Struggle For Survival

Alice Walker is a distinguished African American female writer, who exerts a great impact on contemporary American literature. She has been one of the pioneering figures and creates a new voice in the field of literature. Contemporary black women writers such as Toni Morrison respond to her literary approach by portraying the complex existence of ordinary black women. Her writings give further definition to the issue of race, class and gender. All of them have the same goal: to portray the plight of black women under double oppression and their search for survival.Walker has written many famous works represented by The Color Purple which received the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Reward and National Book Critic Circle Award in 1983. Chinese scholar Tao Jie writes in the Preface to The Color Purple in Chinese version,"The success of The Color Purple lies not only in the moving story and fresh writing style but also and most importantly in that the novel involves fundamental Afro-American and woman issues in present-day American society. It is a representative work in current Afro-American literature and women literature."〔1〕Womanism is a new concept put forward by Alice Walker in her essay collection In Search of Our Mothers'Gardens (1983). In this book, Alice Walker coins the term"womanism"to replace the word"feminism"and to express her appreciation of women and to interpret her knowledge of female gender. In the light of the definition of womanism, we can infer that a womanist is sure to love black people, especially black women, appreciate natural beauty, treasure black tradition and culture, and strive for self-esteem and happiness. Through the above analysis, we can see that womanism is colored by three kinds of features: anti-racism (loving black people), anti-sexism (loving black women, and striving for self-esteem and happiness), and afracenterism (treasuring black traditions).This thesis will be divided into three chapters to investigate the growth of Celie (the protagonist) through exploring the three features of womanism, each developing its own topic but all echoing each other.Chapter one deals with Celie's growing in her consciousness of anti-race. It is reflected in three aspects: her attitudes towards Sofia, towards Alphonso (her stepfather) and towards God. When Sofia is beaten and prisoned, Celie's reaction reveals her sympathy towards Sofia and her outrage towards the whites. It is the whites and racial discrimination that put Sofia into the prison. Celie's stepfather Alphonso, hounding Celie's biological father to death and persecuting other blacks, is not only the degenerate of the black but also the flunky of the white. Celie always feels antipathetic to him. Meanwhile, her attitude towards God also reflects her consciousness of anti-race. At first, Celie regards God as"big and old and tall and greybearded and white. Sort of bluish-grey. Cool. Big though. White lashes."In her opinion, God is unquestionably a white person instead of a black one. However, with Shug's help, her attitude towards God changes and regards God as"everything".Chapter two unfolds Celie's growth in her consciousness of anti-sex. In Celie's letters, instead of calling the black men by names, she calls them in a unique way: she calls her husband"Mr._"instead of his real name Albert; she calls her stepfather"He"instead of father, etc. The unique way of naming male characters reflects Celie's dissatisfaction with men and her hatred for them. The second part of this chapter runs down Celie's pursuit of the color purple, which represents true beauty and self-esteem, true beauty of spiritual and creative nature, indomitable female spirit and female dignity and happiness. At the beginning of the novel, Celie dares not to pursue the color purple which she likes most, however, with her growth and maturity, she has the courage to pursue her happiness and her favourite color—purple. This novel is organized in a unique and female form—epistolary form, which furnishes Celie a stage to express herself. The whole story is written by letters, almost all the letters that Celie writes to God have no signature, which reflects Celie's inferiority and unawareness of her existence because name is a sign of a person's existence. She just thinks herself as an appendant of men. However, at the end of the story, she signs her signiture in her letters to Nettie,"Your sister, Celie", which mirrors her regain of herself and her fight against male domination. Celie's regain of confidence and voice all thanks to the help of other female characters, especially Shug Avery.Chapter three focuses on Celie's consciousness of cherishing the unique black cultures. Celie uses black vernacular to write all her letters. It is not because Celie does not know Standard English. We can see from the novel that Celie has studied for several years in school with Nettie, so it is sure that she can use the Standard English. Her usage of the black vernacular reflects her respect for African traditions. Handiwork is traditional female heritage of Africa, represented by quilting and making pants in this novel. Through quilting, Celie makes profound friendship with the female characters who help her to be a real human being. Through making pants, Celie has her own company and becomes an independent and confident woman.Through the above analysis, Alice Walker provides a way for black women's independence and liberation: they must fight against males and racial discrimination, unite each other and preserve their traditional heritage. The most important thing the black women should do is to realize the value of their own existence, keep independence and spiritual wholeness, and break away from the control of men from the aspects of economy and spirit.