On Celie's Construction Of Female Subjectivity In Alice Walker's The Color Purple

In 1982, Alice Walker's most famous novel, The Color Purple, was published and became one of the best sellers. In the next year, the novel won both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for Fiction. It successfully depicts how Celie, a 14-year-old black girl, shakes off patriarchal oppression and achieves her individual identity and self-actualization. The success of the novel lies in that it points out to the black women what road to choose to gain their emancipation and how to make the choice. The novel sensibly reflects the tough process in which black women walk out of darkness, get rid of societal bondage and walk toward a new birth.In the Color Purple, patriarchal oppression is the societal root causing Celie's lack of female subjectivity. The family misfortune makes Celie numb and develop a sense of self-denial. Sisterhood and black women's creativity are the approaches for Celie to construct her female subjectivity and strive for emancipation. In the novel, Celie's homosexual lover Shug, younger sister Nettie and daughter-in-low Sofia successfully help Celie construct female subjectivity in their special ways. And through black women's creative activities such as quilting, pans making and expressing herself, Celie gains independence physically, spiritually and economically. Celie is no longer voiceless and obedient. She courageously rebels against patriarchal oppression and suspects the image of God that she has believed in deeply for a long time. During the change of Celie's spiritual belief, Alice Walker, as a womanist, subtly endows Celie with her own religious belief. She overthrows the image of God in Christianity in Celie's mind and replaces it with the one in Animism. Celie's belief conversion plays a crucial role in her construction of female subjectivity.The thesis attempts to explore the procedure of Celie's lack and construction of her female subjectivity and penetrate the difficult process in which Celie searches for and establishes her selfhood and gains her independence. The thesis consists of four parts: Introduction, Chapter One, Chapter Two and Conclusion. The part of introduction focuses on Alice Walker and her masterpiece—The Color Purple and carries a general survey of the criticism on this novel. The main body is composed of two chapters. By analyzing the causes of Celie's lack of her female subjectivity, Chapter One focuses on the societal and family backgrounds in which Celie lacks her female subjectivity. Through the analysis of Celie's constructing behaviors and approaches, Chapter Two makes a profound exploration of Celie's construction of female subjectivity and gaining her emancipation. The part of conclusion restates the main points in the thesis and points out the lasting impact of The Color Purple.