Textual Analysis of Chapter 3 of The Color Purple by Alice

Walker

Introduction
This chapter describes the methodology that was used in the research, the literary, and textual or
discourse analysis. It includes the Language used in the novel, the Oppression in the novel, the
Setting, the themes, Symbolism and Authorship in the novel of Walker. The chapter lays down how
women of color particularly African American women are not given the same type of humanity or
treatment on literature.

This chapter will focus on how women are represented in The Color Purple by Alice as addressed in
accordance with feminist notions of African American women’s marginalization in Literature. To
research how The Color Purple is situated in black feminism, it is applied the black feminist theory to
the novel in order to see how they complement each other, particularly using Black feminist scholar
Patricia Hill Collins, the author of Black Feminist Thought. This Chapter will focus on the female
characters as portrayed in the novel: Celie the Protagonist, Nettie Celie’s sister, Shug Avery the
singer, Sofia Celie’s friend, Squeak, Corrine, Olivia the daughter of Celie, Tashi an Olinka village girl,
Miss Millie the racist, Eleanor Jane and Kate.

A Brief summary on the Author “Alice Walker

Alice Walker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning, an African American novelist and poet most famous for
having written the epistolary novel 'The Color Purple. She was born to sharecropper parents in
Eatonton, Georgia, in 1944, and she grew up to become a highly acclaimed novelist, essayist and
poet. Alice Walker's career as a writer took flight with the publication of the novel, The Color Purple, in
1982. Set in the early 1900s, the novel explores the female African-American experience through the
life and struggles of its narrator and protagonist Celie. The Color Purple is regarded as a feminist
narrative by exposing the brutal treatment of the uneducated women in the South by men in an
environment where the men are also victims of white racism and segregation.

Celie suffers terrible abuse from her father, and later from her husband. In 1985, Alice Walker's story
was made to be a movie. And just like the novel, the movie was a critical success and received 11
Academy Award nominations. She explored her own feelings about the film in her 1996 work named,
The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult. And later in 2005, The Color Purple became a
Broadway musical.
Authorship by Alice Walker in relation to the Color purple

The fact that the author of the novel Alice Walker is female and African American influences the way
black women are portrayed in her novel the Color Purple. To write the novel, Alice Walker was
influenced by the period she grew up, where there was so much oppression and racism and
domination of women by men. Alice Walker does not only represent the black women but all the
African American people and the oppression from blacks to another black. She was only eight years
old when she had a childhood accident that damaged her eye and that changed the way she
interpreted the world and her own self. When she had the accident, her parents did not have a car at
the moment, and a white motorist refused to pick up her and the parents to the hospital and she was
treated home with folk medicine. That made Walker realise the differences and the segregations that
surrounded her. When Walker was at college, after going through surgery to recover her eye, she was
offended when asked to move to the back sits of the bus to Atlanta by being a black girl (White, 64-
65). After that episode, Alice Walker gained the sense of continuing her education and take part in the
civil rights movement and stop the segregation from whites to blacks.

Alice Walker in her novel attempts to bring hope and strength to the African Americans and give voice
to the voiceless which are the poor and rural black women. As a female writer Alice Walker trough
Celie’s voice tries to encourage the other women to develop abilities to stand up for themselves in acts
of resistance. The author was also inspired from women like Rosa Parks, “A woman who was once
arrested for refusing to sit in the back of a bus” to represent black women in her in her book. The
representation of Celie in the Color Purple brings out Alice walker’s theme as a black women and
encourages resistance of black women in to achieve freedom. The Color Purple fulfils African
American Women’s need for a female hero and it demonstrates how true love can literally be capable
to heal physical abuse and undo all the previous oppression and segregation, and she is one of the
examples to change and she even got married to a white man the father of her children.

The Oppression
In the feminism, theory sexuality is regarded as the centre of oppression as stated in the Color Purple.
“In feminist contexts, sexuality represents a central site of the oppression of women, the rape and the
rape trial are its dominant narrative trope” (Hammonds, 134).

Patricia Hill Collins, a scholar on black feminism, identifies three approaches to conceptualize
sexuality. She states that sexuality it can be at first examined as an independent system of
oppression, similar to race, gender and class. The second approach stated by Collins analyses the
way in which sexuality is manipulated within systems of oppression such as race, gender and class.
And the third, the concept of sexuality can be approached as the junction or centre where intersecting
oppressions meet (Collins, 128).

Celie in the novel represents the oppressed black women by man. Many women are violated,
oppressed and assaulted by men and told to be quiet. The fact that Celie had no voice, she was
obliged to keep quiet and never tell anyone else about the assault by the father. “You better not never
tell nobody but God” “It would kill your mom” (The Color Purple-letter1) said the father after raping
when she was only 14. This passage calls to the oppression faced by women in the color purple. The
only one Celie trusted is God, the one she told her story through several letters.
The way which the letters are addressed to God by Celie instead of to a human being, underlines the
issue that Celie is completely alone and confined by the conditions of her life as well as by the blame
that she feels. This is intensified by the way that she believes that the man who has assaulted her is
actually her own dad. From the starting point Celie shows up as an absolutely innocent victim, who
feels that what has happened to her is on one point her own fault.

