With its portrayal of the intricate conflicts within in black male and female relationships, The Color Purple (1982) is arguably Alice Walker’s most successful novel. In fact, Walker states
in “Writing The Color Purple” (1982) that she was well-aware of the need to write herself into history, as well as the rigidity some male critics may view it. She notes, “I also knew The Color Purple would be a historical novel, and thinking of this made me chuckle. . .a black male critic said he’d heard I might write a historical novel someday, and went on to say, in effect: Heaven protect us from it” (In Search 355-56). This implication suggests that some men may not seri- ously consider Walker’s work as historic because it was inspired by a conversation with her sis- ter about “one woman asking another for her underwear” (356). Despite this and other sexist critiques, Walker’s novel went on to receive the 1983 Pulitzer Prize Award in fiction and sealed her legacy with the classic film adaptation of this novel.
Spanning the 1920s through the 1940s in a rural Georgia town, The Color Purple pre- sents Walker’s emphasis on silenced black female voices at the hands of equally oppressed black men. To emphasize the silence, Walker incorporates the epistolary form to give her fe- male characters a voice, as well as to indicate initial patriarchal mistreatment of them. In her collection of essays titled In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (1983), Walker informs us of her commitment to examine the “oppressions, the insanities, the loyalties, and the triumphs of black women” who are, to her, “the most fascinating creatures in the world” (250-51). As a womanist, or black feminist, who is committed to “the survival and wholeness of an entire peo- ple, male and female” (xi), Walker also explores the societal ills that affect men. Barbara Chris- tian posits that Walker’s texts are beneficial in both understanding and healing southern rela- tionships: “She has long insisted that until the solids and prints of the South are sorted and stitched into clarity, the relationship in this country between men and women, blacks and whites will continue in disarray” (50). In her works, we become privy to both male and female
motivations, oppressions, and redemptions. In the treatment of her characters, Walker sug- gests that the black men who mistreat black women may do so because of the link between racism and sexism. What Walker ultimately interrogates in her works is the idea that black women’s voices are not considered valuable in a patriarchal society. From her background in rural Georgia, we may understand the root of her desire to shed light on this lack of considera- tion for the female voice.
Like many of her black female characters, Walker was silenced by the presence of the privileged male voice, more specifically that of her brothers. Walker shares that her brothers were absolved of any responsibility for mistakenly shooting her in the eye with a BB gun. De- spite the trauma of ridicule she experiences from this incident, Walker’s brothers’ versions of the accident initially trump hers and they return to normalcy thereafter (Evelyn C. White 27). What is also noted is that Walker remains quiet because her brothers tell her to do so. Walker chronicles this traumatic episode in her essay titled “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self.” Walker writes of how society dictates her play alongside her brothers as a subordinate figure. Walker also notes the domination her older brothers impressed upon her to reinvent a version of what she states is her truth. Walker notes,
. . . holding my bow and arrow. . . I feel an incredible blow in my right eye. I look down just in time to see my brother lower his gun. My brothers rush to my side. My eye stings, and I cover it with my hands. ‘If you tell,’ they say, ‘we will get a whipping. You don’t want that to happen, do you?’ I do not. ‘Here is a piece of wire,’ says the older brother. . . ‘say you stepped on one end of it and the other flew up and hit you’. (In Search of Our Mothers Gardens 345)
Walker’s silence has at its core, not only an emphasis of an authoritative male voice, but also the desire to protect her brothers. This episode links Walker’s major female characters’ plights to hers. Her interest in the interconnectivity of racism and sexism, even within the black com- munity, highlights the plot of The Color Purple.
Within the novel, Celie is as an oppressed, traumatized woman whose secret past demonstrates why she dislikes men and ultimately rejects conventional, patristic Christianity. In fact, Celie presents herself in this manner; she controls the story. Like Baldwin’s protagonist John, Celie is fourteen at the novel’s onset. At this age, Celie has birthed two children, after be- ing raped by the man she knows as her father, Alphonso. Creating images of chattel slavery, Walker writes that Celie’s father sells her children before she can establish a bond with them. The narrator suggests that Alphonso wanted no proof of his transgressions. Celie’s mother goes insane and dies soon thereafter. The only person with whom Celie has a personal bond is her sister, Nettie. However, when Celie’s father marries her off to Mr.___, an abusive man who has had three children from a previous marriage, the bond between Celie and Nettie is severed. Nettie is ousted after coming to visit Celie and rejecting Mr. ___’s unwelcomed, secret sexual advances and resisting his attempted rape. It is not until the appearance of Mr. ___’s lover, Shug, that Celie “sees” a woman with her own voice, one who is outgoing, sexually assertive, and independent. Although Celie sees glimpses of selfhood in Mr. ___’s sister Kate and in Har- po’s wife Sofia, Shug represents the icon that Celie wishes to emulate. Shug’s unconventional religious perceptions eventually assist Celie in gaining selfhood and establishing independence. Considering the influence of the black church on the characters’ actions, Walker demonstrates
the conflict with Western religious practices, which ultimately influences family/communal se- crecy.