Resistance against Marginalization of Afro-American Women in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

The world of literature can be a medium of expressing the writer's expressions and ideas. Universal topics such as, love, death, and war often become subject mailers in the world of literature. In the novel, of The Color Purple. Alice Walker describes the oppression experienced by Afro American women in the female characters of Celie, Nellie, Shug Avery, Sofia, and Mary Agnes who faced sexual discrimina!ions in a patriarchal society. Womanhood, education, and lesbianism are factors that help the Afro American women to free themselves from traditional values. The Color Purple puts into words the process of its main character, Celie, who tries to reject and escape from the male domination of her world. The other Afro American women characters that help Celie to find her selfidentity represent the manifestation of the rejection of the traditional values. This article. which uses the socio-historical alld feminism approach. is intended to analyse the Afro-American women's rejection of traditional values by focusing on the major character of' Walker's The Color Purple. Celie. as she develops from being a victim of traditional values to the rejoiceful discovery of her selfidentity.

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AN EXAMINATION OF SISTERHOOD AS AN EMANCIPATIVE CONCEPT IN ALICE WALKER'S NOVELS: MERIDIAN AND THE COLOR PURPLE

Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews ◽

10.18510/hssr.2019.76139 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (6) ◽

pp. 929-937

Author(s):

Kamran Ahmadgoli ◽

Liath Faroug Raoof

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Research ◽

Black Feminism ◽

Social Bond ◽

Bell Hooks ◽

American Women ◽

Secondary Sources ◽

Radical Feminist ◽

The Social ◽

The Color Purple ◽

Color Purple

Purpose of the study: The study aims to examine the concept of sisterhood as an emancipative endeavor to empower and free the Afro-American women in Alice Walker's (1942) novels: Meridian and the Color Purple, through the liberal treatment of Black Feminism. Methodology: Qualitative research aims to form speculations or facts that are derived from secondary sources. It tries to understand Walker's liberal treatment of sisterhood, in the selected novels, through the radical black feminism, and the feminist liberal lens of bell hooks. The study considered other related critics and scholars to help further illuminate the emancipative notion of sisterhood. The study is a library-based drawn on literary and critical books and articles. Main finding: The study clarifies the emancipative notion of hooks on Walker's feminist attitude of sisterhood in the selected novels as a privilege to enhance black women's growth and to strengthen the social bond to achieve women's liberation. Simultaneously, the study criticizes the Western oppressive authority as well as the traditional one-sided thinking of mainstream feminism. By a new and liberal reading of hooks' perspective, the study illuminates that the collective power and mass struggle of Afro-American women lead to self-realization and identity. Implication: This study can be used by scholars and activists to understand how Afro-American women have been undergoing a long process of transformation by radical feminist thinking, from exploitation, domination, and oppression toward the center of social, political and cultural focus. Originality/Novelty: A new reading of Walker's novels is utilized by the light of bell hooks' emancipative notion of sisterhood.

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Toward the Survival and Wholeness of the African American Community: A Womanist Reading of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982)

Journal of Black Studies ◽

10.1177/0021934719835083 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 50 (4) ◽

pp. 388-400

Author(s):

Terrence Musanga ◽

Theophilus Mukhuba

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African American Women ◽

American People ◽

African American Community ◽

African American People ◽

American Women ◽

Race And Class ◽

The Color Purple ◽

Black Poor ◽

Color Purple

This article attempts a womanist reading of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Walker provides a gendered perspective of what it means to be “black,” “ugly,” “poor,” and a “woman” in America. This perspective is ignored in the majority of male-authored African American texts that privilege race and class issues. Being “black,” “poor,” “ugly,” and a “woman,” underscores the complexity of the African American woman’s experience as it condemns African American women into invisibility. However, Walker’s characters like Celie, Sofia, Shug, Mary Agnes, and Nettie fight for visibility and assist each other as African American women in their quest for freedom and independence in a capitalist, patriarchal, and racially polarized America. This article therefore maps out Celie’s evolution from being a submissive and uneducated “nobody” (invisible/voiceless) to a mature and independent “someone” (visibility/having a voice). Two important womanist concepts namely “family” and “sisterhood” inform this metamorphosis as Walker underscores her commitment to the survival and wholeness of African American people.

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Para uma sociolinguística do texto literário traduzido: um olhar sobre ‘The Color Purple’ e sua tradução

Gragoatá ◽

10.22409/gragoata.v7i13.33520 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 7 (13) ◽

Author(s):

Maristela Cury Sarian

Keyword(s):

Alice Walker ◽

Black English ◽

The Color Purple ◽

Color Purple

Este trabalho tem por objetivo estabelecer uma relação entre a tradução e a sociolinguística, a partir da análise da tradução do romance epistolar The Color Purple, da afro-americana Alice Walker, A cor púrpura, realizada por Peg Bodelson, Betúlia Machado e Maria José Silveira, a fim de investigar como a heterogeneidade linguística da obra original, associada, sobretudo, à maior ou menor frequência de uso de inglês padrão e de Black English Vernacular pelas personagens, foi construída na tradução. Nessa análise, verifico quais foram os recursos utilizados na caracterização da linguagem das personagens e como estes podem ser associados aos diferentes graus de escolaridade e de letramento de Celie e Nettie, valendo-me, como instrumental para essa análise, de descrições da variação sociolinguística, das teorias do letramento e dos processos de aquisição de língua escrita.

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Making the Invisible Visible: Black Lesbianism in The Color Purple

Transilvania ◽

10.51391/trva.2021.03.08. ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 58-63

Author(s):

Ana Maria Basarabă

Keyword(s):

Mental Illness ◽

Sexual Orientation ◽

Black Men ◽

The Novel ◽

Multiple Factors ◽

Heterosexual Relationship ◽

The Color Purple ◽

Black Lesbians ◽

Color Purple ◽

The Invisible

The paper aims to disclose the factors behind Celie’s preference of transition from an involuntary heterosexual relationship to a homosexual one. I pursue this path due to multiple factors that occur in the novel and which nevertheless lead to Celie’s final homosexual identity. Homosexuality is far too often regarded as a mental illness and people have far too many times misjudged people with other sexual orientation than what the society perceives as “normal”. The findings of my research intend to show that homosexuality implies a variety of psychological, emotional and physical issues and that it is nothing to be ashamed or afraid of. Since racism has always been associated with Black men and sexism with White females, the paper brings the invisible Black lesbians to light.

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