A Survival-whole World

Alice Walker is a famous modern Afro-American woman writer, a womanist andan activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Because of the double oppression enduredby Afro-American women, Walker’s works always focus on the plight ofAfro-American women in the white patriarchal society, and she has been devotingherself to building a survival-whole society including men and women.Published in1982, The Color Purple immediately caused a stir in Americanliterature, and then won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize in the following year. The success ofthe novel not only lies in its various themes but also in black feminism, or rather,womanism. The novel reveals the causes of Afro-American women’s oppression andalso points out that only sisterhood, love and friendship can unite Afro-Americanwomen and help them resist racism and sexism. From Alice Walker’s originalwomanism, the Afro-American women in The Color Purple suffer from the doubleoppression of racism and sexism, only when they unite as one to fight against racismand sexism, can the black community build a survival-whole society.Besides Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter One explores the causes of the double oppression imposed on Afro-Americanwomen. In the white patriarchal society, Afro-American women are subject to racismand sexism, and they are in the lowest social ladder. Chapter Two provides thestrategies which Afro-American women adopt to dismantle the double oppression.Chapter Three analyzes how constructs a harmonious society through the joint effortsof women and men, and also reveals the glorification of womanist thoughts in thenovel.