Alice Walker The Color Purple Analysis

Alice Walker give power to the female characters via female bonding, which enables them to discover their talents. It is imperative to notice that Walker female characters achieve psychological strength after overcoming oppression, but the male characters realize psychological wholeness and health when they recognize women’s pain and admit that they have a role in it. 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.

“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.

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.

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).

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).

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.

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; . .

HI, Miah you are right the Women 's Movement did change the view of women. However, there were different phases this movement. The 1700 's,1830’s,1837,1920’s and the 70’s are just a few eras where women fought to be treated as equals. The right to an education and freedom from slavery were all issues that impacted this movement. “Women had to create their own antislavery organizations because they were being excluded from many of the men’s organization” (pg.321 Social Inequality).

She not only fought for her own family, she fought the battle for all colored women. In her speech to address the first annual meeting of the American equal rights association, she sought to educate people on the importance of equality for all. After she worked to abolish slavery, she spoke about another parallel slavery situation that could or would arise if colored women were not given the same rights as colored men. She likened it to the fact that if you give colored men the right to vote and colored women don’t get the same right, you have created another form of a slave state. In that scenario, one set i.e. colored men would have rights and the other set i.e. colored women would not, which is the foundation of slavery after all.

As Black Women, we were stuck between the Black Power Movement and the Feminist Movement. While we wanted to help our “Brothers” achieve equality we also wanted equality as African American and women. But in both movements, Black Women were silenced and still faced inequality, white women of 1st and 2nd wave feminist movement pushed black women to the back of the bus and sexism ran rampant in the Nation of Islam and Civil Rights Movement. The problems that black women faced were not being heard even though both movements supposed to be inclusive, there was little thought given in regards to black women and their need. While white women were the face of the feminist movement, Black men were in the front of the Black Power Movement.

The way of African–American women life in the 1930s could be consider as never escaping the slave life. The Great Depression in America had forced domestic service to be the form of employment for black women. Black women had two choices in that time to either live with the family who she slaved after for or live on her own. The slave life haunted the black women for centuries because of one reason which was being colored. The reason nobody cared or have to give in sympathy for those that endure a burden life.

The Color Purple was meet with disapproval during the initial release mainly from the Black community. Still, to this day thirty-two years later Alice Walker is scrutinized with individuals making nasty remarks and attacking her sexuality. Did Alice Walker stereotype Black males in the novel? Absolutely not, I don’t believe she did. First and foremost, it’s important to realize that she is telling the story from the point of view of a Black girl/woman.