学士学位论文--无语的艺术形式爱丽斯·沃克的日常生活美学观.doc

Acknowledgements
About this paper, it is necessary to thanks for so many people’s support and it is impossible to finish it without the help of my teachers, friends, family and classmates.
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to my supervisor Miss Tian. In this long process of paper writing, she has given me valuable suggestions and encouragement. And she provides me consistent guidance and helps me to research this topic deeply. Without her generous support, this paper would not have been completed smoothly.
Besides, I am grateful to the teachers who taught me, such as Associate Professor Shi. Their lectures on the studies have offered me a lot, and I have learned much from them.
Next, I would like to give thanks to all my classmates, who have given me much encouragement and support. Without their unselfish help and understanding, my four-year study would not have been so successful and meaningful.
Finally, my family and my friends have given me continuous love and support, so I want to thank them sincerely.
In short, I would like to say thank you for all the teachers, friends and classmates who have given me support during the passed four years. Because of their help, I can finish my paper completely, and then I will continue to make efforts to research, so as to realize my dream.

Abstract
Before Alice Walker, black women's daily life almost did not enter the critics' views and studies. But Alice Walker expressed the great art hidden in black women' s daily life such as sewing quilts, digging herbs, cultivating the garden, etc. She regarded the black women as the special artists and believed that they created a kind of "speechless art form". This essay will reveal the "speechless art form" that is hidden in black women's daily life through the research on daily details of the novel characters Celie, Sophia, Nettie, etc in The Color Purple. The different symbolism meanings of the art in the novel are very important for the expression of the theme. This essay will reveal Alice Walker’s daily life aesthetics.
Key Words: The Color Purple; the meanings of symbolism; speechless art form.

摘要
在爱丽斯·沃克之前，黑人女性的日常生活几乎没有进入批评家的视野与探究，而爱丽丝·沃克则最大限度的挖掘了潜藏在黑人女性日常生活中如缝制被褥、挖草药、整治菜园中的伟大艺术。她把黑人女性看成是特殊的艺术家，认为她们在生活中创造了一种“无语的艺术形式”。本文将通过研究《紫色》中西莉亚、索菲亚、奈蒂、莎格等生活中不同的生活细节来揭示日常生活中这种“无语的艺术形式”的象征意义及对主题的表现。最终本文将揭示爱丽斯·沃克的日常生活美学观。
关键字：紫色；象征性意义；无语的艺术形式

Contents
1. Introduction………………………………………………………....…1
2. The Creativity Source of “Speechless Art Form” in The Color Purple……………………………………………………………….…2
2.1 Clothes ………...…………………….………...………………..…3
2.2 Colors................................................................................................4
2.3 Quilting.............................................................................................6
3. The Aesthetics of the "Speechless Art Form" in The Color Purple........8
3.1 The Symbolism of the Daily Life Things.........................................8
3.2 Pursuit of Love...............................................................................10
4.3 The New Image of the Black Women.............................................11
4. Conclusion............................................................................................12
Biography..............................................................................................................14

