Compare racial and cultural struggles in Alice Walker’s The Color

Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Color Purple, tells the story of a young black woman in rural Georgia over thirty years in the first half of the twentieth century. Through her letters to God and her sister Nettie, the protagonist, Celie, shares her struggles against physical, sexual, emotional and verbal abuse. Through Celie’s story and the stories of the other people in her life, the novel explores the themes of racism, sexuality, spirituality, and gender roles. Walker enriches the story and advances these themes through the use of symbols such as the sewing of quilts and pants; music; and the use of colors.

Alice Walker wrote ‘The Color Purple’ in order to capture and highlight the hardship and bitterness African-American women experienced in the early 1900s. She demonstrates the emotional, physical and spiritual revolution of an abused black girl into an independent, strong woman. The novel largely focuses on the role of male domination and its resulting frustrations and black women’s struggle for independence. The protagonist, Celie’s, gain of an independent identity, away from her family, friends, work, and love life, forms the plot of the novel.

The award-winning novel, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, is a story about a woman going through cruel things such as: incest, rape, and physical abuse. This greatly written novel comes from a very active feminist author who used many of her own experiences, as well as things that were happening during that era, in her writing. “The Color Purple” takes place in the early 1900's, and symbolizes the economic, emotional, and social deprivation that African American women faced in Southern states of America. The main character of the story is Celie, a fourteen-year old that starts writing letters to God for thirty years, and then to her sister, Nette, who ran away to Africa to save herself from the troubles Celie went through. Celie starts off as a pushover and very dependent girl that would eventually grow and develop into an independent flourishing woman that opens a business making pants for all genders. This novel shows the hardship of a girl becoming a woman over the course of her life and eventually standing up for herself and being confident. Many of the experiences and characters of “The Color Purple” are based on history of that time and a bit of the author’s personal experiences. Her use of epistolary allows the reader to learn everything in the point of view of Celie. Alice Walker's influences for writing this novel range from her childhood experiences to the white society in her hometown of Eatonville, Georgia. Even during these times, it still shows that women

In a world that is all too often obsessed with attaining spiritual enlightenment as if it were a twelve-step program to the gates of heaven, sometimes a voice comes along that transcends the myriad of confusing and contradictory rules that numerous religions use to shuffle followers to the promised land. In The Color Purple Alice Walker rises above the confines of gender and race in relation to religion. Her voice is also Celie’s voice—the voice of a person who has grappled with ideas of God and religion in order to allow an interpretation of a higher power that inspires characters within the book as well as its readers. The author draws attention to what happens when someone is forced to live by established ideologies that exclude rather than

“The Search for an Identity” In the twentieth century, women were looked upon as minorities to men. Women had different roles in society and were expected to deal with everything that was handed to them. This caused women to have confidence issues and often resulted in them cowering to the different men in their lives. In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, the women were looked down upon, disrespected, violated, and often beaten. The ultimate reason for the mistreatment lied in the troubles of the men’s past.

Toni Morrison is a truly extraordinary woman. She is the first African-American woman writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She is considered as one of the greatest modern female writers to exert a major influence on African American literature. Especially, she has created black female characters through a unique writing style and various symbols in her novels. Through Morrison’s works, she describes black women in America have been victimized by race, gender and class. They are ignored by not only white men, but also their own husband or same race. The Bluest eye (1970) is the one of the most outstanding novels to express inferiority complex of black women about the standard of beauty made by white and destructive effect of losing their identity in Black community. This paper is going to analyze two female

Alice Walker’s realistic novel, The Color Purple revolves around many concerns that both African American men and women faced in an era, where numerous concerns of discrimination were raised. Religious and gender issues are confronted by the main characters which drive the plot and paint a clear image of what life may possibly have been like inside an African American home. Difficulties were faced by each and every character specifically Celie and Nettie who suffered heavy discrimination throughout the novel at the hands of males. These traumatising circumstances develop the characters not only emotionally but spiritually. Walker creates a wonderfully literal novel which passionately addresses issues that were evident during the age of inequality. Due to the unique writing style, captivating female character developments and spiritual nature the author has successfully created an honest and authentic novel representing life as an African American woman.

