‫االسم‪ :‬نورهان صفوت عبدالظاهر عطا‬

‫القسم‪ :‬اللغة اإلنجليزية‬

‫السيكشن‪C 2 :‬‬

‫بحث التخرج‪:‬‬
‫‪The application of the isolation in The Color Purple by Alice Walker‬‬
The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker

Alice Walker (1944-…) was born in the small rural town of Eatonton, Georgia.
Walker’s parents’ experiences with the oppressive sharecropping system and the
racism of the American South deeply influenced Walker’s writing and life’s work.
When Walker was eight, one of her brothers accidentally shot her, permanently
blinding her in one eye. Ashamed of her facial disfigurement, Walker isolated
herself from other children, reading and writing to pass the time. (Foca, par. 1)

In 1982, Walker published her most famous novel, The Color Purple. For the
novel, which chronicles the struggle of several black women in rural Georgia in the
first half of the twentieth century, Walker won the Pulitzer Prize and the American
Book Award. In 1985, a Steven Spielberg film based on the novel was released to
wide audiences and significant acclaim. Upon its publication, The Color Purple
unleashed a storm of controversy. It instigated heated debates about black cultural
representation, as a number of male African-American critics complained that the
novel reaffirmed old racist stereotypes about pathology in black communities and
of black men in particular. Critics also charged Walker with focusing heavily on
sexism at the expense of addressing notions of racism in America. Nonetheless,
The Color Purple also had its ardent supporters, especially among black women
and others who praised the novel as a feminist fable. The heated disputes
surrounding The Color Purple are a testimony to the resounding effects the work
has had on cultural and racial discourse in the United States. Walker’s best-known
work, The Color Purple received widespread critical acclaim, though it was not
without critics, many of whom objected to its explicit language and sexual content.
Her novels, poetry, essays, and criticism have become an important part in a
burgeoning tradition of talented black women writers. (Cameron, pars. 2-3)
The Color Purple is a feminist work about an abused and uneducated African
American woman’s struggle for empowerment. This novel was praised for the
depth of its female characters and for its eloquent use of Black English Vernacular.
It movingly depicts the growing up and self-realization of Celie, who overcomes
oppression and abuse to find fulfillment and independence. The novel also
addresses gender equality. Celie, the protagonist and narrator of The Color Purple,
is a poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old black girl living in rural Georgia. (Foca,
pars. 3-4)

The setting of the novel is Rural Georgia in the Early 20th Century; Western
Africa in a Small Village in the Early 20th Century. The book begins about 30
years before World War II. It covers the first half of the 20th century, as we follow
Celie through thirty or forty years of her life. The setting of Celie’s story is
unmistakably among poor blacks in rural areas of the South. As a poor black
woman in the rural South, Celie’s bad treatment is largely ignored. Having very
little exposure to education or the outside world, Celie lives most of her life very
isolated and ignorant. Though The Color Purple (1910-1940) is a historical novel,
it never refers to any factual events. There are no dates, little sense of the passage
of time, and very few mentions of characters’ ages. (Cecil, par. 2)

Most of the black female characters in this book tend to be victims of

violence, and men attempt to exert their dominance over women particularly their
wives by beating and raping them. The way female characters react to violence
varies dramatically. Celie suffers repeated violence from both her father and
husband and reacts by shutting down emotionally and being very submissive.
Other female characters, however, prove their strength in the face of violence.
After suffering so much abuse, many women prove that they will not be dragged
down. Eventually, when Celie realizes the extent of the emotional violence
committed against her, she finds the strength and the willpower to leave her
husband and start a new 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 from the trees" (88; ch.7). Just before Celie leaves Mr. _____ for
Memphis, she curses him. She claims that he will suffer twice for every time he hit
her. She says that he will live in the jail he planned for her life. These curses come
naturally to her, as natural as the wind in the trees. Celie has finally claimed her
own voice and speaks against the man who has made her suffer (Foca, par. 6).