The manner in which she describes the assault makes the critic or the reader aware not just of her
physical affliction or suffering and her mental shock, but of her weakness and vulnerability as woman.
The fact that she is a woman and due to physical power she was not able to fight against the rapist.

'You got to fight them, Celie, she say. I can't do it for you.

You got to fight them for yourself.

'I don't say anything. I think bout Nettie, dead.

She fight, she run away. What good it do? I don't fight, I stay where I'm told. But I'm alive.' From the
color purple (P 22)

In the novel, males look at females as objects to be controlled and it implies how women can gain
confidence and empowerment by turning to other women. This is another passage from the novel
which calls to oppression. And it also shows how women stand together and support each other in
difficult moments. In this passage, Celie’s friend “Shug Avery” advised Celie to fight against her
husband who treated her like maid. Shug advices Celie to take an action and fight for self-
independence and never subjects herself to husband, father or son.

Celie says: “Pa beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I may have got something in
my eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at men.

That’s the truth. I look at women, tho, cause I’m not scared of them.

Maybe cause my mama cuss me” (letter 5 to God “The Color purple”)

Women are represented as powerless and they are supposed to totally obey their men and the men
take control over them.

“Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr… say, Cause she my wife. Plus, she stubborn. All women
good fo…he don’t finish. He just tuck his chin over the paper like he do. Remind me of Pa.” (letter 13
The Color Purple)

Celie hated her husband Alphonso for forcing her to have sex whenever he wanted and without never
asking her how she feels. Celie wished her life with the husband was a dream and she prayed that
one day she could wake up and disappear from his eyes. The passage bellow from the text shows.

“Never ast me how I feel, nothing. Just do his business, get off, go to sleep” (The Color purple p 81).

The hope and fight for freedom

Many people when experience struggles in life they tend to lose hope and give up on their dreams.
Celie’s life begin to be active after she meets another woman, Shug who becomes her friend and tells
her to stand up and fight for herself. Shug agrees to stay with Celie and their husband to keep him
from hitting Celie. So though she has lost contact with her sister for a while, she forms this new
relationship that serves as a kind of refuge from her home life for a while. Shug also helps Celie to find
Nettie’s letters, so that she now knows that her sister is alive and trying to contact her. At first just like
any other women who are abused, Celie feels that she is not confident enough to do that and she
cannot risk her life too much. Still, there are very terrible moments that made Celie stand up and start
fighting for her own self.

Celie’s letters writes three main types of letters: the first letters are written to God. The second letter
are shared between her and Nettie the sister to exchange their experiences as young and black girls.
The third letter are addressed to everything in nature were she states the hope she has to one day
overcome the horrible situations she is going through. Celie finds her hope in God as illustrated in the
passage below as Celie writes:

Dear God,

I am only fourteen years old.

I am I have always been a good girl.

Maybe you can give a sign letting me know what is happening to me (The Color Purple letter 1)

“Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God” (The Color
Purple 292). That makes the reader understand her deepest relation with God, God is everything, the
central element to all her answers and the one who she most trusts to tell her story and she has hope
that one day she will find the answers in him.

The Language in The Color Purple

In The Color purple the author creates a certain expressive style for the main character, the one who
tells the story and writes letters to God. Alice Walker’s use of special language in the Color Purple
creates narrative strategies, it brings out the unheard stories of women, and transforms traditional
concepts of gender roles. In the novel, the readers can easily learn about the difficult life of Celie
through her words and the direct experiences she has faced. That expressive style calls attention into
a type of English for blacks or simply African American English (AAE). Alice Walker employs Black
English as a way of manifesting her concern on the black cultural heritage and her challenge to the
superiority of white people’s language.

Celie does not follow the English grammatical rules when she writes her letters. According to
MUFWENE, Salikoko etall (African-American English 1998 p29), African English refers to a
nonstandard form of American English characteristically spoken by African Americans in the United
States.

Within the text, there is the domination of the so-called literary dialects. According to Sternglass,
(1975) literary dialect refers to a specific local or social variety chosen by an author as the language of
his text for the purpose of reproducing certain forms of speech. Alice Walker in her novel The Color
Purple intends to inform the style and violence characterizing the language of the males’ protagonists.
The author uses this type of language to make the reader feel more engaged in the drama lived by the
Protagonist Celie in her story and most of the used vocabulary belongs to the rural South which was
considered the black area. At the beginning of the novel it is shown the trial and errors made by Celie
in the spelling of her very expressive letters. The language used by Celie is raw direct speech of
language related to the blacks and uneducated Americans and it calls the reader’s attention on the
fact that Celie was still young and did not go to school.

