The Color Purple Alice Walker

The Color Purple Alice WalkerThe Color Purple is an epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker in 1982. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name. The Color Purple has become the indispensable reading works of Black literature and women's literature in American universities. The novel has been appeared on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books at number seventeen.The Color Purple is a novel that reflects female black thinking and life, it uses the new angle of view, original in choice of subject and special characteristics of art to approach female black from different angles. The novel shows female black who oppresses by race and gender try to find the way to liberate themselves. And the novel writes about the relationship between sister, homosexuality, writing to show female black recognize themselves in the end, and they are able to be equal to men.The story is told through a series of diary entries and letters. Celie is a poor, uneducated young woman who, at 14, is abused and impregnated twice by her stepfather- Alphonso. After her children are taken away, she is physically, and mentally abusive. Her stepfather gives her away to be married to Albert, who had originally wanted to marry her sister, Nettie. After Albert tried to seduce Nettie and fails, he forces her to leave, but she promises to write to Celie. As time passes, no such letters appear to arrive, and Celie assumes that her sister is dead. In her writings, Celie refers to her husband as "Mr.__", and it is some time in the book until we find out his name is actually Albert."Mr.__" was married previously, but his wife was murdered by a lover. Originally, he seeks a relationship with Nettie, but settles for Celie. He mistreats Celie just as her father did, and he uses Celie to help raise his children. He has a mistress, singer Shug Avery, and she comes to live with the family because of her poor health. Like "Mr.__", at first, Shug has little respect for Celie and the life she lives. When Shug discovers that "Mr.__" beats Celie, she decides to remain in the house for a short while in order to protect her.After that Celie becomes friends with Shug, who leads to a sexual relationship between the two. Celie learns many things about herself and her body due to Shug. The more she listens to Shug's views and opinions. She becomes more independent. From Shug, Celie learns that "Mr.__"has been hiding letters written to her from Africa by her sister Nettie. These letters tell of Nettie's travels to Africa with a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine, and their adopted children, Olivia and Adam. Corrine becomes ill and then died, Nettie fills her role and marries her husband. She then learns that Olivia and Adam are Celie's long-lost children, and she is the children's biological aunt.Celie is now an independent woman, she and "Mr.__" eventually reconcile, he begins to help her with her business, and sewing with her. Meanwhile, Nettie and Samuel are preparing for their return to America. Adam falls in love with and marries an African girl named Tashi, who undergoes the painful rituals of female genital cutting and facial scarring. Adam also goes through the facial scarring ritual in solidarity. Sofia and Harpo remarry, and Sofia also works for Celie. Nettie and Samuel return with the children, and Celie and her sister are happily reunited.Celie is the main character, who has been oppressed by men her whole life. She is insensitive and has no status and happiness in her life. Her stepfather not only deprives the chance to receive education of her, but also force her to do a lot of housework. However, she regains hope for life after she meets Shug. Shug is a transcendental character. She enters and exits Celie's life, normally making it for the better. She also influences "Mr.__" and he ends up treating Celie better than he ever had. Sofia is the wife of Harpo, who is a strong and feisty character and cannot be controlled by men. She is an independent woman who take pride for what she does. Miss Millie represent the typical hypocrite in the story. She is the woman by whom Sofia is forced into slavery as punishment for hitting the mayor. She considers herself very liberal, tolerant and humanitarian, because she does things like organize fundraisers for black children, but she reveals her own behaviour to be deceptive and phony. She isn't progressive, she is still a bigot.There are many symbols in the story. The title of the book is a very importantsymbol. I think the title has two meanings. First, it is the site of sexual violation, because Sofia's swollen, beaten face is described as the color of "eggplant." Second, it stands for the beauty and the hope of life. When Shug talks with Celie, she points that the color purple is traditionally a color of royalty and purple seems rare in nature. When they are in a field of purple flowers, Shug tells Celie that life must be enjoyed and to look at the flowers and embrace their beauty. She says," You must look at all the good and acknowledge them because God placed them all on earth." After learning this, Celie has a better respect for life.The letter is another symbol in the story. Celie writers to God and later to her sister Nettie, these letters symbolize the certain voice of Celie. She is able to express her true desires and display any emotion in her letters. In the letter, she asks God the question "why," this question cannot be answered. However, in her last letter, she writes to everyone, including God. This is to show that she has forgiven him.Celie writes to God because she has no other way to express her feelings. God is also a symbol. But later she tells Shug that she sees God is white and a male, she will stop writing to God because he does not listen. Shug tells her God has no race or gender. This enables Celie to see God in a different way.In history, women were supposed to wear dresses while men wore the pants, after Celie takes her freedom from "Mr.__" she begins to make pants, which represent liberation from the common view of women as just homemakers. Celie made pants for women, so they were able to be equal to men in this regard.The colors in the story are also important symbols. The colors of Celie's clothes are brown, maroon, or navy blue. They show that she loses hope. However, they are some bright colors in the story. Shug twice wears seductive bright-red dresses, and she gives Celie yellow fabric for her quilt. These bright colors are full of energy.The Color Purple is an epistolary novel and using two different kinds of language. In Celie's letters, no matter black or white, they all have a spoken language of South America's black. On the contrary, in Nettie's letters, they all speck American standard language. This language art shows that black and white have been equal in status. Why they have different language? Because Nettie has chance to receive educationand Celie's language becomes a symbol of nation. Alice Walker uses deviant language in the novel. For example, the first personal pronoun is "Us". It shows that the main character doesn't have confidence to say "I", she cannot recognize herself and find the value of herself. Celie use "He" or "Pa" to stand for her stepfather because she has intensive frightened to her stepfather. And she uses "Mr.__"to stand for her husband, because she thinks he doesn't deserve to have a name. These language arts reveal the relationship between black men and black women, and the family of black. This out of the ordinary language reflects author's consciousness of black and national concept. In the novel, the physical challenges, the traditional and gender relations have a new self-awareness and began to pursue a different personality with the past way of life. The main character Celie gradual awakens the consciousness, and eventually forms a unique characteristic of the spirit of self-identity.Women in this novel do not accept the conventional society has imposed on the role of the individual, regardless of the identity of that came from their life or any male authority. They try to explore their own self-definition. The novel of black women lives in the bottom of society, who search for self-identity process all the more difficult and tortuous.The color purple stands for the beauty of the fields and flowers surrounding these poor people. There really is something to live for, but love triumphs over all. This novel makes me to think about the status of women in the society, especially in China. Women inferior to men long time ago in many aspects, such as law, politics, economy and so on. In their eyes, men are God and master. They have to suffer the religious persecution and oppress by men. They are deprived the right to have education and have to do housework. But now, they have equality between the sexes and racial. Like the end of the novel, these women are no longer powerless. They have joined forces and are forging their own lives. The same as us ,we have right and power to do something different.。