从妇女主义的角度解析《紫色》这本书毕业论文.doc

X X 师 范 学 院

毕 业 论 文

An Analysis of The Color Purple from the Perspective of Wamanism
从妇女主义的角度解析《紫色》这本书

外国语 学院 英语教育 专业 09 级 1 班
学生姓名 黄XX 学 号 090201013
指导教师 丁XX 职 称 教授
完成日期 2013年3月15日

Abstract: Alice Walker is not only the first black woman writer in American history who won the Pulitzer Prize，but also is one of the most influential writers of contemporary American literature. Her novel The Color Purple is known as a timeless classic, which directly explores the contradictions and conflicts between black men and women, describes the hard course of black women’s growth, points out a feasible road of two sexes’ harmony, and further shows the essence of the “womanism”.
This thesis is divided into five parts. The first part gives a brief overview of Alice Walker and her masterpiece The Color Purple. The second part deals with the theoretical framework, and includes the theory of womanism. The third part gives an analysis of the four female characters in the Color Purple from the perspective of womanism. The forth part mainly deals with three unique features of womanist reflected in The Color Purple. Then naturally the fifth part makes a conclusion. In all, Alice Walker‘s womannism overcomes the shortcomings of the feminism and provides a new angle of view to liberate black women.

Key Words: Alice Walker; womanism; The Color Purple; Harmony

【摘 要】艾丽丝·沃克是美国历史上第一位获得普利策文学奖的黑人女作家,也是当代美国文坛最有影响的作家之一。她的小说《紫色》直接探讨了黑人男女之间的矛盾和冲突，以及黑人妇女的艰难成长之路，提出了两性之间和谐相处的可行之道，并从多个角度展现了“妇女主义”的要旨，是沃克的妇女主义思想的完美体现，被誉为永恒的经典。
本文共分五个部分。第一部分简要介绍艾丽丝·沃克以及她的代表作《紫色》。第二部分是理论基础。第三部分从妇女主义的角度分析《紫色》中的四个女性。第四部分探讨了《紫颜色》中的三个典型文化特征。第五部分为总结。综上，爱丽丝•沃克提出的妇女主义不仅克服了传统女权主义的缺点，而且也为解放广大黑人妇女提供了一个新的视角，使她们能更勇敢的面对自己的人生，也更有勇气实现男女之间的和谐。

【关键词】艾丽斯·沃克；妇女主义；《紫色》；和谐

Contents
Introduction 1
0.1 An Introduction to Alice Walker 1
0.2 An Introduction to The Color Purple 1
1Theoretical Framework 3
1.1 The Theory of Womanism 3
1.1.1 Advocating the Braveness and Confidence of black women 3
1.1.2 Praising the Sisterhood of Black Women 3
1.1.3 Pursuing the Harmony of Two Sexes 4
1.2 Summry 4
2.Four Female Characters of Womanism in The Color Purple 5
2.1 Celie 5
2.2 Shug 5
2.3 Sophia 5
2.4 Nettie 6
2.5 Summary 6
3.Unique Features of Womanist Culture Reflected in The Color Purple 7
3.1 Blues music 7
3.2 Sewing 8
3.2.1 Sewing Clothes for the Family 8
3.2.2 Co-Sewing with the Mr. Johnson 9
3.2.3 Quilt-Sewing 9
3.3 Pants- Making 10
Conclusion 12
Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………13Acknowledgement 14
.