13

Alice Walker’s View of “Speechless Art Form” in The Color Purple
I. Introduction.
Alice Walker is a very famous Afro-American woman writer. She is one of the most important black woman writers in the contemporary American literature. Her masterpiece The Color Purple causes the critics’ attention due to her new conception and unique techniques. After its publication in 1982, the novel immediately becomes the best seller in the United States. In 1983, it wins both the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. In 1984, it is adapted for film by Steven Spielberg. Alice Walker becomes the first Pulitzer Prize winner among the American black woman writers.
Alice Walker is born in Eatonton, Georgia on February 9, 1944. A black child born into poverty, Walker starts her life with many disadvantages. Her family lives as sharecroppers in the Deep South. At the age of eight, Walker loses eyesight in one of her eyes when an elder brother accidentally shoots her with a BB gun. Her childhood is typical like other women of her time; she often has to confront racism and sexual abuse. Due to the loss of eyesight and scares on her face, Walker soon grows isolated from the rest of her community, spending most of her time reading and writing about people around her. During this period, she develops a deep bond with her mother and other relatives who inspire her to become an independent black woman. Despite these obstacles, Walker grows up to be quite successful. She graduates at the top of her high school class and soon graduates from college. Walker lives in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement and is an avid activist for minority and women’s rights. In 1983, Walker is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her most famous novel---The Color Purple. Walker will be remembered not only as an award-winning author, but also as a leader for black women’s rights.
The Color Purple, Alice Walker’s third novel, is published in 1982. It deals with black women in the rural South during the first half of the twentieth century. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker portrays the gradual forming of a new black woman---Celie, who undergoes from the patriarchal oppression to awakening and independence. Celie is violently raped by her stepfather Alfonso many times, but she dares not to say to anybody except God because her stepfather threatens her. Celie has two children but they are taken away immediately by Alfonso when they are born. Later Alfonso marries her to Mr. Albert, who just considers Celie as a tool for sex and housework. As a result, Celie endures a hard and loveless life. Albert even has evil intentions on her sister, Nettie. So Nettie runs away and later is adopted by a black missionary couple who takes her to Africa. Being illness, Shug Avery, an American-Africa singer also Albert’s lover, is brought back to his home. Under the good care of Celie, Shug gradually recovers and establishes a good relationship with Celie. Influenced by Shug, Celie becomes confident and also learns to appreciate herself. Later, with the help of Shug, she finds that Albert has secretly keeps Nettie’s letter to her for many years. She is so angry that she leaves Albert finally. She gets economic independence by making pants. After Alphonso dies, Celie inherits the house. On the other hand, Albert goes down slope after Celie leaves him. After introspection, he transforms to be a good man and becomes friends with Celie. In the end, Celie reunites with her sister and her own children. Celie not only wins her respect, love and dignity, but also establishes a harmonious relationship with men. In the novel, Alice Walker expresses the great art that hidden in the black woman’s daily life such as sewing quits, digging herbs, cultivating the garden, etc. During the creativity, Walker has to challenge all the difficulties and finishes the perfect art of the fiction with rich imagination. Women magazine has predicted that the novel would cause a sensation in the United States. (Yang 12) The fact also had proved that The Color Purple bring up many commenters’ attention. Liu Yuan asserts in “The Color Purple and Alice Walker’s Womanism” (2006) that the novel gives a full expression of the ideological emotion of womanism and a vivid description of black women’s struggle for liberation and equality.(Liu 99) In “The Pattern of Chang in Alice Walker” (2000), Liu Ying argues that the pattern change in Alice Walker’s heroines shows her understanding of the process that black woman must undergo to achieve their vision. (Liu 112) Zuo Yaqin says in “The Narrative Technique of The Color Purple” (2005) that the novel’s narrative techniques are helpful to express the author’s idea successfully. (Zuo 223) This essay will deals with how to inherit the culture and the tradition of the black women and keep the black women’s special. The special form “speechless art form” creates the beautiful sense of the novel successfully and reveals a special “word picture” and “thought pictures” (Gates 118)

2. The creativity source of “speechless art form”
Alice Walker believes that the black women have a special ability to create and keep the beauty art in the daily life. Communication aesthetics can be found in daily ordinary objects in black women’s life and consciousness. The poetic beauty hidden in their life is excavated by Alice Walker with her deep understanding for aesthetics. For hundred years, they and their mother, grandmother and great-grandmother inherit the countless beautiful true stories. They play an extraordinary imagination in sewing the quilt, weaving the veil, knitting mat and digging herbs.

