An Analysis Of Faith Crisis And Faith Reconstruction In The Color Purple

Black women suffer racial discrimination in white community as well as sexual abuse and violence in black community. They endure the torture obediently to some extent due to their Christian faith. The oppressors consider Christian faith to be a means to achieve their ideological domination of the oppressed by distorting the teachings of Christianity. Alice Walker is always concerned with black people, particularly black women’s fate. She attempts to offer an outlet for black women to get their spiritual liberation so that they are truly free from race, sex and class oppressions.This thesis attempts to study the faith struggle of African American women from womanist perspectives in The Color Purple. It is comprised of six parts—the introduction, four main chapters, and the conclusion.Introduction is a presentation of Alice Walker’s literary achievements, the literature review of The Color Purple, and the significance of this study. Based on the former research on The Color Purple, the present author finds the issue faith revealed in the novel can be further explored.Chapter One introduces both true and misinterpreted Christian faith, their different influences on people’s lives, and the developmental process of African-American religious faith. True faith can bring hope and strength to believers; however, distorted understandings of the teachings of Christianity can make the oppressed more obedient to the oppressors.Chapter Two focuses on Alice Walker’s womanist theory and her perspective on Christianity. Her womanism provides a solid theoretical backbone for African American women to revolt, survive and be empowered against the hostile forces of their living world. Moreover, Walker is preoccupied with the spiritual survival of black people. She offers a way to reflect on Christian faith from womanist perspectives, in the meantime absorbs the pantheistic thought.Chapter three and Chapter four analyze Celie’s and Nettie’s experiences of exploring their Christian faith respectively. Their original faith in God encounters crisis and is in great need of reinterpretation. Based on their own experiences, they manage to generate new and progressive theological interpretations of God, which reveals both womanist and pantheistic thoughts. In the end, Celie rejects the white patriarchal God she used to blindly devote to and accepts a loving God that nourishes everything. After undergoing the painful failure of her missionary work and being aware of the imperialist power of it, Nettie gives up her original intention to civilize Africans through evangelizing them and reconstructs her faith to embrace a holistic God, free of the imperialism of white supremacy.The thesis concludes that Alice Walker intends to provide a Christian faith of both womanist and pantheistic consciousness. She maintains that God is connected with His whole creation and each part of His creation is interconnected and interdependent. Moreover, God expects believers to celebrate life and experience pleasure, which are the grace of God.