Transformation And Rebirth Of Female Consciousness

As a novel with great influence in the history of American literature, The ColorPurple explores a new area of lesbian theme. It is a great book which is first andforemost about African American women’s growth against the backdrop of social andfamilial oppression. It not only reveals the racial and sexual discrimination but also tellsthose oppressed black women the way to solve the discrimination.This paper adopts the lesbian feminist theory to analyze the novel The ColorPurple, as the theory broadens the theme of the novel and enriches the means of theliterary performance. The paper is aimed at revealing the double oppression upon theblack women and discussing how they unite to fight against the oppression to achievefinal physical and mental independence. From the perspective of lesbian feminism,Walker pays much attention to problems of the black women’s ability to get thefinancial independence as well as get on well with men. Women should take variousmeasures to protect themselves for the sake of living equally and harmoniously withmen. From the analysis of the special lesbian relations between Celie and Shug Avery,the paper draws a conclusion that the emergence of lesbian feminism between blackwomen is reasonable and unavoidable, for it is a useful tool for black women to uniteeach other to fulfill the transformation and rebirth of female consciousness as well asrealize their own life value. The paper also illustrates that the racial and familialdiscrimination results in the emergence of lesbian feminism and the lesbian feminismwill not disappear until the discrimination is removed from the American society.This thesis can be divided into six chapters. First of all, it reveals the researchbackground and makes a brief introduction to the author and the work. The second partmainly talks about the previous studies about the novel both at home and abroad, theoriginality as well as structure of the paper. The third part is the theory of black lesbianfeminism. Next the thesis analyzes the causes for the emergence of the lesbianfeminism as well as its embodiment in The Color Purple. Then the effect andsignificance of black lesbian feminism reflected in the novel are discussed. In the last part, it comes to the conclusion that the main characters regain their transformation ofself-consciousness and mental rebirth by breaking free of the fetters and shacklesthrough their special love feelings. It concludes that the emergence of lesbian feminismis necessary and reasonable. It will not disappear as long as the discrimination upon theblack women exists.