In Alice Walker’s, “The Color Purple,” the concept of one’s journey to spiritual awakening is presented by the transformative nature of man and points out that the circumstances an individual is placed in along with the dynamics of one’s interactions with others are what shapes their identity . The reader is able to understand the conflicting forces that work to the advantage and disadvantage of man and relate them to the occurrences that happen in modern society. In the case of the narrator of the story, her surroundings are what prevent her from achieving her mental and emotional maturation. Although with the progression of the novel, narrator, Celie, is allowed to understand how she fits into the society she’s apart of through her experiences

……...An analysis of oppression and resistance in Alice Walker’s The Colour Purple (1982) and Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes (2007).

Toni Morrison is known for her use of poetic language. In many of her writings Morrison captures the pursuit of African Americans identities(Parnell). Considering Morrison never experienced the horrific tragedies she writes about, she is a witness to many identities that were destroyed by society depiction of them. The themes that Toni Morrison illustrates in her works Beloved and The Bluest Eye demonstrates how Toni Morrison works show individuals struggling with self-shattered identities that stem from society 's distorted expectations of them.

In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison brings to light the often unrecognized struggle that many people in the black community face. She exposes the “whitewashing” that has been prevalent in society for decades and the societal imposition of impossible beauty standards. Morrison uses the book to show us the psychological tolls on children and adults that stem from these unattainable goals. Children, like Pecola Breedlove, are so indoctrinated by society and the quest for superficial “perfection” that they lose sight of what truly matters. Those desires for superficial superiority even carry over into adulthood, as seen by Mrs. Breedlove’s “skin deep values.” The Bluest Eye even shows that anyone and everyone is affected by the desire to become perfect; even the Maurine Peals of the world have their own insecurities.

In The Color Purple, Celie is an example of the hardships that many African American women did and still do endure. She comes from a poor family, where her (step)father rapes her and when she becomes pregnant her children are taken away from her. When her mother becomes ill, she is forced to raise her siblings. Her (step)father threatens her and tells her that she should tell "nobody but God" about what he has done to her, so she turns to writing letters to God, and it is the only place that she is allowed to show her pain and vulnerability.

Alice Walker’s 1982 Novel, The Color Purple, captivates readers with its unique structure and moralizing themes. This fictional novel is written over several decades in the form of letters from Celie, a black woman in the south, and discusses many of the issues that she faces throughout her life. Most of the letters are written to God, while others are written to Celie’s sister, and some are addressed to Celie from her sister. Through writing these letters, Celie must face extreme adversaries, which forces her to question what kind of person she wants to be, and eventually reach her own self-actualization. Walker’s novel thoroughly expresses the value of communication in finding oneself, whether it be through confiding in other people, own

In the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker, the reader is led through the heart wrenching story of Celie, who struggles with everything from race to sexuality. Despite her novel being set in the early 20th century, Walker primarily uses two powerful forces that are still highly relevant in modern society: racism and sexism. Although some may argue that these are exhausted topics of discussion, it is worth arguing that these prevalent forces have only changed form over time. Racism is simply more systemic, and the sexism that Celie, as a black woman, also experiences is still in the foundation of the world around the reader. Some cases of these are reported to the public through the ever growing abundance of media sources, but it is crucial to note that these incidents only scratch the surface of the underlying forces in modern day society. Racism and sexism do not only apply to the black population, but the reader can evaluate how it affects the population with the help of Walker’s book.

The myth of Philomela has resonated in the imaginations of female writers for several thousand years. One particular writer, Alice Walker, revises the myth of Philomela in her novel, The Color Purple, through the protagonist Celie. Similar to the mythic narrative of Philomela, this novel intertwines rape, suppression of voice, and the destruction of feminine subjectivity to convey the realities of African American women’s lives during this time, dominated by racial supremacy and patriarchy. Walker alludes and revises the myth of Philomela by allowing Celie to express herself through letters, mentioning birds throughout the novel, including the imagery of blood, showcasing the close bond between Celie and her sister Nettie, and concluding the