One of the major themes in this novel is that people should not let violence
control them, instead they should prevent it. A few examples of the theme in the
novel is on page 37 where Albert states “Well how you spect to make her mind?
Wives is like children. You have to let ‘em know who got the upper hand. Nothing
can do that better then a good sound beating” (37; ch.3). What this quote states is
that Albert is encouraging his son Harpo to beat his wife to obey him, In page 6
Cecil states “ he beat me cause he say I winked at a boy in chruch” (6; ch.1). What
also this quote means is that Cecil got a beating from her step dad for what he
assumed what she was doing at church. Celie narrates The Color Purple through a
series of letters, most of which are addressed to God. She initially imagines God as
an old white man, something like Dumbledore or Gandalf. But as a black woman
who has been abused by men all her life, Celie eventually begins to rebel against
this image of God. She begins to see God as genderless and raceless, a more
universal being who wants humans to enjoy all aspects of life; from nature to sex
to the color purple. "Anyhow, I say, the God I been praying and writing to is a
man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful and lowdown"
(42; ch.3). Celie and Shug have been discussing God, a conversation that explicitly
reveals the theme of spirituality of the novel. Here, Celie shows that her vision of
God represents a traditional view of a bearded white man who does not listen to the
prayers of people like her. Shug then shares her own belief that God dwells within
each and every person, a view that Celie takes to heart. Since her speaking voice is
silenced by the men around her, Celie uses writing as a verbal outlet instead.
(George, par. 4)

The second theme in this novel is racism. Racism against African-American

people began in 17th century in America, when people kidnapped from various
parts of Africa arrived as slaves. Since then the black people were forced to
Christianize and work for people of the higher classes. White people, who
dominated over the black, took away their identity and even the elementary human
rights and forced them to work for nothing. Since 17th century, black people were
associated with uneducated, lowest class society, people with no identity, no
choices, and people who are slaves. The Color Purple has a lot to say about race in
America. At the beginning of the novel, Celie is extremely downtrodden almost to
the point of being defeated. As an African-American female living in the pre-Civil
Rights South, she sees nothing in her race to be particularly proud of. Remember,
these were the days of legal segregation and Jim Crow laws; African-Americans
were frequently the targets of bitter discrimination. Black women in this book are
far too often victims of violent crimes committed by white men. However, as Celie
learns about the rich cultures and civilizations that existed in Africa and reimagines
her own vision of God, she gains some pride in her ethnic heritage. In the novel,
Alphonso tries to present Celie in such a way that Mr. _____ will take her as his
wife. Alphonso is advertising Celie as some kind of a helpful product, or a useful,
good slave. He is “selling” Celie with her cow as a bonus. And Mr. _____ is also
very glad to know that he will get not only a wife, but a cow too. "She good with
children, Pa say, rattling his paper open more. Never heard her say a hard word to
nary one of them. Just give ’em everything they ask for, is the only problem" (3;
ch.4). Early in the novel, Alphonso describes Celie to Mr. ____ to try to marry her
off. He touts Celie’s better qualities, avoiding mention of her looks, which suffer in
comparison to his other daughter, Nettie’s. Mr. ____ has just lost a woman he hired
and asks Alphonso for Nettie to take the woman’s place, but Alphonso says no.
Readers may note from this exchange how the men view women as servants or
objects, certainly not people with feelings or rights. Hoping Mr. _____ will
reconsider, Alphonso asks Celie to come out on the porch so that Mr. ____ can
look at her again. In the end, Mr. _____ takes Celie instead of Nettie. This is not
how father would present his daughter to a man. Alphonso is not describing Celie
as a person but he describes her as a useful everyday tool that one would like to
have. This is a very harsh form of racism that Alphonso expresses towards his
daughters. These lines prove how Alphonso is considering the marriage of his
daughter as a beneficial business transaction. As if he gets to trade off an old slave,
who is less useful for him, but as she comes with a cow, somebody is buying it.
Racism is not only about skin color, and it does not happen only among the people
of different races. Choosing a person for some personal reasons, discriminating,
and enslaving him or her is also a form of racism. (Frederick, pars. 1-2)

In The Color Purple, many female characters are faced with a tough choice;
fiercely and sometimes unsuccessfully fight against men's attempts to oppress
them, or completely submit and get trampled all over. The only women able to
stand up for themselves without severe repercussions are the ones who are
economically independent, and they are few and far between. Women’s situations
can improve, however, when women band together and support each other. As
people are all imperfect humans, they thrive and face a sense of self determination
by the expectations of those around us, whether distinguished by close family or
society, expectations molding us to conform to the roles that have been set forth for
us to play. However, the view that society has on these roles that each gender is
supposed to play is not always what society should expect from individuals.
Throughout the novel, several characters do not follow these stereotypical roles
that their genders are assigned because of this; they break through the stereotypical
walls that have traditionally been directed at their genders. Near the beginning of
the story Sofia shows her unexpected physical strength when she and Harpo have a
domestic fight. After when she confronts Celie about telling Harpo to beat her “I
loves Harpo, God knows I do. But I’ll kill him dead before I let him beat me” (40;
ch.2). Sofia demonstrates how, if she conformed and followed society’s
expectations of what a woman should be she would have let him physically beat
her. But because she does not fit within those limitations, she is able to stop Harpo
from beating her and stopped beatings from becoming a regular occurrence in her
house, as most often occurred in that time period in a majority of dwellings.
(Frederick, par. 6)

