Analysis of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple Essay

No iodine is exempt from the possibility of a conscious connection to completely That Is. Alice pram explores this quote by dint of the narrative of Celie. Just inter channelize sufficient the colouration purple, the truth, no one is exempt from. No one nooky run remote from the truth. It is inevitably inescapable. Starting cancelled in a rather harsh setting, Celie starts off her romance at the duration she is raped for the number one time by her avow fetch. sooner straight forward, handcart captures her readers interest right in the beginning of her smart.Blood is thicker than water. This saying is most(prenominal) exemplified passim The coloring proud. Love, the description of twain sisters reconnecting, was one of the major themes of the story. In depth, contend was not etern every(prenominal)y romantic, scarce existent. There were different instances of fare depicted in the invigorated love betwixt family, friends, and couples. Love, in turn, secon ds with creating and development of relationship amongst characters. umpteen other themes be depicted in this great work of assembly Race, racism, African American women and men, misdirect wives, sex, and relationships. These about(prenominal) themes are illustrated doneout the figment through different settings and people. Structuring her make-up in short journal entries to immortal and the family of Celie, the round character, Walker employed them as one of the three symbols throughout the work of fiction. Traumatizing and explicit flush outts occur during the entries which lead to the internal and external conflicts that pull up stakes take place through the duration of the smart. In addition to these pictural events that were both inconceivable and horrific in every sense for Celie, the events expound in the entries led to the novel cosmos illegalise deep d take roughwhat spirited aims.In The coloration Purple, Alice Walker writes in a grey vocabula ry and low take aim wording. The setting takes place in hoidenish areas of the south where race played a huge part during the time when discrimination was more prevalent in America. Based on the level of diction, Walker writes in an uneducated, southern style. By writing in this flake of style Walker is able to fully exemplify Celies thoughts creating a damp understanding for the reader by revealing her level of genteelness and social class. Sequenti eithery, this addsverisimilitude to the novel.Born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia Alice Walker was nurtured by two sharecroppers and was the youngest of eight children by Minnie Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker. When she was young she suffered from a traumatizing experience of being shot by a BB Gun in the marrow by her little brother. She was bullied at an primal age because of the scaring of her eye which was finally removed by her doctor eight years subsequently the incident occurred. Before having the scaring removed, Walker wrote in order to escape her reality, comparable to Celie. She attends segregated trails throughout her adolescent years and achieves success by graduating from high school and then attends Spelman College, a college founded for African American women.While tending Spelman, Walker also depresss involved in the civilized Rights Movement. By furthering her education, she attend Sarah Lewis College and continues to be apart of the Civil Rights movement. After college, Walker got a ancestry and soon later ironically married a gabardine Civil Rights lawyer named Melvyn Leventhal two years later. The irony of it all is that she marries a Jewish and Caucasian male when all her writing consists of racism, African American struggles, and abuse. Ultimately, the sum ended in divorce after having conceived their commencement and and child, Rebecca. non only recognized for writing novels, Alice Walker is also recognized for her collections of poetry. Her first collect ion is titled, Once. After publishing her first collection of poetry, she began teaching at Jackson State College where she taught in the fateful Studies Program. She continued to teach and at long last started publishing novels while continuing to publish poetry too. The Color Purple was Alice Walkers third novel. The struggles that Alice Walker had to endure herself as a child are what helped manifest her development of The Color Purple. This proclaimed curb and later motion picture, crystallizeed two prestigious rewards the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. The novel achieved a tremendous amount of success and was do into a film that was produced by Steven Spielberg in 1985. Years after, in 2005, its first Broadway musical was produced.Alice Walker continues to be known for her novels about African American women and her work definitely describes the effect that abuse in the home has on individuals. Which goes to show when it adopts to The Color Purple as Celie wa s excitedly and physically abused by her father. The constant telling that she was too ugly, making her quit school at a young age, and being raped were some of the ways that created the lack of trust within Celies family circle. Celie writes allowters to divinity fudge which illustrated a contrast amidst her spirituality and lack of credit. Evident, since she does not write to idol in hopes of being saved, but out of her misery, despair, and lack of hope that action allow for never work out in her favor.Essentially, Walker chooses to translate thoughts of the protagonist with a low level diction and southern speech pattern allowing Celies thoughts to be fully expressed. Based on Celies writing technique you know she is uneducated and she admits to it when she says how her father took her out of school and let her sister, Nettie, keep going. Reading The Color Purple can be set forth as confusing by those who are not used to such low level and amateurish writing style. M any might stumbled upon Celies preference of words and order of her thoughts. Alice Walker captures Celies unbent look and the way she actually thinks by spelling word wrong like ask. She spells ask like ast which further exemplifies that Celie is far from being smart.Further into the novel, diction becomes more advanced once the point of view is change from Celie change to Nettie. Then the garner are from Nettie writing back to Celie. The switch in diction earned some scrutiny by the New York Times, If Alice Walkers celebrated and prize-winning earlier novel, The Color Purple, had a glaring flaw, it was Netties letter from Africa, which tended to a certain monotonous didacticism. Although appraised for this, by writing with better grammar and a