An Analysis Of The Color Purple From The Perspective Of Queer Theory

Womanism, a word coined by Walker to mean black feminism, such a term has been fully embodied in her masterpiece The Color Purple. As the rise of queer theory in 1990s, some scholars and critics got to notice the association between this theory and The Color Purple. Although Walker may not have been consciously working out this book within the particular framework of queer theory, many evidences indicate that some qualities of the main characters are in accordance with the main principles of queer theory, especially considering the convergence of queer theory and Walker's womanism.Perfectly interpreting Walker's womanism, The Color Purple describes how a numb black girl grows up to an independent and confident woman with the help of women community, especially her woman lover. Her growth involves many aspects of queer theory: such as Celie's homosexual love to Shug, Shug'bisexuality, the reverse gender roles of Sofia and Harpo and the deconstruction of black/white binary oppression. These all reflect the core of queer theory: challenging the obsolete traditional norms and opposing social hegemony, which categorize people with specific label, queer theory deconstructs all strict binary classifications and advocates people to live in a natural and free state. Confronted with sequential sufferings, all main characters have their happy ending, and live a harmonious and peaceful life, just as Walker and queer theorists expect: to establish a harmonious world among genders and races.