There are some tools of characterization in The Color Purple some of them are
names, occupation, clothing and speech and dialogue. The first tool is names; the
nicknames for different characters are an indication of personality traits. Shug is
named for Sugar because she’s so desirable; her real name is Lillie. Squeak is
nicknamed Squeak because she’s mousy and lets Harpo push her around. But even
Squeak gets everyone to call her by her real name, Mary Agnes. Mr.__ is called by
the honorific "Mr.__" only until Celie recognizes her own dignity and worth
alongside of him. Then she starts calling him Albert. The second tool is
occupation; for the female characters in particular, occupation says a lot about their
levels of control over their lives. Celie’s lack of a position as anything other than a
wife renders her powerless. Shug and Squeak, who has voices and can make
money singing, are given power to go where they want, when they want, and with
the people they want. Sofia’s role as maid in the mayor’s house makes her like
Celie; powerless. Nettie’s job as a missionary and teacher makes her an
independent woman. In addition, Celie gains more control over her life when she
starts her own business making pants:

I sit in the dining room making

pants after pants. I got pants
now in every color and size under
the sun. Since us started making
pants down home, I aint been
able to stop . . . I make so many
pants Shug tease me. (100; ch.8)

Celie reveals the effect sewing pants has had upon her. Not only has Celie found
the power and strength to leave Mr. _____, she has found a way to make her own
living in the world; She sews and sells pants. In Memphis, Shug supports her
enough that Celie must hire others to help her sew. A needle and cloth represent
her tickets out of poverty and dependence. With her own hands and heart, Celie
fashions her own destiny and her own freedom. The third one is clothing. Celie is
originally downtrodden, and this is represented accurately through her clothing.
When Mr.__’s sisters visit, they’re horrified to find her wearing rags and they goad
Mr.__ into buying her some new clothes. Shug’s power and independence is
represented by the beautiful and sexy clothing she is able to wear. Finally, when
Celie starts wearing pants, it also symbolizes a change in her relationship with
men, especially Pa and Mr.__. The last tool of characterization is speech and
dialogue. Celie uses very rural, Southern speech for example, instead of using the
word "ask," Celie consistently uses "ast". The effect of this dialogue is to put us
right in the middle of Celie’s world; a black, rural, largely uneducated world.
Nettie’s narration is contrasted with Celie’s. It is clear from Nettie’s diction that
she has received more education and is working as a teacher. It is closer to
Standard Written English. Her diction indicates a difference in the sisters’ levels of
education and experiences of the world. (Foca, pars. 3-4)

Walker creates a remarkably expressive style for Celie’s letters, which draw
heavily upon dialect features of Black English. The rules of grammar in Black
English (BE), sometimes also called AAE - African-American English, are very
different to those of Standard American English (SAE). Celie’s letters are
consistently marked by features of BE dialect. For instance, the conjugation of the
verbs ‘to be’ and ‘to have’, for example are often jumbled, plural forms of nouns
and verb forms often have irregular endings; ‘two men’ becomes ‘two mens’; ‘she
says’ becomes ‘she say’, and double negatives are common as well as the use of
the form ain’t for ‘isn’t/is not’ "She ain’t never no good!” (30; ch.2). Pronouns are
used in a non-standard way: ‘us’ is used for ‘we’ as well as ‘us’; ‘they’ is used for
both ‘they’ and ‘their’. Phonetic spellings are used to mimic the sound of speech;
‘asked’ becomes ‘ast’ and ‘tuberculosis’ becomes ‘two berkulosis’. Walker makes
extensive use of idioms and vocabulary that are particularly found in the rural
South of the United States; for example, ghosts are referred to as ‘hants’, hair
styles are ‘cornrowed’ or hair is described as ‘nappy’, food items such as ‘grits’,
‘clabber’ and ‘chitlins’ appear on African-American tables, skin colour is never
plain black or white, but ‘yellow’ like Mary Agnes, ‘black’ like Shug Avery or
‘bright’ like Sofia. Celie’s earliest letters immediately establish her as a
sympathetic character. The tone of the early letters to God often resembles the
naiveté of a small child. The letters are short and contain graphic descriptions of
Celie’s sexual experiences at the hands of her stepfather Fonso. The tone of these
early letters resembles the kind of expression that might come from an ignorant
child, although the reader realises very soon that Celie is far from ignorant about
the kind of household she and her sister inhabit. Walker, as a womanist writer, uses
the epistolary form to examine both how African-American women are silenced
and also how the discovery of a voice allows them to achieve freedom from
oppression. The letters that Celie writes to God when she is bound to silence by her
stepfather, as well as the hidden letters that Nettie sends to Celie from Africa,
follow a well-established female literary tradition that used diaries and letters as a
dominant mode of expression for women in Western literature. Celie writes letters
to God as an imaginary listener because she has no other means of telling her story
or revealing her distress. In effect, through her letters, Celie literally writes herself
into being as she changes from being a young, confused teenager into an older,
self-confident adult. (Bond, par. 7)

