Essay on Uniting People in The Color Purple

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the story of a poor black woman living in the south between World War 1 and World War 2. This was at a time when, although slavery had ended,many women were still virtually in bondage, and had to put up with many conditions that was reminiscent of the days of slavery. The problem was that they had to endure being treated like an inferior being by their own families sometimes, as well as from the white people that lived there. It was a life that was filled with misery for many black women, and they felt helpless to do anything about their situations.

Alice Walker is considered one of the most influential African American writers of the 20th century, because of her raw portrayal of African American struggles and the injustices towards black women. She was the first African American female novelist to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for The Color Purple. Her work is appealing and powerful because “Walker's novels can be read as an ongoing narrative of an African American woman's energence from the voiceless obscurity of poverty and racial and sexual victimization to become a reshaper of culture and tradition” (Gray 527). Through

Alice Walker is a world renowned novelist, poet, short story author and political activist, with works including The Temples of my Familiar and In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. Yet Ms. Walker’s most critically acclaimed novel remains The Color Purple. The Color Purple tells the complex tale African American women, their brutal living conditions, everyday abuse, and their instinct to survive. The Color Purple was an immediate success due to its simple writing style, the intricate storyline, and compelling characters. In 1983 The Color Purple was recognized for these very reasons and graciously awarded The Pulitzer Prize For Fiction. Every year several Pulitzer Awards are handed out to distinguished

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, one of the most significant, noteworthy, and meaningful milestones in race- and gender-focused literature, carries potent messages and underlying themes that are vastly applicable to real life and to human nature, all of which are crucial to its overall, cohesive meaning. The most prominent themes include the reversal of traditional gender roles throughout history, the sins of racism, sexism, and other types of unjust discrimination, mutual love and respect in bonds and relationships, and the notion and development of self-identity. These themes and messages serve as a commentary on the human condition as a whole, for they are not only indicative of the motives of both protagonists and antagonists, but also

Celie and the women surrounding her struggle for bondage. Celie finds a bond with many females. Walker introduces the hint of Celie's sexual attraction to women in church. Afraid of men because of the cruel treatment by her father, Celie turns more and more towards the company of women, who represent love, warmth, and feelings of solidarity to her. Celie affirms her sexual identity in her relationship with Shug Avery. For now, it is manifested merely as what men cannot offer.

In 1982, Alice Walker published the most critically acclaimed novel of her career. The Color Purple is a novel that won awards like the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. The book focuses on the lives of African American women in the 1930’s and their insignificance in the American society. Throughout the book, many elements of symbolism like racism and sexism, nontraditional gender roles, sisterhood, and women’s rights are

The Color Purple not only brought to light controversial relations between women but also the struggle that African American women faced in society due to the oppression they faced in a predominantly patriarchal society. Its reception was an ultimate success because of the intriguing characters and format. In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple she uses her unique narrative style and complex relationships to emphasize how toxic relationships in the early twentieth century were dealt with.

Incest and sexual abuse are enough to rile the “civilized” psyche. So naturally, The Color Purple, a novel written by the author Alice Walker, has a plethora of sexual iniquities and domestic violence that shows just how strong women are in resisting abuse. Alice Walker, brilliant in disposition, writes a novel proverbially bursting at the seams with feminism and a passion for awareness in the struggle for African-American women, especially in the setting of the novel. Walker’s personal life and struggles along with harsh criticism over racism all contribute to the true hue of The Color Purple. Alice Walker was born on the ninth of February, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia (“Alice Walker...”).

Throughout history African American woman have been systematically marginalized by American society, but typically always found the strength to overcome. Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” is a classic epistolary novel that took place in rural Georgia and it was a novel that addressed the issues African-American women were facing in the early 1900s. Authors Bulent Cercis Tanritanir and Hasan Boynukara stated that “Epistolary or letter-writing as a literary form in fiction is a powerful genre for woman writers interested in using novel to examine modern society critically and present a world better than the one they have had.” Some of the things they were facing was how domestic violence was accepted as way of life, how they were forced into marriage, and struggles regarding to faith. There is an old saying that trouble doesn’t last always and “The Color Purple” shows how that even though these women went through so many hardships that they were able to still prosper and find the light at the end of the tunnel. Celie, the protagonist, and the rest of the women in the novel were abused physically, emotionally, and sexually, but they were able to still overcome the many hardships that they faced and reinvented themselves.

Alice Walker is American novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet, social worker, civil-rights, educator, publisher and peace activist. An acclaimed writer whose controversial novel The Color Purple (1982) won both the American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Walker writes powerful, expressive fiction in which she delineates the black woman’s struggle for spiritual wholeness and political autonomy. Viewing the African-American woman as a symbol representing hope and resurrection for humanity, Walker stresses the importance of bonds between woman as a means to content with racism and sexism.

One of the most popular works by Walker was, The Color Purple. In this Alice walker’s story, the reader meets a girl named Celie. In this novel Alice takes the reader on a journey through much of Celie’s life, and the lives of others around her. Alice highlights a number of social aspects in this story. Through Cilie’s life, Walker highlights the abuse and mistreatment of African American women in the 1910 through the 1940’s. “Women were also regarded as less

Finding one’s genuine sense of self can be a life long journey, filled with obstacles set forth by society, racism, and even one’s own self. The women characters portrayed in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple take on this journey and try to overcome the suppression built around them by others. These characters who battle the limitations of discovering their own way include Sofia, Celie, and Squeak. All three women take on the conflicts of relationships with men, with society, and even the fact of being a female in this point in time. Although these women fight the ultimate battle of being belittled throughout their lives, they finally overcome the obstacle and find their true voice within.

Womanism has been a dominating ethos in the twentieth century. The works explore the issues of gender, race as well as local and international culture in addition to national and global politics and economics. The Color Purple by Alice Walker delineates the same concept of womanism. Celie, the protagonist of the novel, affirms her black womanhood through her relationship with Shug Avery. She celebrates her black womanist consciousness by liberating herself from patriarchal domination. “To do so, she reinterprets history by initiating an alternative myth – the goddess before God, the mother before the father, womb envy rather than penis envy forming community of women who facilitate one another’s growth in course of the action in the novel” (Badode 36). As the novel begins, Celie is portrayed as the victim of her step father’s and her husband’s sexual oppression. Both men have internalized the White myth of male domination and hence leave no stone unturned to practice the

There are many different emotions associated with every color, by different people. Why do people associate these certain emotions with different colors? Associations with color are caused by objects, language, senses, and personality characteristics.(Hallock) A language connection could be connected by expressions in one’s language that are associated with color. Colored objects could be associated with people based on what other objects could be colored. For example, blood is red. Since blood is red, people could associate red with “death” or even “pain.” Roses are red also, so someone else who likes flowers could associate red with a nice smell or even beautiful. That’s where personality

The women in the novel with special reference to the protagonist, moves from being victims to self conscious beings and not only women but men also undergo a sea change. The concept of ‘Lesbianism’ which is also a corollary of ‘womanism’ has also been incorporated in the novel through the physical bonding that emerges between Celie and Shug Avery in the due course of the