The Journey Of Identity Recognition Of Heroines In Alice Walker's Works From The Perspective Of Womanism

Alice Walker is a famous black female writer of America and she wins the Pulitzer Prize,American National Book Award and American National Board of Review Awards with the publishing of The color Purple in 1983.In her novels,she mainly describes the process of black women against the oppression of sexism and racism and how they change their thought to go to independence.As black women,the heroines Celie,Susannah and Meridian suffer from double oppressions of gender discrimination and racial oppression.With the guidance of the people around,their self-consciousness has burgeoned gradually and then they begin to seek their identity.This thesis analyzes the ways of heroines from having identity crisis to becoming independent which shows the essence of womanism.Walker advocates that black women should form women bonding to find the ways of freedom with optimistic attitude and help black man to change their thought with love so that they can exist and live harmoniously.This thesis is divided into four parts.Chapter one is introduction.In this chapter,it introduces the experience of Alice Walker and the main works of her.Chapter two is about the literature review of The Color Purple,By the Light of My Father's Smile and Meridian as well as womanism,including the meaning,characteristics of womanism and the difference from feminism.Chapter three analyzes the process of three heroines seeking their identity.Through analyzing the identity crisis of heroines,it explores the social factors,the misguidance of their family and the lack of love.Then it analyzes the process of heroines becoming self-aware and explores the guidance of lesbians and the influence of other characters.And finally it analyzes how black women realize self liberation and how they influence men with love then they live harmoniously.The last chapter is conclusion,which reveals the importance of womanism to independence of women and it makes contribution to survival of the human beings.At the same time,it also has influence on the attitude of marriage and family values of the female university students.From the perspective of womanism,the thesis explores not only the care Alice Walker shows to the life situation of black women,who struggles under the oppression of sexism and racism,but also her focus on the identity recognition of black women and the harmony among the who nation.Walker not only devotes herself to the development and solidarity,but also provide a new pattern of relationship of human beings.It also makes a contribution to the harmony and development of modern society.