According to Coulmas Florian, (Trends in linguistics 1986), direct language is referred to the written or
spoken language that communicates meaning as clearly, concisely and candidly as possible. It is used
to as one of the most dramatic ways to convey a certain characters’ points of view or idea. Celie uses
direct language to express her feelings and give meaning to her dramatic life. She uses brave
language with the intent to communicate what she is going through without impressing anyone. For
example:

Just say you gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t.

First, he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around.

Then he grab hold my tities. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. (From The Color Purple p1)

The character also uses the so-called ordinary language. Ordinary language refers to the words and
phrases that are used in our everyday lives and it does not follow the complex vocabulary to be easily
understood. In some of her written letters, she uses also the so-called ordinary language. Some of the
words in plural have irregular forms of ending for example men become mens in plural. “I may have
got something in my eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at mens.” (P1)

Themes
Within the Color Purple we can find some of the themes stated by Alice Walker to convey the meaning
and significance of the novel.

The Power of Narrative and Voice

The author of the Color Purple, highlights within the novel the capacity to express one’s thoughts and
emotions as crucial to developing a sense of self. By creating this theme, Alice Walker in her novel
clearly desires to show the importance and significance of the power of narrative and speech to resist
oppression.

At the beginning of the novel, Celie is completely unable to resist those who abuse her. Paying close
attention to Alphonso’s warning that she “better not never tell nobody but God” about his abuse of her,
Celie feels that the only way to persevere is to remain silent and invisible. Remembering Alphonso’s
warning that she “better not never tell nobody however God” concerning his abuse of her, Celie feels
that the only manner to carry on is to stay silent and invisible. Celie is actually associated with an
object to Alphonso, as an passive party who has no strengths to advocate herself through action or
words. By meeting Shug and Sofia, Celie finds on them friendly ears and she is thought lessons that
enable her to find her voice and fight for her freedom. Celie starts to continue to expand her story by
informing Shug and later on to Sophia. Celie gains voice when she discovers the letter from her sister
Nettie which was hidden from her by her Husband. She finally expresses her anger to him and
humbles him causing him to change his abusive life.

The Power of Strong Female Relationships

Alice Walker shows how female friendships and relationships can serve as inspiration and encourage
another woman to open up, fight against abusive behaviors and overcome horrible situations. The
novel sets out how relationships among women can form a refuge and provide reciprocal love in an
environment surrounded by male violence. Just like a relationship from mother to daughter or from
one sister to another, Celie found in female relationships the hope to believe in herself that she can be
able to fight the oppression she was living.

The theme of Family

Celie finds in the love she feels about her sister Nettie the real significance of family. Even though the
sister was separated from her for so long time, Celie maintained that strong affection and kept the love
for her always in her heart. She later on discovers from Sophia and Albert that they can also be as
part of her family and she refers to them as “my people”.

The theme of Religion and Spirituality

Celie writes a series of letters to God and she refers to him as “Dear God”. This shows the relationship
between the novel and religion and spirituality and closely attending to a belief in a single God as a
part of human happiness. That shows the transition of the old White men referred before as God to a
God that exists everywhere and all around. Celie related God to the nature’s beauty and she believes
He is more than white people say. Also Nettie has a strong relationship with church, she served as a
missionary to the Olinka people and helped to spread Christianity. After the return of Nettie, Celie
realized the manifestation of God’s power to her life.

The theme of Race and Racism

In the novel there is racism from whites to blacks and from blacks to another black. Celie believes she
is ugly just because of her dark skin and she believes the whites are more beautiful and prettier than
her. “Us both be hitting Nettie’s schoolbooks pretty hard, cause us know we got to be smart to git
away. I know I’m not as pretty or as smart as Nettie, but she say I ain’t dumb” (From the Color Purple
letter 8)

Celie is aware that the only manner to achieve freedom, get a job and be independent is by being
educated and intelligent. Although Celie considers the sister to be prettier than her, Nettie gives her
emotional support so that she can have belief in herself and gain her self-esteem. On the other hand,
the people from Olinka in the novel, see the African American people as inferiors and poor to them
because of being blacks.

Setting
The main setting regarded as primary in the Color Purple novel is among poor blacks in rural areas of
the South in rural Georgia where Celie the main protagonist lives the majority of her life. As a poor
black woman in the rural South, Celie is treated badly but people did not pay attention to what she was
going through. Celie then had a moment of travel to Tennessee in Shug’s home where Celie had a
brief sojourn. The other Setting of the story is Nettie’s place Western Africa. As the novel is epistolary
the letters written from one character to another can contribute to many settings in the story.

Summary
This chapter comprised the textual analysis of the novel. It described the methodology that was used
in the research, the literary, and textual or discourse analysis. It includes the Language used in the
novel, the Oppression in the novel, the Setting, the themes, Authorship in the novel of Walker. The
chapter layed down how women of color particularly African American women are not given the same
type of humanity or treatment on literature.