On The Construction Of The Theme Of The Color Purple

The Color Purple is American black female writer, Alice Walker's masterpiece. The novel describes the hard process of the heroine, Celie's independence and liberation from oppression, exposing the theme of black women's pursuing independence from the binary oppression of sexism and racism in the patriarchal society and realizing spiritual freedom and the equality between men and women, white and black.This thesis analyzes the process of the heroine's striving for independence, the relationship between the characters and the influence of the relationship on the heroine's independence, the change of the characters' religious notion and the characters' subversion of racism. Meanwhile the thesis analyzes the literary techniques employed in the novel and points out that Walker utilizes some specially-chosen literary techniques to reinforce and perfect the construction of the theme, combining the contents and literary techniques into a unified whole. The thesis gets the conclusion that Alice Walker constructs the theme of The Color Purple from multiple aspects, highlighting the abundant connotations of the theme. The way to construct the theme not only embodies Alice Walker's outstanding literary talents but also draws public attention to black women's self-development and independence, and will exert great influence on black females who are struggling for their identities and independence.