higher level diction, Walker reminds the readers that Nettie is educated unlike her sister. You are able to compare Celies writing to her sister and it creates more realism for Celies character as it defines her lack of education. In co ntrast, Netties letter speaks to the audience revealing purpose not out of despair, yet kinda different than Celies letters. She talks about the civilization of Africa, politics, issues on racism that Celie was not very familiar with.Also, Netties letters adds more believability to Celies character.Clearly, the diction and dialect show Celies lack of intelligence, but it also help you understand where the setting takes place. The way Celie speaks and the word choice she uses gives you insight on the rural areas where the setting takes place. The setting often paints an image of a farm as Celie writes in her journal entries how she and Harpo would work in the fields. The setting, taking place in the rural areas of Georgia helps to create air and establishes credibility and verisimilitude. In turn, this creates realism. Walker uses cultural circumstances of African Americans to help shape her setting. The upsetting, stressful, and sad tones create a rather sympathetic and emotiona l atmosphere.Race plays a huge role in The Color Purple. All African Americans were viewed as the weaker race, but African American woman were represent as the weaker gender between both sexes. The males take on an overwhelm role and abuse their wives to keep them under their control. After the constant abuse Celie looses pride in her own race, self, and gender. It is not until she learns about some of the monied societies of Africa and essentially the color purple that she regains some of her pride that was taken away by the males in her life.Racism against Blacks inflicted by Whites, another theme depicted, was dear as essential to race as it was to the dehumanization of African Americans. compass the tone, such blatant, unfair and harsh treatment during early times serves for the stern of how Blacks treated their own kind. They have the nerve to try to make us think slavery fell through because of us, say Sofia. Like us didnt have sense enough to handle it (102). Unlike mos t in the novel, Sofia had pride in her race. She did not let racism change her outlook and reflection of herself and race. Seemingly, a sense of pride that one could only wish that most African Americans exhibited.Another theme expressed in The Color Purple is African American women and abused wives. Walker paints a picture that all Black males are controlling and dis look upon their wives. To some Black males the way Walker portrayedthem was offensive. According to the New York Times, critics claimed that Alice Walker portrayed black men harshly. Many Black men mat that Walker expressed prejudice views toward them especially since she married a White man. With that being said, others commended her for her portrayal.In essence, many felt that The Color Purple advance lesbianism not only offended African American men. This is confirmed in an article on race and domesticity in The Color Purple. The article states that the novel was degrading to Black men and promoting lesbianism amo ng Black women. The males in the novel were Celies antagonists. around felt that Walker had something against African American males and that she thought they were all bad. Likewise, sensing any hostility toward Walker against African American males is understandable. Furthermore, the antecedent was just trying to tell a story of the love of two sisters and the hardships of African American women and wives down south in the early 1900s. out-of-pocket to the disturbing events that Celie had to endure through her childhood especially she does not even label men in her journal entries. Celie always referred to them as Mr.___. by chance in a way this was her way of taking away berth from males. The only good feelings and sexual ones are given to her by females, one in particular Shug Avery. The constant and explicit talk about gender is one of the many reasons why in that location are high schools who dismissned the work of fiction from school plans.According to the schooldays Library Journal, The Color Purple ranks 18 on the American Library Associations list of 100 most frequently challenged books. With that being said, high schools disallow their school libraries from ordering the book. The incestual scenes between Celie and her father alarmed the parents of Little axe High School and they force the school to ban the novel (Norman). Although there are some overtly explicit experiences Celie dealt with, it is nothing that should be banned. Some high schools, usually those with a predominantly Black population can relate to this story, but schools like Little Axe High School probably would find a harder time relating to the story since their school is predominantly White. However, that does not mean someone White would not enjoy reading material the novel.A Caucasian student, attending Warren Mott high school as a senior this year, actually enjoyed reading the novel in her side of meat 11 class her junior year.To help enhance the understanding of Af rican American culture and history, The Color Purple has been put in many high school curriculums. A case study written by Rob Baum states that, Woods High School added The Color Purple to its curriculum to rectify its balance of gendered and raced texts. Adding on, reading The Color Purple for opposite races and even African Americans themselves can give much insight on some of the oppressed, abused, cultural backgrounds of African Americans.Throughout the novel, Celie struggles with her sexuality. This is an example of the internal conflict within Celie. All her life she was beaten and raped by the men, including her father and husband. transaction with much abuse causes Celie to have no confidence. Celie has no sense of her own actuality. She has no self worth, inner beauty, or formal intelligence. As Celie whole kit through her internal conflict, the symbols employed throughout the novel are shown. The conflicts worked through the novel to add to the tragic and upsetting atmosp here.Along with internal conflict, there was also some external conflict. There was external conflict between Celie and the men in her life. Her father and husband are just some of the examples of external conflict. Not only did the protagonist have external conflicts between men, other supporting characters such as Sofia and Harpo did as well. The males in the story try to dominate their women, while some succeed in doing so and others do not. Celie is an example of the women who accepted the oppression and just tried to survive. daylight by day, she never