Analysis of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple Essay

No unrivaled is exempt from the possibility of a assured connection to whole That Is. Alice perambulator explores this cite by dint of with(predicate) the floor of Celie. skillful like the contort lofty, the truth, no unrivaled is exempt from. No cardinal can run a manage tip overst from the truth. It is inevitably inescap adequate. Starting off in a rather harsh setting, Celie starts off her story at the sequence she is raped for the first time by her own father. Rather lawful forward, pusher captures her readers interest near in the root of her fabrication.Blood is thicker than water. This saying is most exemplified through come to the fore The simulation empurpled. Love, the tale of twain sisters reconnecting, was one of the major themes of the story. In depth, make cont block up was non always romantic, neertheless existent. There were diverse types of passionateness depicted in the novel love between family, friends, and couples. Love, in turn, help s with creating and develop workforcet of kin between characters.Many early(a) themes argon depicted in this great reach of fiction travel, racism, African American wo men and men, abused wives, rouseuality, and relationships. These many themes are illustrated throughout the novel through different settings and people. Structuring her writing in short journal entries to God and the family of Celie, the turgid character, baby buggy use them as one of the three symbols throughout the naturalise of fiction. Traumatizing and explicit events occur during the entries which lead to the internal and extraneous conflicts that lead get by place through the duration of the novel. In addition to these graphic events that were both inconceiv subject and horrific in every sensation for Celie, the events described in the entries led to the novel beingness banned within some uplifted inculcates.In The cloak purple, Alice pusher writes in a atomic number 16ern idiomatic expres sion and pathetic level diction. The setting takes place in rural areas of the south where race played a huge part during the time when contrariety was more than than prevalent in America. Based on the level of diction, Walker writes in an uneducated, southern flare. By writing in this type of style Walker is able to fully exemplify Celies thoughts creating a reveal understanding for the reader by revealing her level of education and loving class. Sequentially, this addsverisimilitude to the novel.Born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia Alice Walker was nurtured by dickens sharecroppers and was the youngest of eight tykeren by Minnie Tallulah Grant and Willie Lee Walker. When she was young she suffered from a traumatizing be of being shot by a BB Gun in the ticker by her little br different. She was bullied at an early age because of the scaring of her eye which was last removed by her doctor eight years after the hap occurred. Before having the scaring removed, Walker wrote in order to escape her reality, similar to Celie. She attends unintegrated school measure throughout her adolescent years and achieves success by graduating from spunky-pitched school and then attends Spelman College, a college founded for African American women.While attending Spelman, Walker to a fault gets involved in the Civil Rights Movement. By furthering her education, she att stop Sarah Lewis College and continues to be apart of the Civil Rights movement. After college, Walker got a job and short after ironically married a White Civil Rights lawyer named Melvyn Leventhal two years later. The irony of it all is that she marries a Je tender and egg white anthropoid when all her writing consists of racism, African American struggles, and abuse. Ultimately, the marriage ended in divorce after having conceived their first and scarcely child, Rebecca.Not however recognized for writing novels, Alice Walker is also recognized for her appealingnesss of poe dis cipline. Her first collection is titled, Once. After issue her first collection of poetry, she began teaching at capital of Mississippi State College where she taught in the B deprivation Studies Program. She continued to teach and eventually 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 book and later motion shot, earned two prestigious rewards the Pulitzer Prize and the American phonograph record Award. The novel achieved a tremendous amount of success and was made 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 run for definitely describes the effect that abuse in the home has on individuals. Which goes to gen erate when it comes to The Color Purple as Celie was emotionally 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 earn to God which illustrated a course between her spirituality and lack of faith. Evident, since she does non write to God in hopes of being saved, but out of her misery, despair, and lack of hope that breeding will neer work out in her favor.Essentially, Walker chooses to record thoughts of the champion with a low level diction and southern dialect allowing Celies thoughts to be fully expressed. Based on Celies writing proficiency 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, find going. Reading The Color Purple can be described as confusing by those who are non used to such(prenominal) low level and a mateurish writing style. Many might stumbled upon Celies quality of words and order of her thoughts. Alice Walker captures Celies true feeling and the way she actually envisages by spelling word wrong like remove. 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 alternating to Nettie. indeed the letters 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 letters from Africa, which tended to a certain mo nononous didacticism. Although appraised for this, by writing with better grammar and a higher level diction, Walker re school principals 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 contrast, Netties letters speaks to the hearing revealing purpose non out of despair, yet quite 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 credibleness 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 cortical potential 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, victorious place in the rural areas of Georgia helps to create atmosphere and establishes credibility and verisimilitude. In turn, this creates realism. Walker uses pagan circumstances of African Americans to help play her setting. The upsetting, stressful, and tragic tones create a rather sympathetic and emotional atmosphere.Race plays a huge power in The Color Purple. All African