Common Themes In Alice Walker's Color Purple

Themes in Alice Walker the Color Purple
Introduction
Alice walker is the author of the color purple; the novel was released in 1982 and has won two major awards, which are, best fiction from the national book award and the Pulitzer award for best fiction (Alsen, 45). The book has since been adopted into musical and film while retaining the same name. The book focuses on African American women’s lives in the southern state of Georgia (LaGrone, 53). Moreover, the book paints a picture of how low the African woman is regarded in the social culture of Americans. Alice walker is not only known as being an Afro-American writer but is known for her use of dominant themes. Some of the well known themes include; gender, racism and religion.
The novel essentially focuses on the struggles and suffering of the black people in the United States. Walker is keen to show that being a black woman is fundamentally different that just being a woman,

Sofia finally returned to her family and Harpo, Shug also returned from where she had gone to with Germaine and finally, Nettie brought back Celie’s children. All this instances showed cases where people parted ways only to be re-united later. Each took their own journey and learnt their lessons, however, when they later meet their families and friendship bonds are restored which are stronger than their earlier transgressions.
Critique
Despite the many positive themes that are presented in the novel, there is an issue with the theme of voice and silence especially when sexism and racism are considered. One can conclude that walker is claiming that female speechlessness is caused by patriarchal surveillance. Another discrepancy that can be noted is with the theme of voice of the narratives, for instance Nettie and Celie letters shows two non similar narrative voices which are complementary and as a result place the narrative in a larger cultural context.