fought back until given the courage in the end. Sofia, on the other hand, was an example of how women fought back against the sexist inclinations that men could do some(prenominal) they wanted to overpower their wives, including beat them. Relationships were significant in the development of the novel.The relationships between women and women, men and women, and people and God were illustrated. Just like there was love among t he women, there was also jealously. The perplex between Shug and Celie startedoff with jealously as Shug was prettier and was able to get the attention of Celies husband and stand up to him. The women stayed within competition of one another until they were finally able to ban to together and rise against the men in their lives that were keeping them down. The relationship between Celie and Shug was one the most prominent relationship in the story. After their bond was formed Celie learns many life lessons that ultimately help to liberate her from the captivity of male dominance in the story.Next, the relationships between men and women often lacked love and passion in their marriages. The men were too busy following after their fathers that they never learned how to truly love their wives. Depicted in the novel, Black men felt they had to wear the shorts this inclination transcends through The Color Purple as the men fail to break away from the custom of trying to tame and trai n their wives. In doing so, some lost their wives respect and love in some circumstances.Instances such as when Harpo observed his fathers relationship between him and his wife. Harpo formed the conclusion that by whacking his wife like his father did to Celie, he might create a more controlling and accepting relationship between him and his wife. Trying to earn her respect by watching his fathers relationship with Celie, he beats his wife, Sofia. In response, Sofia lashes out and fights back. She was the perfect example of women who were true to themselves in mind and physique. Additionally, the males in the novel let their violent fathers dictate how they handled their own relationships.Furthermore, the relationships that Celie encounters with men in her life cause her to feel no type of attraction or passion from men. Naw, I say. Mr.______ can tell you, I dont like it at all. What is it like? He stinker up on you, heist your nightgown round your waist, plunge in. close times I pretend I aint there. He never know the difference. Never ast me how I feel, nothing. Just do his business, get off, go to sleep(77). In this excerpt, Celie describes how she felt about having intercourse with her husband. ominous enough, no love or passion is felt, just abuse.Last, but not least, the relationship among people and God was exemplified through Celie and how she views God. After being raped Celie loses her sense of love with God. To Celie, God was a male therefore, she lost faith in him like all the other males she had to encounter in her life. create verbally to him out of loss of hope, she loses sight of the color purple and the liberation of life. By the end of the novel, Celie realizes the color purple is nature and the two combined is God as well. Viewing the two as one, she grasps the feeling of joy and being free.Symbolism takes place throughout the novel. Like God, the color purple, represented nature. It stands for all the beauty that nature beholds and one of the unrecognised truths Celie had yet to understand. Celie had no idea of what the color purple was in the beginning. She lived life only to get to the bordering day. It was not until Shug came into her life that she gets a sense of the color purple. Then she is able to liberate herself from the control of her husband and move forward in life. Until you do right by me, I say, everything you even dream about will fail. I give it to him straight, just like it come to me. And it seem to come to me from the trees (206). This quote is evident of Celies transformation. Once wounded, she is now a warrior. Unrecognized, the color purple was the main idea of the story carried forward, hence its name.Later on in the novel once Celie is living her life freely without the steadfast hand of men, she begins to make pants. Gaining a sense of actuality, beauty, and confidence in herself, Celie wears the pants as well as making them. The pants symbolized how Celie overcame the sexism she alway s was keep down to. Since pants, culturally was a male article of clothing in the early 1990s, wearing and producing them gave Celie a sense of power she never felt before. The idea that men wore the pants was no longer a belief of Celie and it proves true in the novel. She no longer felt oppressed and afraid emotionally or economically. Her clothing business consisting of only pants was one of the outset blocks in her life that she was not afraid of men and she did not contain them to support her emotionally or financially either. Therefore, pants being symbolical of manhood in many ways, making them was liberating for Celie.God was also a symbol, not just the color purple and pants. Writing to God is what kept Celie life moving. Her letters to God were an indication that she was still alive and sane. Furthermore, the letters added to the verisimilitude of the novel. The employed symbol was used to give insight to the setting through Celies eyes which helped to create realism.Th e Color Purple expresses the theme that everyone has a story to tell. Celies story was told in the novel. Going more in depth, the plot of the story helps enlighten readers on all the themes discussed in the previous paragraphs. The plot shaped the Walkers story into a tragic love story that of two sisters trying to reunite once again. The violence, abuse, and sexuality of the plot are told from Celies perspective and through her writing of letters the other themes in the novel are revealed symbols, marriage, and race.As stated in the Masterplots Revised Second Edition, Alice Walkers novel is unique in its preoccupation with spiritual survival and with exploring the oppressions, insanities, loyalties, and triumphs of Black women. Speaking to many unrecognized truths and possibilities of life, The Color Purple employs symbols in order to let those truths become understood. Setting, structure, diction, and dialect serve the purpose of verisimilitude for Walker. She uses them to create realism and credibility for her readers. Although criticized for her portrayal of African American men, the novel is still to this day a classic. The critical psychoanalysis of sex and lesbianism caused much uproar in some high school including Little Axe High School resulting in the banning of the novel in the schools curriculum. Yet, it remains a best seller.