2.1 Clothes
In The Color Purple, the changes in Celie’s cloth are very significant. At first, Celie can’t decide what she likes to wear. Because the male-dominated society does not allow women to have their own idea to decide things. She has to meet her stepfather’s and husband’s requirements. She has no idea about her self-value and her identity. All those clothes imply that she has no basic right that a person should deserve. She is under the control of her stepfather and husband, and has no idea to rebel against them.
In The Color Purple, for women, especially for black women, they are not allowed to wear pants. It is men’s privilege. Mr_ tells Cellie that man and woman could not wear the same cloths. Only men have the rights to wear pants. Apparently, men and women are not equal there. On this condition, Celie not only makes pants, but also wears them, which gradually clears up the tradition of men’s domination. Meanwhile, through pants-making, Celie’s creativity shows up, this indicates the talent of Celie at making clothes. As for Alice Walker, she shows women’s relation with the black, and suggests women’s importance in culture passing-down. Instead of betraying the tradition, making pants is one way for women to find self-identity and follow their own thoughts.
Then Shug comes into Celie’s life and tears Celie’s coward and obedience into pieces. She helps Celie become independent and turn her anger for Alert into self-consciousness. Shug makes a breakthrough in black women’s dressing. She likes to wear bright clothes ornamented with furs. Moreover, Shug also tries to change Celie’s clothes. She dresses Celie with her bright clothes, stirs up Celie’s longing for beauty and changes Celie’s idea. Following the advice of Shug, Celie begins to learn to do pants-making and opens her own clothing company---Folkspants Unlimited Company. It offers the opportunities for Celie to show her talent by designing her first pants. Gradually, making pants becomes a way for her to get financial independence. She designs different kinds of pants for different males and females, which makes her a financially independent girl.
She enjoys designing and making pants. Gradually she discovers her wisdom and artistic beauty, and realizes her self-confidence in this manual labor. When women obtain economic independence, according to Walker, they gain freedom of thinking, because they need not fawn on men anymore. Therefore as a matter of fact, pants-making symbolizes a challenge to tradition. It also shows that women pursue the equality between female and male.

2.2 Colors
“Goethe notes in his Theory of Colors that color can reflect the emotions, feelings even the personalities of person.”(O’Brien 148) It is evident that there are a varity of colors piercing through the novel. Alice Walker employs the colors to reveal the personality of the characters as well as their emotions.
The title of the novel is full of meaning. In the American traditional culture, the purple color symbolizes elegance, authority and dignity. The name of the novel also symbolizes the pursuit for the bright future and the happy life. At the beginning of the story, Celie wants a piece of beautiful purple cloth to make clothes, which suggests that she has not got independence and self-identity. Owning to Shug’s help, Celie begins to make a living by herself, and becomes independent. She sets up Folks Pants Company, and then makes pants for her sister—Sofia. She chooses red and purple at her will for the pants, which indicates that Celie begins to get dignity. At the end of the story, she possesses her own house and gets whatever she likes to adorn her room and do clothes. The changing of colors indicates that she has become independent. The changing also symbolizes the statue from being oppressed under the men to her independence. At last, Albert, the husband of Celie, gives a purple frog to Celie as a gift. It symbolizes his recognition of Celie and the equality between the black men and women, and the respect that the black women regain. In this way, Alice Walk makes Celie represent the black woman’s right to be equal to the man and the white. In order to get rid of men’s control, women should join together, take care of themselves, and love each other. Only in this way can they become strong and independent, and then they will gain their self-identity. Using The Color Purple as the title, Walker aims to establish the social states of black women, and even encourages them to gain the dignity. As for the denotation of purple itself, it symbolizes black women’s independence and dignity.
The color of red is some kind of “charming color and it shows the elegance and glamour; meanwhile, red symbolizes enthusiasm, activeness and excitement.”(Wang 77) In this novel, red symbolizes not only enthusiasm, but also excitement and happiness. Before Celie gets freedom, she is not allowed to be in red because of the social traditional system. However Shug uses red most. Shug is the lover of Celie’s husband, but she is very warmhearted, independent, optimistic and full of confidence. She is brave and can fight against the prejudice towards black women. In the novel she always likes wearing something red. Shug is the person who helps Celie get out of the oppression and gives her the encouragement to fight against her unfair fate and become a new woman. Shug likes to travel from one place to another. But no matter where she goes, she is always welcomed by both the black and the white. Because of Shug’s influence, Celie learns to get rid of ignorance and alienation. She develops her self-consciousness gradually. Eventually, she builds her own clothes company and gets an independent and happy life. In The Color Purple, Walker regards Shug as the model of a