A Study Of The Color Purple From The Perspective Of Ethical Literary Criticism

Alice Walker is one of the most famous representative writers of African Americanliterature in20thcentury. She is known as the spokesman of black women literature. Hernovels always root in the America blacks’ cultural tradition and mainly reflect the love andhate of the black women and their struggle for self-growth and personal integrity. TheColor Purple published in1982is a great contribution to the black women literature. It wasby this novel that Walker won Pulitzer Award and National Book Award in the Americanliterature in1983. In foreign countries, Walker’s works enjoy great popularity and theacademic literature circle at home also pays close attention to them. However, most literarycriticism on Alice Walker’s works focus on her feminism or womanism. Rare researchestouch Walker’s novels from the angle of ethical literary criticism which is a criticalapproach in literature. It is firstly proposed by Professor Nie Zhenzhao and furtherdevelops by the joint efforts of scholars. The basic idea of this approach is that literature isthe art of ethics in nature as it is the special expressions of ethical ideas and moral life in aparticular historical period. It aims at reading, analyzing and interpreting literary worksfrom the perspective of ethics, exploring ethical factors that lead to social events andinfluence the fate of characters in works as well as making a moral evaluation from theperspective of history. Ethics, ethical consciousness, ethical situation, ethical identity,ethical choice are the core terms of this critical approach. Based on the ethical literarycriticism, this thesis tries to systematically analyze The Color Purple from the followingthree dimensions: the oppressions of ethical situations; the loss of ethical identity and theawakening of ethical consciousness. It aims at exploring images of the black women in TheColor Purple, so as to better understand Walker’s humanistic ethical idea and her ethicalpursuits of truth, goodness and saint.The thesis consists of six parts:The first part is the introduction part. It briefly introduces Walker’s life and her literaryachievements. The focus is put on the research situation of the novel both at home and abroad.The second part further interprets the concept, the development of ethical literarycriticism and its major researches. Based on ethical literary criticism and by doing textreading, this thesis tries to explore the rich ethical connotations in the novel. The last partof this chapter is the significance of the thesis.The third chapter deals with oppressions of ethical situation. Human beings live in acertain society. Through analyzing the relationships between the blacks and white societyand that between the black women and inner black community, it aims at inquiring theauthor’s ethical pursuit of truth. These all highlight Walker’s good ethical demands ofbuilding a harmonious and equal relationship between the blacks and the white society, aswell as between black male and black female.The fourth chapter gives a detailed analysis of the lost ethical identity. One’s ethicalidentity is always reflected by relationships with others. Through the analysis of blackfemales’ relationship with their parents and husbands, it makes a thorough inquiry onWalker’s ethical claims of goodness. These all show Walker’s advocation for the differentforms of the goodness which are independence, love and black women’s sisterhood.The fifth chapter discusses the awakening of ethical consciousness. One’s ethicalconsciousness reflects human-self relationship. It explores Walker’s ethical pursuit of sainton this aspect. Self-examination, gaining economic independence, repentance and goingtowards goodness is an ideal way to bring out saint.The sixth chapter is the conclusion part of the thesis. This thesis argues that Walkerrelentlessly reveals the black women’s plight in the novel and she openly proposes herethical pursuits for the blacks to gain self-growth, which are truth, equality, love, economicindependence and black women’s sisterhood. Meanwhile if the whole black nation want toobtain a real sense of liberation, black men’s self-examination and improvement arenecessary.