Reversal of Stereotypes in Alice Walker's The Color Purple: God, Gender, Narrative and Sexuality

Unlike most African-American authors, who constantly mirror the repressive effects of racism, classicism and gender discrimination, Alice Walker (1944–) in her The Color Purple (1982) compulsively deals with sexism that was still pervasive within African American communities during the early twentieth century. She argues that just as black groups are relegated to an underclass due to the colour of their skin in a wider milieu of white society, in the same way the black women are reduced to a more inferior class due to their sex in their own community. For women’s self-emancipation from such an inhibitory patriarchy, the novel gives an overarching emphasis on the formation of language, execution of voice, review of sexual preference and redefinition of identity of her female characters, the protagonist Celie in particular. This paper examines how, by a fusion of the bildungsroman and epistolary conventions, the novelist melds a unique way for her women creating a God for their own and carving out a niche in social and economic concerns. It assesses the strategic reversal of gender stereotype as well as sexual orientation in order to establish the independence and equality of women on a par with men. The paper ends up with the claim that the novel is predicated upon the theoretical prism of womanism, previously premised by Walker herself, which puts extensive emphasis on a deeper, empathetic relationship and camaraderie of women.

Continuity of Womanist Ethos: Intertextuality in Select Novels of Alice Walker

This study uses the relational content analysis method and theories of intertextuality, intersectionality, and womanism to explore the continuity of womanist ethos in select novels of the African-American novelist Alice Walker. It attempts to explore Walker’s use of womanism as an intertextual trope in The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), Meridian (1976), The Color Purple (1982), The Temple of My Familiar (1989) and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992); Walker’s portrayal of Celie-Shug as a perfect womanist couple in Color Purple and their reappearance in Temple as mother trees; foremothers as role models in Third Life and Temple; Walker’s telling and retelling of Tashi’s life-long suffering from female genital mutilation (FGM) in Color Purple, Temple, and Possessing – the subject of this paper.

Locating Banned Books: A Collection Analysis of Libraries in Arkansas and Tennessee

No library can make everything available to its patrons. However, libraries should adhere to the American Library Association (ALA) for guidance on what items are banned from the library's collections. Censorship and intellectual freedom have gained attention for how it affects libraries and the restraints it individualized for banned or forbidden items. Difficulties are characterized as formal, composed complaints recorded with a library or school asking for specific materials to be expelled from view because the substance may not be considered appropriate for the users. The purpose of this study is to compare a selected set of previously banned books or challenged titles in the collections of twelve public libraries within two southern states: Arkansas and Tennessee. The titles include: I Know Why the Cage Birds Sings by Maya Angelou; Beloved by Toni Morrison; Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; and The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

African American Queer Cinema

African American queer cinema was born as a reaction to the AIDS/HIV epidemic as well as the blatant homophobia that existed within the Black community in the 1980s. It began with the pioneering works of queer directors Isaac Julien and Marlon Riggs and continued during the new queer cinema movement in the 1990s, particularly including the works of lesbian queer director Cheryl Dunye. However, these works were infinitesimal compared to the queer works featuring primarily White lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) protagonists during that time. That trend continues today as evidenced by looking at the highest-grossing LGBTQ films of all times: very few included any African American characters in significant roles. However, from the 1980s to the 2020s, there have been a few Black queer films that have penetrated the mainstream market and received critical acclaim, such as The Color Purple (Spielberg, 1982), Set It Off (Gary, 1996), and Moonlight (Jenkins, 2016), which won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Picture. The documentary film genre has been the most influential in exposing audiences to the experiences and voices within the African American queer communities. Since many of these films are not available for viewing at mainstream theaters, Black queer cinema is primarily accessed via various cable, video streaming, and on-demand services, like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO.

Making the Invisible Visible: Black Lesbianism in The Color Purple

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.

Letter- Writing as a Means of Escape in Alice Walker's the Color Purple

Escapism might be considered a life defense mechanism without which you might be burnt out faster by the stresses of everyday life. It helps the individual and even communities gain respite or achieve self- reorganization after social, sociological or psychological tensions. Letter- writing is one of its effective implements. It helps obtain a kind of personal relationship and deals with it faithfully and portrays the inner life as it is. The present study tends to explore the theme of escape represented by letter- writing in Alice Walker's. The Color Purple. It aims to demonstrate that Walker tries her best to give the heroine and her sister a chance to address God and each other directly and truly escaping from loneliness and weakness, as well as seeking for consolation and identity. Such a means is considered the only outlet for Celie, and ultimately her sister, who suffers self and familial banishment, psychological repression and sexual suppression. Her suffering is the result of an oppressive and sexually- agitated stepfather who brutalizes, rapes and impregnates her twice at an early stage of her life.

Enfrentar las estructuras de opresión: sumisión, resiliencia y resistencia en Los ojos más azules y El color púrpura.

This paper focuses on and compares several aspects of the novels The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison and The Color Purple by Alice Walker. This analysis is preceded by a brief historical background of the times when the action of the novels take place, necessary to understand the history of racial discrimination and the prejudices that sustain this discrimination to our days. The discursion shows the main female characters reacting towards the different forms of oppression and to the systematic suppression of the necessary conditions for the normal development of their self- esteem as human beings. The self-esteem of some of them is so low that they cannot recover; others rise and are able to recover their lost self-esteem. We conclude that the lives of the characters in The Bluest Eye were influenced by racial, social and patriarchal prejudices, prevented from material advancement, and in some cases, how their expectations for a better life were crushed in the end leading them into catastrophic events. In The Color Purple, characters are able to overcome the effects of oppression with the help of the solidarity of women and their personalities can survive almost intact. Thus they show resilience in the face of adversity.