An Analysis Of The Color Purple From The Perspective Of Womanism

Alice Walker (1944—) is one of the most momentous and significant female writers in literary arena. As a representative work of black American, The Color Purple (1982) won the1983Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award. It delineates the hard process of black female, i.e., Celie, Nettie, Sofia, and Shug, to break gender and racial barriers, and accomplish rebirths via loving and helping each other. The Color Purple focuses on Afro-American and African women’s self-redemption and emancipation and unfolds black women’s awakening. It is a representative masterpiece detailing “womanism”, a notion coined by Alice Walker, who regards pursuing racial and sexual egalitarianism as her lifelong career. The notion is characterized by the following features: anti-sexism, anti-racism, Afracentrism, and cosmopolitism. And this thesis is trying to interpret The Color Purple from these perspectives, hence expresses the significant value and impact of womanism in guiding black women and voices Walker’s expectation, ie., the ultimate goal of womanism, a harmonious world within which people are not only equal sexually and racially, but also live in harmony with nature.This thesis is divided into three parts: an introduction, the main body, and a conclusion.The first part is the introduction which gives a brief description of Alice Walker’s life, the content of her novel The Color Purple and the compliment and criticism at domestic and overseas about it, followed by the declaration of the necessity of this thesis, that is, most theses are focusing on the criticism of male patriarchy without a theoretical backbone, yet thesis thesis is trying to analyze The Color Purple from a novel womanistic perspective, endeavoring to delineate Walker’s appeal to the coexistence among different sexes, races, human beings and nature.The second part consists of four chapters, and it is the main body of the thesis.Chapter I is the theoretical framework. It details the origin, definition and essence of womanism, and makes a comparative study between womanism and feminism, expounding womanism is to feminism what purple is to lavender. Womanism, which is more suitable for black women, is the development of white feminism and improvement of black feminism. The core of womanism, namely love somebody oneself, love others, respect for nature, and fight for freedom and egalitarianism, has important guiding significance for black woman in the process of their growth.Chapter II illustrates the plight of black women under racial and sexual oppressions and their fight. On one hand, Celie, Sofia, Shug and Mary Agnes struggle against patriarchy. On the other, Sofia and Nettie struggle against racial discrimination both domestic and abroad. By portraying black women both in America and Africa, this part explores black women’s endeavor of striving for equality, which is advocated by Walker’s womanism.Chapter III depicts the fighting source of black women named Afracentrism. Afracentrism is a huge anti-sexism and anti-racism ideological trend and the spiritual strength for black women in The Color Purple. It is embodied mainly by sewing patchwork quilts and pants, singing blues, sisterhood, and animism. All of these embodiments function as bridges for eliminating misunderstanding and estrangement. Afracentrism provides proper belief and strong bonding for black women. Meanwhile, it also serves as guidance for black women to strive for sexual and ethnical equality.Chapter IV discusses the ultimate goal of womanism in The Color Purple. To build a harmonious world is what Alice Walker advocates. This chapter uses the realistic significance of The Color Purple as the breakthrough point, demonstrating Walker’s looking forward to bio-sexual relationship, ethnic relationship and coexistence between human and nature, delineating womanism is more inclusive than feminism and much more applicable to black women and the colored women.The third part is the conclusion, which summarizes the thesis and states the truth that only by the guidance of womanism can the colored women achieve thorough re-modification. In a multicultural society within which females are having more influence, womanism is more in line with social reality than radical feminism and more caters to women’s pursuit for liberty and equality. It provides the black women, the colored women and even all women with proper and correct theoretical guidance.