On Black Women's Home-leaving And Return

Alice Walker is an outstanding African-American novelist. She begins her writing in the 1970s. Since then, she has produced quite a few novels and several collections of poems and essays. Born a black woman in the rural community in Georgia, she has seen how black women suffer and she has experienced how a black woman's life can be confined in all aspects. She is concerned with their well-being and is determined to expose all kinds of evils imposed on the black women in writing. In fact, Alice Walker's greatness lies in her concern for all the suffering people, despite their color, gender and nation. She preaches love and harmony in all aspects of people's life. Her sharpness has given her a lot of enemies and hatred, but it has also brought her love, respect, admiration and recognition.The Color Purple was published in 1982. It tells the story how an ugly Southern black girl Celie steps out of "hell" and gains dignity and independence in all aspects of her life. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the National Book Award in 1983. Since then, it has become the most widely read and reviewed American novel till this day. This thesis will approach this novel from the perspective of Womanism, and it will concentrate on discussing the repeated pattern which the present author finds in the novel—black women's home-leaving and return.This thesis consists of Three Chapters, plus the introduction and conclusion parts.The Introduction part consists of an introduction of Alice Walker's life, her famous Womanism, a brief account of the Color Purple and a relatively detailed introduction of the literature review of this novel.Chapter One analyzes the reasons why the black women choose to leave home. The white supremacist patriarchal society has never favored black women. They are subordinated to the black men under patriarchy; they have to hide their true self to meet the standards set by the black community; they have to bear the domestic violence at home. Thus, the brave black women in the novel choose to leave home in order to be themselves.Chapter Two discusses the significance of these black women's home-leaving and their fate after home-leaving. Home-leaving is the indication of these women's nonviolent fighting, and it provides them with a chance to break the confinement of their oppressed life, thus expanding their living space. After home-leaving, through creative work, they gain economical independence, and they gain spiritual independence mainly through a series of healthy love, including self-love, love between black women, love between black women and black men, and love for God.Chapter Three explains these black women characters'final return. Their return contains two layers of meaning. One is the actual return back to the southern community they have left, the other one is the realization of reconciliation between black women and black men as well as the reconciliation between the blackness and the whiteness of the black people.The Conclusion part summarizes the main ideas of the above three chapters. It also points out that the process of those black women's home-leaving and return is like a "circle" which quite fits with Alice Walker's life and ideology.