Black Women in the Black Patrimony: Self Discovery in Alice Walker's The Colour Purple

Abstract

The Color Purple, Alice Walker’s third novel, won the American Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize. This paper analyses this novel that is centred on black women and written in an epistolary form. The whole novel is written in a sequence of letters that becomes the genesis of intimation and revelation of the story of the principal character Celie. These letters evinces the inner psychological and emotional conflict, implicit distress, suppression of spirit of Celie. It also manifests Celie’s intensifying inner vehemence and her ultimate triumph. The novel is a saga of a woman’s battle against patriarchy, racism, sexism, and social determinism. The novel also probes the man-woman relationship and the suppression, subjugation and sexual exploitation of the black women in their relationship with black men. The novel somehow asserts the requisite for sisterhood that appears a prospect for black women liberation. The Color Purple accentuates the universal exploitation and persecution of black women through the character of Celie. It is concerned with sexual-politics and attacks on male dominance, predominantly the brutal assault of black women by black men.