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The Color Purple Alice Walker

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The Color Purple Alice Walker BIBLIOTECA TECLA SALA November 15, 2018 The Color Purple Alice Walker Introduction Alice Walker once told an interviewer, "The black woman is one of America's greatest heroes. She has been oppressed beyond recognition." The Color Purple is the story of how one of those American heroes came to recognize herself recovering her identity and rescuing her life in spite of the disfiguring effects of a particularly dreadful and personal sort of Contents: oppression. Introduction 1 [http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/fiction/211- color-purple-walker?start=2] Brief Author 2-3 Biography Themes in The 4-5 Color Purple Free Spirit 6-8 Notes 9 Page 2 Brief Author Biography Alice Walker is an internationally children whose parents are Womanist based spirituality. celebrated writer, poet and lynched/assassinated?) and Now Is Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A activist whose books include the Time To Open Your Heart (a Writer’s Activism (explores seven novels, four collections of couple on the verge of separating activism as a source of short stories, four children’s decides to live together, fully in inspiration), The Same River Twice: books, and volumes of essays and the present, despite awareness of Honoring the Difficult chronicles poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize the universal unraveling of the adventure of having a film in Fiction in 1983 and the societies around the globe). made of her novel The Color National Book Award. Purple and weathering storms of Her short story collections censorship, banning, criticism, Walker has written many include: In Love & Trouble: Stories and verbal attack. bestsellers; among them, The of Black Women (poor and Temple of My Familiar (a wisdom marginalized women of color Her work has been translated tale that originates in prehistory); make choices reflecting their into more than two dozen By The Light of My Father’s Smile status in life) and You Can’t Keep languages, and her books have (sexuality and forgiveness as paths A Good Woman Down (the spirit sold more than fifteen million of healing); Possessing the Secret of of woman rises with the smallest copies. Along with the Pulitzer Joy (1992), which explores the encouragement; one of our most Prize and the National Book effects of female genital mutilation valuable human contributions) Award, Walker, in 2006, was on one woman’s psyche as well as and The Way Forward Is With A honored as one of the inaugural her body (she becomes a patient Broken Heart (after a painful inductees into the California Hall of a fictional Carl Jung). This novel divorce, a woman opens herself of Fame. In 2007, her archives led to the 1993 book and to the heartbreak offered by the were opened to the public at documentary film Warrior Marks: world, and loves the world Emory University in her birth Female Genital Mutilation and the enough to persevere). state of Georgia. In 2010 she Sexual Blinding of Women, both presented the keynote address at collaborations with British-Indian There are seven volumes of The 11th Annual Steve Biko filmmaker Pratibha Parmar, and poems. Among them: Once, Lecture at the University of Cape We are the Ones We Have Been Revolutionary Petunias, Horses Town, South Africa, where she Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Make a Landscape Look More met the beautiful sons of Steve Darkness (meditations on spiritual Beautiful, Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll Biko, and was awarded the and political issues). See You In the Morning, Her Blue Lennon/Ono Peace Grant in Body Everything We Know, Absolute Reykjavik, Iceland, where she met Her other novels are: The Third Trust In the Goodness of the Earth, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Life of Grange Copeland (one Hard Times Require Furious “beautiful boy” Sean Lennon. family’s struggle to survive the Dancing, and The World Will Follow (Walker donated this latter sharecropping system – slavery Joy: Turning Madness Into Flowers. award to an orphanage for the under another name – in the children of AIDS victims in East South), Meridian (a spiritual In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Africa, The Margaret Okari biography of The Civil Rights Womanist Prose examines the Foundation in Kisi, Kenya). She Movement), The Color Purple creative inheritance of one’s served as jurist (2010 and 2012) (liberation from enforced, male maternal line, and how our own for two sessions of The Russell dominant, religion and thought; contributions,whether political, Tribunal on Palestine. In Cape also poses the question never activist, or poetic connect on this Town, South Africa, and NYC, asked by societies in which they foundation. Essays in Living By the New York. occur: what becomes