Alice Walker (1944-)
Walker’s writings include novels, stories, essays and poems. They focus on the struggles of African-Americans, and particularly African-American women, against societies that are racist, sexist, and often violent. Her writings tend to emphasize the strength of black women and the importance of African-American heritage and culture.
“The Color Purple”
The Color Purple is an epistolary novel: that is, the book is written in the form of letters. The central character is Celie, a young woman who is sexually abused by her father (who, she later discovers, is her stepfather) and is forced to marry a widower with several children, who is physically abusive towards her.
When her husband’s mistress, singer “Shug” Avery, comes on the scene. Initially, Celie feels threatened by this effervescent, liberated version of feminity – a form that has previously been alien to her.
Like “Mr-“, Celie’s husband (Albert Johnson), Shug has little respect for Celie and the life she lives at first and continues in her lover’s footsteps, abusing Celie and adding to her humiliation.
In time, however, the two women bond, and Celie gradually learns what it means to become an empowered woman in her own right, through both sexual and financial emancipation and she finds the strength to leave her tyrannical husband.
This book is often argued to address many issues which are important to understanding African-American life during the early-mid 20th century. Its main theme is the position of the black woman in society, as the lowest of the low, put upon both because of her gender and her color. The book also deals with the idea of how Celie finds true emotional and physical love with Avery.
Vade Mecum 