The Color Purple, an epistolary novel penned by American author Alice Walker in 1982 explores several controversial themes such as gender roles, racism, sexual identity, and powerful female relationships. It opens a window for the readers to immerse themselves in a journey that emphasizes on the lives of African Americans in the Southern United States, and of destruction of African traditions in the African continent, both perspectives focusing on female’s lives in particular. The main plot revolves around the lives of two sisters, Nettie and Celie from a southern Black family and how their lives in two different continents are contradictory and the influence one sister leaves on the other that will change her life forever.
The protagonist of the novel, Celie, older of the two sisters endures a life of hardship being left in the hands of an abusive stepfather and later an abusive husband. She considers herself as a black, ugly and an uneducated woman. Completely lacking self-esteem she seeks solace in the arms of God, by addressing several letters to him throughout her life. Memories of her rape at a young age and loss of her children leaves her wrecked, unable to pick herself up she completely loses purpose of life and her sole idea of living revolves around mere existence at others mercy. Throughout the letters there is an internal conflict within her, whether to leave fate at the hands of God and be a bystander or to decide her own fate by stepping out into the world.
The Betrayal of Heritage Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia on February 9th 1944. On her journey to success she worked as a social worker, teacher and thereafter she became a lecturer. She was also part and parcel of the Civil Right Movement in Mississippi during the 1960’s. Apart from being a reputable poet and writer, Walker also won herself a Pulitzer award for fiction on account of her 1982 novel “The Color Purple”. “Everyday use” is a short story found in Walker’s (1973) collection “In love and in Trouble”.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker should be kept in school libraries because it conveys the importance of family, shows examples of overcoming hardship and discusses serious topics such as rape and death. The Color Purple is an inspiring, beautiful, and powerful read for teens. The Color Purple is important for teens to read because its most prominent theme is how family sticks together through thick and thin, and it talks about the value of it as well. Within the first 20 pages of the book, Celie is separated from her sister, Nettie.
The Color Purple tells the story of a young girl, Celie, who lives in the early 1900’s in the South. By the age of 14, she has been raped and pregnant twice by her stepfather Fonso. Celie has a deep relationship and love for her younger sister Nettie, just like Esch is valued and supported by her brothers Randall, Skeet, and Junior. Both girls face struggles with men and are pressured to mature at a very young age due to the responsibilities that life, and men, throws at
In the novel by Alice Walker, “The Color Purple” write about a woman’s right and status during the early 20th Century in Rural Georgia. In the beginning, Celie was living with her stepfather, Pa and later on living with her husband Mr.__ _, Albert. With the topics of rape, incest, abuse, and forced labor, the main character Celie weak and powerless was only able to tell these stories through letters through God. In the novel, Pa states “ You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy”(Walker 1).
Alice Walker is considered a Revolutionary for many people because of the struggles she fought through as an African American woman, novelist, and activist living in the mid to late 1900’s. Alice Walker shows how women have struggled in America with having similar and equal rights to white men. She also shows how African Americans struggle with the same problems when it comes to achieving similar or equal rights to a white male. In the novel, “The Color Purple”, written by Alice Walker, the main protagonist, Celie, learns to find her own voice and own self worth through a series of obstacles that she had to overcome throughout her journey; similar to the way Alice Walker also had struggles of being an African American woman during the mid to
It is a novel which can be read crossing all the cultural boundaries, as bell hooks praises “it is truly popular work-a book of people-a work that has many different meanings for many different readers.” (454) The color ‘purple’ teaches the world of women that they have endless potentiality not only to the black women but to all women who get ready to fight for their
The short story, Everyday Use, is written by Alice Walker. This short story tells about the narrator, mama, and her daughter Maggie wait for a visit from Dee, mama’s older daughter. Throughout this short story, the reader can see the distraught relationship between mama and Dee. The reader can see how Dee is different than mama and Maggie; she thinks that she knows way more about her heritage than mama and Maggie, when she really does not. In the short story, Everyday Use, Walker uses imagery, symbolism, and point of view to show that heritage can only be understood when one is true to their roots.
In this view women are more open to the opportunities of improving their own status if overlooking the norms and rules set by society and rejecting submission to their male counterparts. Moreover, violence through male oppression is also evident in the objectification of females in the Color Purple. Celie and other women’s worth are valued by their purity and their ability to work within the homes and on the plantations. When Mr Albert comes to ask Celie’s stepfather to ask for Nettie’s hand he refuses, saying that ‘make a schoolteacher’ (Walker, 1986) out of her and offers him Celie as she is the oldest and isn’t ‘fresh’ (Walker, 1986) because she ‘spoiled’ (Walker, 1986)
In their diary entries, The Freedom Writers shed light on physical abuse, which can allow students to see that what they are going through is not normal. When the students read The Color Purple by Alice Walker, multiple students relate abuse they personally experience to what Celie experiences in the novel. One student writes about how they “...always knew I had to be careful and protect my mom because my stepdad is a professional alcoholic... He doesn’t care about anything and tries to destroy anything that gets in his way.
Introduction The Color Purple is a novel written by an American author Alice Walker and was published in 1982. It won numerous awards in literature and film as it had many musical, film and radio adaptations, particularly the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It primarily involves the subject of feminism and addresses issues in sexism and racism in the early 20th century in the United States. The story is all about a girl named Celie, a black woman who lives in the Southern part of US.
The Color Purple is written by Alice Walker, and was later made into a film directed by Steven Spielberg. The Color Purple focuses on a woman who is going through struggles in life, such as her father raping her as a child and her oppressed marriage. In the end she learns to deal with life through God and to take everyday as a blessing. Not only does the film and book speak about life struggles but also they share the points of happiness in the book, and love, in the film through the plot structure, the mood, and the journey to womanhood.
Literary Analysis: The Color Purple Every individual learns something new or different every day, whether it is somebody’s favorite color or learning something new about yourself. Many people can either learn from their hardships and past experiences, while others may learn from other people’s past through stories or guidance. Throughout the novel, The Color Purple written by Alice Walker, the main character, Celie, learned how to love herself, that everyone makes mistakes, and face her fears.
For example, Celie becomes socially, economically and spiritually free, she sins love, dignity, and respect. This paper has analyzed how the characters in The Color Purple arouse their self-consciousness, through sisterhood and encouragement, love and help from their partners. The author demonstrates how the characters escape degradation caused by mistreatment by men and finally win dignity. The paper recognizes that Celie utilizes sisterhood to gain liberation, sexual identity independence, and freedom. Works Cited Thyreen, Jeannine. "
Family Through According to Alice Walker Alice Walker had a lot to say about family in her book, The Color Purple, in this book family had loose conditions and was often inter tangled. Celie’s friends and family were remarkably confusing and complicated at times, because many people were sleeping with people they were not married to and that was married to their friends. However, no family is perfect, so why would this one be, in the end it was all Celie and everybody else really needed.
Monika Pareek Professor Dasgupta Women's Writing 7th April 2016. Exploring the idea of 'womanism' in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker (b. 1944) is a novel of celebration of black women who challenge the unjust authorities and emerge beyond the yoke of forced identities. It is situated in Georgia, America, in 1909 and written entirely in the epistolary form, mainly by Celie, the main protagonist and her sister, Nettie.