of the Word reflect Walker’s Earth and Page 3 Recent works are: Overcoming same world: the world where Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters grief is not only acknowledged, the Horror in Rwanda, Eastern but shared; where we see Congo and Palestine/Israel; Hard injustice and call it by its name; Times Require Furious Dancing; where we see suffering and The World Has Changed: know the one who stands and Conversations with Alice Walker; sees is also harmed, but not and The Chicken Chronicles: Sitting nearly so much as the one who With the Angels Who Have stands and sees and says and Returned With My Memories, a does nothing.” Memoir. She also writes regularly on her blog site at Alice Walker was awarded the www.alicewalkersgarden.com. Mahmoud Darwish Literary Prize for Fiction 2016. Two new books were presented [http://alicewalkersgarden.com/ in Spring of 2013: The Cushion in about/] the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm’s Way; and The World Will Follow Joy: Turning Madness into Flowers, poems. Walker has been an activist all of her adult life, and believes that learning to extend the range of our compassion is activity and work available to all. She is a staunch defender not only of human rights, but of the rights of all living beings. She is one of the world’s most prolific writers, yet continues to travel the world to literally stand on the side of the poor, and the economically, spiritually and politically oppressed. She also stands, however, on the side of the revolutionaries, teachers and leaders who seek change and transformation of the world. Upon returning from Gaza in 2008, Walker said, “Going to Gaza was our opportunity to remind the people of Gaza and ourselves that we belong to the Page 4 Themes in “The Color Purple” The Power of Narrative The Power of Strong and Voice Female Relationships Walker emphasizes throughout the own powerful narrative. Celie’s Throughout The Color Purple, novel that the ability to express forceful assertion of this Walker portrays female one’s thoughts and feelings is newfound power, her cursing of friendships as a means for women crucial to developing a sense of Mr. ______ for his years of to summon the courage to tell self. Initially, Celie is completely abuse, is the novel’s climax. stories. In turn, these stories unable to resist those who abuse Celie’s story dumbfounds and allow women to resist oppression her. Remembering Alphonso’s eventually humbles Mr. ______, and dominance. Relationships warning that she “better not never causing him to reassess and among women form a refuge, tell nobody but God” about his change his own life. providing reciprocal love in a abuse of her, Celie feels that the world filled with male violence. Though Walker clearly wishes to only way to persevere is to remain emphasize the power of narrative Female ties take many forms: silent and invisible. Celie is and speech to assert selfhood and some are motherly or sisterly, essentially an object, an entirely resist oppression, the novel some are in the form of mentor passive party who has no power to acknowledges that such resistance and pupil, some are sexual, and assert herself through action or can be risky. Sofia’s forceful some are simply friendships. Sofia words. Her letters to God, in outburst in response to Miss claims that her ability to fight which she begins to pour out her Millie’s invitation to be her maid comes from her strong story, become her only outlet. costs her twelve years of her life. relationships with her sisters. However, because she is so Sofia regains her freedom Nettie’s relationship with Celie unaccustomed to articulating her eventually, so she is not totally anchors her through years of experience, her narrative is initially defeated, but she pays a high price living in the unfamiliar culture of muddled despite her best efforts at for her words. Africa. Samuel notes that the transparency. strong relationships among Olinka In Shug and Sofia, Celie finds women are the only thing that sympathetic ears and learns lessons makes polygamy bearable for that enable her to find her voice. In them. Most important, Celie’s ties renaming Celie a “virgin,” Shug to Shug bring about Celie’s shows Celie that she can create gradual redemption and her her own narrative, a new attainment of a sense of self. interpretation of herself and her history that counters the interpretations forced upon her. Gradually Celie begins to flesh out more of her story by telling it to Shug. However, it is not until Celie and Shug discover Nettie’s letters that Celie finally has enough knowledge of herself to form her Page 5 The Cyclical Nature of The Disruption of Racism and Sexism Traditional Gender Roles Almost none of the abusers in Walker’s novel are stereotypical, Many characters in the novel one-dimensional monsters whom break the boundaries of we can dismiss as purely evil.
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