The Color

Purple
Alice Walker

By Mustafa Doğan
1120320762
 Major
Contents

Alice The Color Feminist

Walker Purple Criticism
Alice Walker

 Alice Walker (born February 9,

1944) American author, poet, and
activist. She has written both
fiction and essays about race and
gender.

 She is best known for the

critically acclaimed novel The
Color Purple(1982) for which she
won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
 Most of her writing portrays the lives of
poor, oppressed African American
women in the early 1900s.

 Walker’s novels place more emphasis on

the inner workings of African American
life than on the relationships between
blacks and whites.
 1.Early Life

 Born on Feb. 9, 1944, in a small rural

town of Georgia.
 In 1952, her brother Curtis accidentally
shot Alice in the eye with a BB gun.
 The physical result was that Alice lost the
sight in her right eye, which developed a
disfiguring white scar. Psychologically,
she grew more introspective,
contending with feelings of sadness,
alienation, and betrayal.
 2.Education

 With the help of her great mother,

Walker enrolled at Spelman College
in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1961, where
she quickly became involved in the
civil rights movement.

 In 1964, Walker transferred to Sarah

Lawrence College where Walker’s
commitment to becoming a writer
was nurtured.
• Charlotte’s brother, Branwell, was a gifted
painter.
 The African-American
Civil Rights Movement 

The African-American Civil

Rights Movement (1955–
1968) refers to the
movements in the United
States aimed at outlawing
racial discrimination
against African Americans
and restoring Suffrage in
Southern states.
 After graduation

 Walker worked for the New

York welfare system and
learned about Blacks who were
evicted from their homes for
attempting to register to vote.
 Married a lawyer (whom she
later divorced); (inter-racial
marriage)
 one daughter, Rebecca Grant
born in 1969;(political symbol)
3.Works

• The Third Life of Grange Copeland

(1970)
• Meridian (1976)
• The Color Purple (1982)
• The Temple of My Familiar (1989)
• Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992)
• By the Light of My Father’s Smile
(1998)

Jane Eyre was published in London in

1847.
 4. Awards
• The Color Purple
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 (the
first black woman winner)
National Book Award

• Kindred Spirits
O. Henry Award in 1986

• “Humanist of the Year”honored by

the American Humanist
Association in 1997
The Color Purple

Set in rural Georgia

during segregation, The
Color Purple brings
components of
nineteenth-century slave
autobiography and
sentimental fiction
together with a
confessional narrative of
sexual awakening.
 The Story:

Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, tells the story of Celie, a Black
woman in the South. Celie writes letters to God in which she
tells about her life--her roles as daughter, wife, sister, and
mother. In the course of her story, Celie meets a series of other
Black women who shape her life: Nettie, Celie’s sister, who
becomes a missionary teacher in Africa; Shug Avery, the Blues
singer her husband Mr. __ is in love with, and who becomes
Celie’s salvation; Sofia, the strong-willed daughter-in-law whose
strength and courage inspire Celie. Throughout the story, Celie
is the center of this community of women, the one who knows
how to survive.
Brief analysis of the story:

 Setting
 Character
 Plot
 Point of view
 Theme
 Style
 Symbolism
Setting

 Rural Georgia
 1930s
 Characters

Celie, protagonist

Poor, uneducated black woman with a

sad personal history. She survives a
stepfather who rapes her and steals her
babies and survives an abusive husband.
She builds a strong friendship and
intimacy with singer Shug Avery, who
helps Celie to find her voice. At the end,
Celie is a happy, independent, and self-
confident woman.
Nettie

Celie’s younger sister. Nettie is the only

character who loves Celie consistently and
unconditionally throughout the novel. Their
mutual love for each other remains steady even
after the sisters are separated for 30 years
without any contact. Educated and independent
of all men. Nettie never judges her personal
worth in relation to men.
Shug Avery
Shug is larger than life,
and she know how to love.
Her problem is that she
loves and keeps on loving.
She has a weakness for
people, and she keeps
people in her life, no matter
what. Shug is the person
who lifts Celie up and gives
her the will to leave behind
a life of victimhood and
become a new woman.
 Other Characters

 Mr. _____ (Albert) – Celie’s husband

 Harpo – Mr. ___’s oldest son

 Sophia – Harpo’s wife

Plot
 Themes

Violence
Black female characters in the book tend
to be victims of violence. Men tend to
attempt to exert their dominance over
women, especially their wives. Celie
suffers repeated violence from her father
and husband and reacts by shutting down
emotionally and being submissive.
Race

As an African American, living in the pre-

Civil Rights South, surrounded by other
poor, uneducated blacks, Celie sees
nothing in her race to be proud of.
However, as she learns about the rich
cultured that existed in Africa, she gains
pride in her ethnic heritage.
Women & Femininity / The Power of
Strong Female Relationships
Women either have to constantly fight
against men, or completely submit and be
trampled over. Women’s situations can
improve, when women band together and
support each other.
 Feminist Criticism

