Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Alice Walker writing style
Literary criticism alice walker
Transcendentalism literary
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Celie's Transformation in The Color Purple
Celie is not a typical protagonist. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, the main character Celie is an ugly, poor girl who is severely lacking in self-confidence. However, Celie transforms throughout the course of the novel and manages to realize herself as a colorful, beautiful, and proud human being. Celie becomes a powerful individual.
The Color Purple follows Celie's transformation from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. What is remarkable is the fact that this transformation does not merely compose the plot of the novel, it also dominates the layout of the pages. The book's chapters are not written in a typical fashion as each chapter is a letter written from Celie to God, Celie to her sister Nettie, or Nellie to Celie. Alice Walker utilized this method of storytelling to give the reader a very personal glimpse into Celie's mind and soul. The writer gets a feel for Celie through her writing style- she uses specific phrasing to express herself and, over time, her mechanical writing skills improve greatly. We see Celie's thought process as she makes decisions and then writes about them. This powerful narration is the main driving force behind the words.
If we analyse the story instead of the narrative perspective can we see that the main reason of Celie's insecurity is caused by the way she is treated by men. She is sexually abus...
... middle of paper ...
...kling transforms into a beautiful swan.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Klosowski, John E. "The Color Purple and Its True Color." Houston Cronicle. December 14, 1995 : 42-44.
Smith, Pamela A. "Green Lap, Brown Embrace, Blue Body: The Ecospirituality of Alice Walker." April Cross Currents 2000 (1999): 18 p.
Online. Internet. 30 Nov. 2001. Available: http://www.aril.org.smith2.htm.
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Washington. Pocket Books/Washington Square Press (1985).
Winchell, Donna Haisty. Alice Walker. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992.
Notes:
1 Walker, Alice, The Color Purple (1982), p. 11
2 ibid, p. 38
3 ibid, p. 76
4 Walker (1982), p. 82
The color of the purple. New York: Pocket Books-Washington Square, 1982.
It was simply amazing hiking out there, the mountains covered in tall trees that dug into the rocky soil, the beautiful sky, when visible. Even in the midst of strenuous exercise I still en...
Alice Walker’s love of Zora Neale Hurston is well known. She was the only one who went looking for Hurston’s grave. She describes her journey to get to the unmarked grave in her book, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens. During that journey, Walker started to feel as if Hurston is family to her, an aunt. “By this time, I am, of course, completely into being Zora’s niece… Besides, as far as I’m concerned, she is my aunt – and that of all black people as well” (Ong). Walker’s book, The Color Purple, was influenced by Hurston and her works. Walker was greatly influenced by Hurston and her book The Color Purple has similarities to Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Interpretations: Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publisher, 2000. Print.
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet In act 1 scene 5 Capulet has thrown a party at his house. Romeo and
Critical Essays on Alice Walker. Ed. By Ikenna Dieke. Greenwood Press, Westpoint, Connecticut, London, 1999
a bit tedious by the time you get to the end of the leaflet. Also the
Alice Walker’s writings were greatly influenced by the political and societal happenings around her during the 1960s and 1970s. She not only wrote about events that were taking place, she participated in them as well. Her devoted time and energy into society is very evident in her works. The Color Purple, one of Walker’s most prized novels, sends out a social message that concerns women’s struggle for freedom in a society where they are viewed as inferior to men. The events that happened during and previous to her writing of The Color Purple had a tremendous impact on the standpoint of the novel.
Most of all, without Shug, Celie would have never been reunited with her beloved sister Nettie. The Color Purple is a tale of epic proportion and is beautiful, tear-jerking, passionate, and suspenseful. Even after all of the abuse that Celie received and after all of the struggles that she faced, she found it in her heart to forgive and move on. Her life was truly remarkable, and she was a brave woman who defied the odds in a time of division and hatred. The love that was shared between Celie and Shug was extraordinary and went against all customs of the time period.
Over the course of the novel, Celie, became a confident, independent, strong woman. The novel begins with fourteen year old, Celie, As the novel progresses
Alice Walker, "The Color Purple." ENGL 3060 Modern and Contemporary Literature, a book of 2003. Web. The Web. The Web.
...ce of social gender departure releases her from oppression that came with emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. The significant change from her passive self to a feminine assertiveness develops out of her encounter with the people and events that goes against traditional views of social acceptance as it breaks common views on behavior and attributes. The development allows Celie to identify the people around her as the people she loves and care for, essentially becoming her people. The Color Purple becomes a contemporary text that becomes relatable to issues of identity and acceptance as well as addresses the existence of the continuing problem. Just as Celie says at the end of the novel when she narrates the conservation she shared with Mr. ____, the ability to “live her life and be herself no matter what” becomes a capability to her and the other characters.
The novel, The Color Purple, is an epistolary novel. In the letterforms, Alice Walker gives several ideas, such as, friendship, domination, courage & independence. She impacts readers by looking at the story through the eyes of Celie and Nettie. The book describes the fateful life of a young lady. It tells how a 14 year old girl fights through all the steps and finally she is in command for her own life. Celie is the young lady who has been constantly physically, sexually, and emotionally abused.
Sedgewick observes, one’s social position is affected by various axis of classification such as gender, sexuality, race, class and the interplay of these social identities. In The Color Purple by Alice walker, Sedgewick’s observations ring true. Celie, the main character in Walker’s novel, is a perfect example of these observations put forth by Sedgewick. Celie’s social position is indicative of her gender, sexuality, race, and class; as a Black woman living in Georgia in 1910 to 1940, one can expect to witness the general ‘acceptable’ racism present within the novel towards people of color. Despite the ‘acceptable’ racism, the novel accentuates the hardships and struggles the women of color in this novel have to go through. The social positions of the characters, more so Celie and Sofia, in Walker’s The Color Purple are based on the social identities of their gender, race, class, sexuality, and ethnicity.
The progression of civil rights for black women that existed throughout the twentieth century mirrors the development Celie makes from a verbally debilitated girl to an adamant young woman. The expression of racism and sexism that evidenced itself during the postmodern era presented Walker with an opportunity to compose a novel that reveals her strong animosity toward discrimination. Without these outlets, Walker would not have had the ability to create a novel with such in-depth insights into the lifestyle of an immensely oppressed woman. The novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the story of a poor, young black girl, growing up in rural Georgia in the early twentieth century.