights and sexuality. One of the most influential black feminist women’s movements was The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is an American organization that was created in 1890 by the merge of two rival women’s rights

This narrows down Latifah’s intended audience from oppressed women around the world to a smaller category—women from the African American community. That one verse captures the essence of feminism—Queen Latifah is asking for black women to be treated with all respects that are due to black men. The rest of the song contains strong

Toni Morrison is the most important contemporary women novelists and critics in African-American Literature.The descriptive-analytical method of study by analyzing the situations, the characters and themes, the status of women in Literature are revealed and represented. Morrison very well describes how different women characters react and respond differently to the injustice and the inhumanity imposed on them in African-American society. African American writers are concerned with the lack of literature fostering strong female models. These women are bonded by their journey to overcome the internalization of controlling patriarchal perceptions and images of women, like the repressive stereotypes that permeate literature. Toni Morrison use of binary oppositional characters, mirrors, inversions, and metafiction, to deconstruct the stereotypical roles of both men and women, underscoring the role that literature plays in creating self-identity problems when women try to imitate fictional characters.

womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender. (xi-xii) ‘Womanism’ does not divide black society from within on the lines of gender but, stands for integration and has faith in the wholeness of the society. Throughout her literary career Alice Walker delveddeep into the oppression and victimization of African American women and this also forms the basic structure of the novel The Color Purple which has ‘womanism’ as its basic theme. To quote Krishna Mohan Mishra the novel; . .