Feminism

Feminism is the ideology that believes in the

equal rights and opportunities for women in
education, employment and in the cultural and
social life. There are differences between the
ideas of feminists around the world so that no
one description can fit all varieties of feminist
views.
 Early Feminism

o One of the earliest feminist writings is Mary

Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of
Women (1792) in which she criticizes stereotypes of
women as emotional and instinctive and argues that
women should aspire to the same rationality prized
by men. Wollstonecraft believed that women should
enjoy social, legal, and intellectual equality with men.

o John Stuart Mill’s essay on the Subjection of St. John

Women (1869) is a defense of gender equality in Rivers
which he attacks the idea that women are naturally
incapable of doing things that men can do, and
should, therefore, be forbidden from doing them.
The Feminist Movement

 First-wave feminism started in the

nineteenth century and early
twentieth century in the U.K. and US.
It focused on the promotion of equal
rights for women. By the end of the
nineteenth century, the focus was
more on political
Thornfieldrights, particularly
the rightManor
of women’s suffrage.
 The Second-wave feminism is a
movement that began in the early 1960s
and continues to the present. The
French philosopher Simone de
Beauvoir discussed many of the
questions of feminism and feminists'
sense of injustice in her groundbreaking
book Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second
Sex), published in 1949. The second
wave feminism is largely concerned with
social and economic equality and with
ending discrimination and the inequality
of laws.
 Feminist Literary Criticism
 Feminist literary criticism is a product of the feminist movement
of the 1960s.

 Feminist criticism of the 1960s and 1970s concerned itself with

the representation of women in literature as an expression of
the social norms about women and their social roles and as a
means of socialization. It focused on the images of women in
books by male writers to expose the patriarchal ideology and
how women characters are portrayed. They try to show how
male writings emphasize masculine dominance and superiority.

 In the 1980s, it switched its focus from attacking male

representation of the of women to discovering forgotten and
neglected works by women.
 Feminist Criticism in The Color
Purple

 The various waves of feminism throughout history

have proven numerous times the difficulties involved
when attempting to gain equal rights. The Color
Purple, by Alice Walker, demonstrates theses
hardships. The feminist lens acts as a tool for
completely examining Walker’s portrayal of
women. Through the character of Celie, Alice
Walker’s The Color Purple portrays the oppression
of women’s rights in a patriarchal society, the horrors
of physical abuse of women, as well as the
continuous struggle to overcome these societal
injustices.
 The limit of women’s rights is clearly
portrayed from the beginning of the
film. The time period of the early 1900’s
sets a perspective and provides context
as to why the rights of women were
violated or deemed insignificant. Celie is
a prime example of this oppression and
receives treatment that is much beyond
terrifying. This is evident when the
viewer witnesses Celie giving birth at
the age of fourteen to her second child.
The fact that her father made the child
with her truly demonstrates the
inequality and indifference of men
towards women.
 The portrayal of physical abuse reinforces the
physical and psychological oppression of
women. These portrayals exhibit the gender
issues at the time and the continuous
diminishing of hope for women. With the
constant physical abuse, it is expected women
will feel hopeless and desperate as they often
have no one to turn to. Celie exhibits both
hopelessness and desperation in the film until
she finally does meet someone she can turn
to, Shug Avery. Shug serves as a symbol of
hope and freedom for Celie as she is not
bound to a man and has gained this
independence through her singing career. In
one scene, when Celie hears that Shug will be
going back to Memphis, she desperately
begins packing in hopes of going with her.
 Conclusion

Through the portrayal of a male dominant

society, physical abuse, and the fight for
women’s rights, Alice Walker’s The Color
Purple establishes an overall positive view of
the capabilities of women. Despite all the
troubles and horrors Celie has to endure
from Mister, Celie is the one who ends up at
the top and Mister is left with a miserable
future. Walker portrays the hardships that
may be evident in a woman’s life and proves
the continuous fight for the end of injustice
can be reached.
 Bibliografy

 The Color Purple. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Prod. Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall,
and Quincy Jones. By Menno Meyjes. Perf. Danny Glover, Adolph Caesar, Margaret
Avery, Oprah Winfrey, Willard Pugh, Whoopi Goldberg, and Akosua Busia. Warner
Bros., 1985. DVD.
 1983 National Book Awards %u2014 Infoplease.com. Photograph. Infoplease:
Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free Online
Reference, Research & Homework Help. %u2014 Infoplease.com. Web. 06 July 2011.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0154623.html
 AfriPOP! Briefs: Alice Walker to Honor Steve Biko - AfriPOP! Photograph. AfriPOP!
- Global African Culture. Web. 06 July 2011.
http://afripopmag.com/culture/afripop-briefs-alice-walker-to-honor-steve-biko/
 "Alice Malsenior Walker." Contemporary Popular Writers. Ed. Dave Mote. Detroit:
St. James Press, 1997. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 July 2011.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CK1632000267&v=2.1&u=tall85761
&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Walker