Pursuit Of Self Identity

Alice Walker is an important contemporary black feminist and novelist in America, and she is also one of America’s most talented and influential writers. Although her work has different forms and various themes, the focus is always kept on black women’s struggle for gender equality and spiritual rebirth. The Color Purple (1982), her masterpiece, brought Walker the Pulitzer Prize in1983and the American Book Award in1984.The Color Purple has also attracted great attention since its publication. Scholars and critics have analyzed the novel from various angles, such as womanism, racism, symbolism, and religious consciousness. Now more and more researches are focused on ecology, linguistics and even psychoanalytic perspective. Based on the researches of the achievements in the study of The Color Purple, this thesis intends to make a systematic study on the protagonist Celie from a new perspective, namely, the Freudian psychoanalytical theories. It employs the structure of the personality to analyze Celie’s spiritual progress at three phases of her pursuit of the final inner harmony.In his Personality Structure, Freud divided humans’personality into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. With the changes in circumstances, humans present various lifestyles, values, and show different personalities correspondingly. The id follows the Pleasure Principle, and seeks for individual biological needs, and avoids the pain, trying to satisfy the individual instinct and the desire. Constrained by the Reality Principle, which terminates the Pleasure Principle, the ego regulates the relationship between the human and the circumstance. The superego is guided by the Morality Principle, trying to sublimate human personality and harmonize the relationship between the individual and society.In the innocent period and the early marriage period, Celie fails to recognize realties or her self identity for some reasons. She struggles for survival all the time without any guidance. At this stage, Celie yields to the control of the id for most of the time. Celie yearns for love, but the reality shatters her dream thoroughly. Her soul is trapped in conflict and torture. With the help of the sisters, she is getting closer to spiritual ripeness. At last, Celie achieves her inner harmony and self-realization.Based on the theory, the thesis consists of five parts, including the introduction and the conclusion.In the introduction, the thesis introduces the author and her novel The Color Purple and gives a number of views on the novel both overseas and domestic.Chapter One is about Freud and his famous theory, namely, Freudian Personality Theory.Chapter Two discusses the first stage of Celie’s psychological changes in pursuit of the inner harmony. At this stage, Celie is mainly dominated by the id.Chapter Three introduces the second stage--Celie’s journey to acquire her self identity. It is a process of a strong inward struggle. We can see the three forces, namely, the id, the ego and the superego in Celie, clash with each other.Chapter Four shows the third stage-Celie’s achieving her inner harmony by the realization of her self identity. It is a stage of gaining economic independence and liberation of psychological restraint. And it is the ego’s win under the guidance of the superego.The last part is the conclusion which restates the key problems and arguments listed above and points out the significance of the research work conducted in the thesis.The process of Celie’s pursuit of self identity not only reflects the living condition of black women living in the first half of the twentieth century, but also embodies the growth of her own personality. Freudian psychoanalysis of Celie shows that only when the ego successfully balances the id and the superego can one maintain a healthy personality, pursue his self identity and achieve final inner harmony.