Celie’s Search For Her Own Voice--Analysis On Her Construction Of Self-Identity In The Color Purple

Alice Walker is an African American woman novelist, poet and essayist. In her works, she dedicates to delineate the process of the black women’s search for voice and identity. In her novel The Color Purple, Walker creates a common black woman, Celie, who is repressed by oppressive discourse. The novel is mainly about Celie’s transformation from "voicelessness to voice", from being identified by other people to having the power to construct her own identity.As a black woman, Celie is controlled by both racist and sexist discourse; she is in the state of aphasia or being voiceless. She has no ability or power to express herself and her identity is defined by the white discourse and the masculine discourse. Later Celie’s discourse consciousness is awakened and she begins to voice herself. And ultimately Celie succeeds in claiming to her own voice and she also constructs her own identity. In The Color Purple, by creating such a figure, Walker intends to reveal the importance of power of discourse in people’s construction of self-identity. This thesis employs Foucault’s theory on power of discourse to analyze the process of Celie’s search for her own voice and identity.And this thesis consists of three parts:The Introduction part gives a brief introduction to Alice Walker, the literature review on The Color Purple and the theoretical framework of this thesis.The body part consists of the following three chapters:Chapter One is about Celie’s suffering under the tight control of racist discourse and sexist discourse. Under the tight control of such discourse, Celie’s self is suppressed and her voice is deprived of. As a result, she has no ability or power to claim to her voice or define her identity.Chapter Two focuses on Celie’s transformation. At first, she has the least discourse consciousness. Later under the influence of Sofia and Shug, who are brave enough to rebel against the white discourse and the masculine discourse, Celie’s discourse consciousness is awakened and she begins to express herself through writing letters. Chapter Three is about Celie’s search for her own voice and her construction of self-identity. Through letter-writing-a way of self-expression, Celie claims to her voice, gains the power of discourse and frees herself from the bondage of racist and sexist discourse. Celie realizes the meaning of her existence and constructs herself as a mature, confident, self-reliant and independent woman.The conclusion of this thesis is:the power of discourse plays an important role in people’s construction of self-identity.