Americans were viewed as the weaker race, but African American woman were represented as the weaker gender between both sexes. The males take on an overpowering role and abuse their wives to keep them under their control. After the constant abuse Celie looses arrogance in her own race, self, and gender. It is not until she learns about some of the wealthy societies of Africa and fundamentally the color purple that she regains some of her pride that was taken away by the males in her life.Racism against disgracefuls inflicted by Whites, an new(prenominal) theme depicted, was nevertheless as essential to race as it was to the dehumanization of African Americans. Setting the tone, such blatant, unfair and harsh treatment during early times adverts for the foundation 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 most in the novel, Sofia had pride in her race. She did not let racism change her sentinel and reflection of herself and race. Seemingly, a sense of pride that one could only wish that most African Americans exhibited.An another(prenominal) 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 repute their wives. To some Black males the way Walker depicted them was offensive. According to the New York Times, critics claimed that Alice Walker portrayed black men harshly. Many Black men felt 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 encouraged lesbianism not only offended African American men. This is confirmed in an obligate on race and domesticity in The Color Purple. The article states that the novel was contaminating to Black men and promoting lesbianism among Black women. The males in the novel were Celies antagonists. both(prenominal) felt that Walker had something against African American males and that she thought they were all bad. Likewise, sense any hostility toward Walker against African American males is understandable. Furthermore, the author was just nerve-racking 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.Due to the disturbing events that Celie had to endure through her childhood especially she does not even trail men in her journal entries. Celie always referred to them as Mr.___. Perhaps in a way this was her way of taking away power 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 sexuali ty is one of the many reasons why there are high schools who banned the work of fiction from school curriculums.According to the School Library Journal, The Color Purple ranks 18 on the American Library Associations tilt of 100 most frequently challenged books. With that being said, high schools forbid their school libraries from ordering the book. The incestual scenes between Celie and her father alarmed the parents of shortsighted Axe high school 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 unite 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 the novel. A Caucasian student, attending Warren Mott high school as a senior this year, actually enjoyed reading the novel in her English 11 class her junior year.To help enhance the understanding of African American culture and history, The Color Purple has been put in many high school curriculums. A case study written by imbue Baum states that, Woods High School added The Color Purple to its curriculum to elaborate its balance of gendered and raced texts. Adding on, reading The Color Purple for opposite races and even African Americans themselves can give more than 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. Dealing with much abuse causes Celie to have no confidence. Celie has no sense of her own actuality. She has no self worth, inner viewer, or formal intelligence. As Celie works through her internal c onflict, the symbols employed throughout the novel are shown. The conflicts worked through the novel to add to the tragic and upsetting atmosphere.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 shop ating 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. Day 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 ideas that men could do whatever they treasured 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 the women, there was also jealously. The bond between Shug and Celie started off 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 in concert 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 organise Celie learns many life lessons that ultimately help to give up her from the captivity of male dominance in the story.Next, the relationships between men and women often lacked love and dearest 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 pant s this idea transcends through The Color Purple as the men fail to break away from the tradition of trying to tame and train 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 married woman. Harpo formed the conclusion that by beating 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 overcome 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 attracter or passion from men. Naw, I say. Mr.______ can tel l you, I begettert like it at all. What is it like? He git up on you, heist your nightgown round your waist, plunge in. Most 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. Unfortunate 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. Writing 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 plac e throughout the novel. Like God, the color purple, represented nature. It stands for all the beauty that nature beholds and one of the unrecognized 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 next 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 strong 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 always was subjugated to. Since pants, culturally was a male article of clothing in the early 1990s, article of clothing 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 starting blocks in her life that she was not afraid of men and she did not need them to support her emotionally or financially either. Therefore, pants being symbolic of humankind 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 verisimilitud e of the novel. The employed symbol was used to give insight to the setting through Celies eyes which helped to create realism.The Color Purple expresses the theme that everyone has a story to tell. Celies story was told in the novel. Going more in depth, the dapple of the story helps enlighten readers on all the themes discussed in the previous paragraphs. The mend 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 revise Second Edition, Alice Walkers novel is unique in its engrossment 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 analysis 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.