Introduction
0.1 An Introduction to Alice Walker
In the latter half of the 20th century, with the development of feminist movement, the rise of African-American writers became particularly striking. Especially in 1983, a black writer—Alice Walker won three U.S. literary awards: the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Association Award. As a practitioner and theory explorer of the black feminist literature, Alice Walker revealed the tragic fate and poor living conditions of the black women with her unique perspectives, studied the humanity of the Blacks beyond the boundaries of race and gender. She discovered the problem of the universal human nature: living conditions, social relations and weaknesses, and the pursuit of the human spirit.
Alice Walker’s literary creation closely related to cultural traditions, the contemporary social environment, and her life experiences and family background. So it is necessary to understand Alice Walker’s life background before analyzes the text. Alice Walker was born in a black family who were sharecroppers in Southern America. She witnessed and experienced the unfair social status and sufferings of the blacks. From her mother and grandmother, Alice Walker learned much about the oppression and abuse of the tragic fate of black women. At the same time, Alice Walker understood the preciousness of the black’s cultural heritage. She set the faith for the preservation and promotion of the traditional culture. The tragic childhood made Alice Walker indrawn, so she only focused on reading. When Alice Walker wanted to devote herself to literary tradition and historical artistic creativity of the black women, her mother’s gardening skills and the other black women’s artistic creativities inspired her greatly. The impact of Alice Walker’s mother also reflects on that she valued children’s education. Although they lived in a village where without a school, but her mother tried her best to provide her eight children with educational opportunities. Before Alice Walker gone to get college education, her mother had already given her three things: a sewing machine, a typewriter and a suitcase. Walker explained the meaning of these three gifts: the sewing machine means independence, the typewriter means that writing will be her life, and the suitcase means enlarging her vision.
Alice Walker is a black writer who has rich life experience, profound thought and clear political ideas. Alice Walker shoulders social responsibility and historic mission of this vulnerable group — black women writers. She is fully aware of the touching power of the literature that depends on the deep meaning of the subject and ultimate concern for the destiny of mankind. Alice Walker makes a huge contribution to contemporary American literature.
0.2 An Introduction to The Color Purple
The Color Purple was published in 1982 and won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award. This novel tells the life journey of the protagonist—Celie’s growth from a vulnerable girl to an independent woman. By emphasising on Celie and the other black women’s pursue for equality, independence and fulfillment, Alice Walker demonstrates her ideas of womanism best.
In The Color Purple, there are three sets of letters. The first letter is Celie’s letters which were written to God about Celie’s misery because she could not write or speak to anyone else. The second is Nettie’s letter to Celie, about her various experiences in Africa. The third is Celie’s letter to Nettie, which exposes the theme of The Color Purple.
The Color Purple began with Celie’s letter to God. When Celie was fourteen years old, she was raped by her stepfather. Then she gave birth to two children who were taken away by her father later. Celie felt extremely painful and torturous, except God, she was forbidden to tell others. Later, Celie married to Albert, whom she called “Mr. Johnson”. As Mr. Johnson’s wife, Celie worked hard in his fields, took care of his children and bore his violence. Celie’s sister Nettie, who escaped from her own home because of her stepfather’s mistreatment, was adopted by a black missionary couple and went to Africa with them. At first, Sofia had great influence on Celie. Sofia was a brave woman, who fought against her husband’s abuse. And Sofia refused to be the maid of the white mayor’s wife. Shug Avery is a blues singer and Mr. Johnson’s lover. Some ideas of Shug’ s songs are considered as sinful for the Christians．but they inspire people．Even Celie is encouraged and comforted by Shug’s songs．It is the blues songs that convey black women’s aspiration for freedom and selfhood．Moreover, Shag’s pursuit of the blues reflects the appreciation of the African culture．
Although the plot is simple, this novel is far from being simple. L.S Robinson claimes that “Like a skillfully crafted quilt, The Color Purple incorporates recognizable pieces of literary traditions into its own pattern, including slave narrative, domestic novel, epistolary novel, bildungsroman, fairy-tale, romance, and even existential novel.”(L.S Robinson, 1996:32). Maroula Joannou acclaims that “the influence of The Color Purple in progressive academic circles was unprecedented” (Maroula Joannou, 2000:101).

