AMERICAN LITERATURE

Analysis of the book ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker

Being a female writer Alice Walker has presented a “Single Story” of
African-American men. Critically evaluate this statement with
necessary examples from the text
INTRODUCTION:
The novel ‘Color Purple’ by Alice Walker is the story of Celie, a poor black woman.
She is a victim of sexual abuse. She suffers at the hands of her father in her childhood and later
is abused more by her husband. This story most importantly deals with the life of African-
American women. And so, the story is told only from their perspective. The Color Purple is a
‘Single Story’ with a feminist view. This essay would focus on these lines and would critically
evaluate the portrayal of single story of the African-American men.
THE COLOR PURPLE:
The story is set in the period of 1930s at Southern part of United States of America.
African-Americans were treated as slaves. The story touches upon many points like violence,
racism, sexism, religion, marriage, women empowerment and a lot more. The book explains a
lot of issues that existed then and is still in practice. The narrative part is where the book sets
its own tune. The narration is done in first-person form. It is mostly through the eyes of Celie
and in the later part when Celie and Nettie write letters, it is also told in the words of Nettie.
SINGLE STORY:
The Color Purple deals with more of sexism rather than the predominant racism in the
South America during the 20th century. Alice Walker strongly believed in feminism. This belief
of her might have been reflected in the story. Moreover, the narrative style of writing from
Celie’s perspective is rooted to this belief. Thus, this story has been presented from one point
of view which may either lead to truth or to half-truths.
It is always said that if you get to learn about something, have complete knowledge about it.
The book being presented in the form of a single story distorts our perception. When we are
not really aware about the exact scenes of the past, the portrayal of Afro-American men in this
story may lead a lot of us to stereotyping and being misinformed.
The disadvantage in critically analysing this book as a single story is that the real circumstances
back in the 1930s is not clear. It is also believed that The Color Purple as a book also discusses
the modern urban issues in relation with the rural black past. The blacks had a lot of debate
over this book in the past decade.
"He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I may have got somethin in my
eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at mens. That’s the truth. I look at women, tho, cause
I’m not scared of them. Maybe cause my mama cuss me you think I kept mad at her. But I
ain’t. I felt sorry for mama. Trying to believe his story kilt her.” (Walker, 2004)
People argue that Color Purple is not a book that generalises all Afro-American men but is only
the life journey of one girl. The lines from the text depicts the mind of Celie. Her personal
experiences made her think that men possess a kind of meanness.
While a lot of the readers agree to the things depicted in the novel, equal number of readers do
disagree with the style and the content stated. A few of the black women said that they have
either encountered similar experiences or have heard similar stories of other women (Shipp,
1986).
''The most frightening thing for me as a male was to look into their eyes,'' Mr. McDuffie said.
''I wondered, 'Is that really what they think of us?' It's as if there were an element of cruelty
implicit in black men that all black women seem to identify.'' 'Never Showed the Good' (Shipp,
1986). This was not just one person’s talk. It represents a lot of Afro-American men and their
thought process.
Though Pa was very cruel towards his women, when it comes to Albert, most commonly
referred in the story as Mr. __ he doesn’t treat all of them badly. It is portrayed that he beats
up Celie, makes her do all the work and uses her for his joy. However, he has been good with
Shug and has a back story for his actions with Celie which he realizes and changes for better
at the end.
“The Olinka do not believe girls should be educated. When I asked a mother why she thought
this, she said: A girl is nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something.”
(Walker, 2004)
The scene where Nettie encounters with the reality of Olinka culture shows that women were
not treated very highly. The story revolves around both men and women. However, only the
negative side of men are being shown for most part of the story. There are always two sides
to a coin. And the author fails to examine the other side in depth. The good sides of Mr.__ and
Harpo are just stated for few lines and it convey their goodness only in an indirect way.
“ She look at him and roll her eyes and laugh. It not much of a laugh but it keep him away from
the bed. He sit over in the corner away from the lamp. Sometime she wake up in the night and
don’t even see. But he there. Sitting in the shadows chewing on his pipe. No tobacco in it. First
thing she said, I don’t want to smell no stinking blankety-blank pipe, you hear me, Albert?”
(Walker, 2004)
The above-mentioned lines from the book shows us the loving side of Albert. It describes him
as a man, who prefers love to ego.
The superior attitudes of men were emphasised time and again in the novel. As they were
portrayed on the wrong side, to see the positive aspects of Afro-American men from the view
of a common reader who has no idea about them is nearly impossible.
Harpo comes up with the idea that beating Sofia is the only way to make her obey him. Harpo
still loved her though. The thought that he wanted to beat her was stressed over the fact that he
loved her and was just confused. When Sofia was in prison, one could see the mental and
emotional turmoil everyone was going through, including Harpo and Mr.__. Squeak fly up like
she sprung, run over hind the counter to Harpo, put her arms round him. They hang together a
long time, cry. (Walker, 2004)
When Mary Agnes wants to sing, Harpo is shown to be unclear of why she should become
independent when he gives her everything. But he is one of the main reasons for Shug to give
that comeback. One could state that he wasn’t romantically interested in her or Shug was
independent enough. However, we cannot deny that he helped Shug in re-establishing her as a
singer. (Walker, 2004)
While the lead characters who deal with Celie are showed in bad light for most part of the
novel, Samuel is described as the kind minister who helps Nettie when she escapes her past.
When Nettie lives with Samuel family, she understands that not all men are aggressive and
heartless. This is a very light scene. A bit more importance to things like these in few more
corners of the book could have created a greater impact.
One is bound to accept the truth that the story being written from a female perspective did show
a few positive sides of the men in that place. However, when a comparison is made between
the positive and negative colors given to the men in the story, negativity wins by a landslide.
One needs magnifying glasses to point out the emphasis on positivity in Afro-American men.
This is where the story fails to do justice to both of them.

CONCLUSION:
“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they aren’t
true, but they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (novelist)
The Color Purple is a book that will live for generations for it discussed a lot that many
people feared to voice about. It helped many people to come out of their shells and lead the
life of their choice. However, when we see the negative side of this novel, it did create a very
bad impression about the African-American men. The impacts of this single story both the
good and bad would live for ages.

References
1. Africa: The Danger of a Single Story on Amizade. (2013, November 18). Retrieved
from Amizade: https://amizade.org/danger-of-a-single-story/

2. Racist and sexist perspectives in the selected novels of Alice Walker. (1970, January 1).
Retrieved from Mirror Shodhganga: Racist and sexist perspectives in the selected
novels of Alice Walker: https://sg.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/160449

3. SEXISM, RACISM AND BLACK WOMEN WRITERS. (1986, June 15). Retrieved from The
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/15/books/sexism-racism-and-
black-women-writers.html

4. Shipp, B. E. (1986, January 27). BLACKS IN HEATED DEBATE OVER 'THE COLOR
PURPLE'. Retrieved from nytimes.com:
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/27/us/blacks-in-heated-debate-over-the-color-
purple.html

5. The Color Purple. (n.d.). Retrieved from shmoop: https://www.shmoop.com/color-

purple/women-femininity-theme.html

6. Walker, A. (2004). The Color Purple. In A. Walker, The Color Purple.