The Color Purple has a normal style of structure which starts with opening
scene, then rising action, complication, climax of the novel and finally the fall of
the actions and ending. In initial Situation, Celie is in an abusive home situation.
As the novel opens, people see how thoroughly unprotected Celie is by the adults
in her life. Her Pa repeatedly rapes her and Celie gives birth to two children by
him. Her mama is sick and mentally ill, dying young. Though Celie’s teacher
initially comes out to fight for Celie’s right to continue school, she goes away
when she sees Celie is pregnant. It is not clear to anybody whether it is better for
Celie to stay at her house with Pa or to marry Mr.__ when he comes by looking for
a wife to take care of his young children. After that the conflict arises when Celie
wants to protect her little sister Nettie from Pa and then from Mr.__. But mostly,
she just needs to stay alive—emotionally, physically. Celie is forced to marry
Mr.__ and sees this as an opportunity to get Nettie out of Pa’s household.
However, Nettie is no safer in Mr.__’s home. When Nettie refuses Mr.__’s come-
ons, he kicks Nettie out. Celie is alone now, a continual victim. This central
conflict sets up the rest of the novel’s themes; one of exile for Nettie, who ends up
in Africa, and one of abandonment or oppression for Celie, who spends much of
her life under Mr.__’s thumb. The complication appears when Mr.__’s mistress
moves in and Celie falls in love with her. It seems like Celie will be the complete
victim when her husband’s mistress Shug Avery moves in, but Celie is relieved.
With Shug around, Mr.__ doesn’t beat her and does not sleep with her. She has
some relief, but learns jealousy. Now, Celie competes with Mr.__ for Shug’s
attention and affection. The climax is when Shug and Celie discover that Mr.__ has
been keeping Nettie’s letters from Celie all these years. Mr.__ has committed the
ultimate crime against Celie. He has intentionally kept Celie separated from the
only person in the world she loves and who loves her, Nettie. This knowledge
gives Celie the ability to rise up in anger against her husband and no longer be
victimized by him. She leaves Mr.__ and follows Shug to Tennessee. From
Nettie’s letters, Celie learns that Pa is not her actual father after all, another bit of
knowledge that gives her strength. Celie finally takes control of her own life and
Happiness. (Gutierrez, pars. 3-4)

There is a suspense in this novel appears when Celie returns home when Pa
dies, leaving the house and dry goods store to her. Celie returns home and several
things happen; Shug falls in love with somebody else, Mr.__ becomes her friend,
and Nettie’s ship sinks when Nettie is on her way home from Africa. But it’s not
clear if Nettie’s dead for sure. Although most of the plot is now behind them, there
is ongoing suspense as people wonder whether Celie and Nettie will be reunited or
not. (Cecil, par. 4)

The Color Purple's literary techniques employed by Alice Walker to Develop

Celie's Character which uttered the protagonist of Alice Walker's The Color
Purple. "It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a
tree. That's how I know trees fear man" (23; ch.1). Such words of meekness were
characteristic of Celie's speech that is, in the beginning of the novel. As the novel
progressed, however, Celie's acquiescent behavior transformed into one of
resilience and dignity. By incorporating the literary techniques of tone, symbolism,
and juxtaposition into her novel, Alice Walker was able to develop Celie's
character, emphasizing her progression from subservience to independence. Tone
serves as an important device in personifying a novel's character. Such is the case
in The Color Purple. In her subservient state, Celie responded little, if at all, to the
abuse she was exposed to. (Gutierrez, par. 1)

In the end, The Color Purple has a happy ending. Celie escapes Mr.—’s house
and is reunited with her beloved sister and children, leavening the dark, pastoral
elements of the story. Later, when Celie's father dies, she and Nettie inherit his
home, creating financial freedom for the two women. At the novel's end, the two
sisters are reunited, while Albert and Harpo have learned to take on new roles in
the household and in their relationships. Note that the novel's title is alluded to in
Letter 12, when Celie associates the color purple with royalty and longs for a
purple dress. ( Bond, par. 8) But the title undoubtedly comes from a passage near
the end of the novel, in which Shug says that she believes that it "pisses God off if
you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it" (134; ch.8)