1. Theoretical Framework
1.1 The Theory of Womanism
In 1983, Alice Walker creatively put forward the concepts of “womanist” and “womanism” to replace “feminist” and “feminism” in her important collection of essays--In Search of our Mothers’ Gardens. In this book, Alice Walker makes a concrete and vivid illustration of the black women’s ideal state, and defines the term “womanism” as follows:
1. A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children “You acting womanish” that means you act like a woman, usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous, or willful behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered “good for one”. She is responsible. She is in charge. She is serious.
2. A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually, appreciates and prefers women’s culture. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female.
3. A woman who loves music and dance. She loves the moon. She loves the spirit. She loves the food and roundness. She loves struggle. She loves the folk. She loves herself. She is regardless.
4. Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender. (Walker, 1983: xi-xii)
Walker creates the term “womanist” to show the differences with white feminists. Womanism is a unity oanti-sexism,anti-racialism, Africa centralism and humanism, which is regareded as the core of Walker’s spiritual world.
Alice Walker stresses that the womanist “Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female” (Walker, 1983:77). Survival whole is the core of womanism. Walker’s womanism is not only against the gender discrimination, but also against the inequality of race and class. Alice Walker calls for all people of different races, colors and genders coexist equally and peacefully to achieve human’s survival whole.
1.1.1 Advocating the Braveness and Confidence of black women
Alice Walker gives the origin of the womanism in the first interpretation. Hence a womanist must have some characters which the word “womanish” implies, such as brave, courageous, responsible, self-confident, and grown-up and so on. As a womanist, Alice Walker shows these characters completely. When Alice Walker was young, she was very confident. She dared to cry out “I’m the prettiest” in front of her brothers (Walker 1983 385). Alice Walker actively took part in the Civil Rights Movement and Black Women’s Movement, When she studied in college. What’s more, she was the pioneer who opens black women literature course in college.
1.1.2 Praising the Sisterhood of Black Women
In Alice Walker’s works, we can find that the good relationship among women can be found everywhere. For instance, In The Color Purple, the mutual love and support among Celie, Sofia, Nettie, Shug, and Squeak, demonstrates the important influence of sisterhood on the liberation of black women. Alice Walker also emphasizes women’s emotion and women’s culture, one of which is making quilts. When Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple, she lived a very simple life in a mountain village, but she still did not forget to make the quilt. “I bought […] a quilt pattern my mama swore was easy,[…].I worked on my quilt […].My quilt began to grow” (Walker 1983, 358). To some extent, making quilts help her to finish the novel. In The Color Purple, Celie, Sophie and Shug also made a quilt named “sister’s choice”, which symbolizes their precious friendships.
1.1.3 Pursuing the Harmony of Two Sexe
Alice Walker never forgets black men. The womanist should commit themselves to the entire things of the world, whether they are male or female, human beings or nature. Sometimes, Alice Walker is criticized by her negative depiction of men, especially black men, but she is not a separatist. Alice Walker only wants to show human beings a fact that black woman is suffering unfair treatments and great hurt. Therefore, great hurt hopes that black men can realize and rectify their problem. And they can become friends of black women. At the end of The Color Purple, the change of Albert and Harpo is a good illustration of Walker’s wish of achieving the harmony of two sexes.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines womanist as: “Having or expressing a belief in or respect for women and their talents and abilities beyond the boundaries of race and class; exhibiting a feminism that is inclusive esp. of Black American culture” (Harcouri, 2000:312)
1.2 Summary
Walker’s womanist theories provides a new theoretical perspective to American black women’s movement, feminist criticism and even American literature. There is no doubt that as a prolific writer and daring practical thinker, Walker is the greatest African-American womanist in the 20th century.

2. Four Female Characters of Womanism in The Color Purple
2.1 Celie
Celie is the main character, who has been oppressed by men her whole life. Celie is treated as“the mule of the world”(walker,1983) and suffer from both racial discrimination and sexual abuse．
At the beginning of The Color Purple，Celie’s father says，“you better not never tell nobody but God．”(Walker,1982：1)Being deprived of the speech fight，Celie turns her inner feelings to letters where she can express herself freely．
At the start of the novel, Celie views God as completely separate from her world. She writes to God because she has no other way to express her feelings. She tells Shug that she sees God as a white man. Celie has this belief because everyone she knows has said God is white and a male. The ugly men Albert and he step father hardly destroy her whole life. Luckily, Shug tells her God has no race or gender. This enables Celie to see God in a different way. She realizes that you cannot place qualities on God because God is a part of the unknown. Her faith is now based on her interpretation of God, not one she learned from someone else. With the help of Shug, Celie found out letters written to her from Africa by her sister Nettie, a missionary. These letters, full of educated, firsthand observation of African life, form a moving counterpoint to Celie's life. They reveal that in Africa, just as in America, women are persistently oppressed by men.
2.2 Shug
Shug is a charming and rebellious character“in short skirt，smoking cigarettes，drinking gin，music for money and talking about slut，hussy，heifer and street cleaner”(walker，1982：49)．
According to Alice Walker, womanists are who loves dance，loves music，loves the spirit，loves love and loves herself. It appears that Shug is a womanist who expresses her real feelings in the music and firmly believes the blues themes of love，sexuality and freedom．Shug is a very extroverted and transcendental character. She is Albert's ex-girlfriend, the one who always got away. When she comes back to visit Albert, she s