Specializarea Engleză – Germană LUCRARE DE LICENȚĂ Coordonator științific: Absolvent ă: Lector dr. Irina Chirica Acornicesei Petronela -Anca 2 The… [605543]

UNIVERSITATEA „ALEXANDRU IOAN CUZA‖ IAȘI
FACULTATEA DE LITERE
DEPARTAMENTUL DE LIMBI STRĂINE
Specializarea Engleză – Germană

LUCRARE DE LICENȚĂ

Coordonator științific: Absolvent ă:
Lector dr. Irina Chirica Acornicesei Petronela -Anca

2

The African American Woman in the novel The Color Purple by Alice
Walker

Iulie, 2017

3
Table of contents
Introduction… ………………………………………………………………… … 4
I. Slavery, Race and African tradition ……………………………….. 8

I.1. The roots of slavery ……………………………………………… 8
I.1.1. The slave trade ………………………………………… 8
I.1.2 The condition of slaves ………………………………… 11
I.1.3 The abolition of slavery ……………………………….. 14

I.2. Racism and its consequences ………………………………… …. 17
I.2.1. The oppression of blacks ………………………………. 17
I.2.2. The evolution of the black woman’s image …………… 21
I.2.3. Black woman vs. white woman ………………………… 24

I.3. The Afr ican tradition in The Color Purple by Alice Walker …… 27
I.3.1 . Family and lifestyle …………………………………… . 27
I.3.2. Customs and traditions …………………………………. 29
II. Walker’s womanist voice in In search of Our Mothers’ Gardens …… 31
II.1. Alice Walker’s biography ………………………………… 31
II.2. A short approach of In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens .. 33
III. The status of the black woman in The Color Purple …………………. 41
III.1. Celie ………………………………………………………. 41
III.2. Shug Avery ………………………………………………. 51
III.3. Sofia Butler ………………………………………………. 55
III.4. Nettie ……………………………………………………… 59

Conclus ion…………………………………………………………… ….. 62
Bibliography …………………………………………… ……………….. 64

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Introduction
Racism represents the starting point of the most significant conflicts in United States
history. It has deep roots in the American past, laying at the basis of slavery ; but, what started as
a minor episode, had turned, during decades, into a strong tendency that had many effects upon a
whole culture and society. The African -American nation arouse as a consequence of the Trans –
Atlantic -Slave Trade, a business that provided a strong income to the southern states of America.
From the oppression suffered during the s lavery era till the racial discrimination of the twentieth
century, the colored people had always been forced to face many difficulties in order to survive.
While slavery was abolished and, later on, blacks got equal rights with whites, certain shades of
racism are still present among the nowadays Americans. Although times changed and people
evolved, sometimes there are still issues between the two races. While white supremacy
succeeded to control the blacks and even make them feel inferior, there were no c hoices
concerning the question ―who is right?‖ Therefore the African -American people had been
reduced to silence for a long time, a silence that could secure their safety. Even the black writers‘
literature was ignored for racial reasons, regardless the quality of the works.
One of the few black writers who succeeded to excel the prejudices was Alice Walker.
The author represents an iconic figure of the African -American literature, being the first black
woman who received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction . Her famous novel, The Color Purple , helped
Walker in winning both the Pu litzer Prize and National Book Award in 1983, and in becoming
―the voice‖ of the ―voiceless‖. The author has a great importance for the black people, because
her literature mirrors t he real climate existent in the black communities of the twentieth century.
Her works express authenticity because she took her inspiration from her childhood and from
real stories written or told by ordinary women; she also included a detailed depiction o f the
African world in her works, information gathered from her voyage in Africa. Alice Walker‘s
merit is more related to women, both in literature and in the real life, placing women as main
characters in her works, being a strong advocate of womanism and even getting involved in the
Civil Rights movement .
The purpose of my paper is to make the readers see the world through the eyes of a black
woman . I intend to follow the roots of the African -American history , in order to discover how
everything started and watch how everything gradually evolved. Moreover, I want to analyze the

5
women‘ struggles, as a background for the study of the female characters from The Color
Purple . Both racial and gender oppression are still encountered in some societies and famili es,
women being usually, the most affected. The stories exposed by Walker in her novels or in her
collection of essays, entitled In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens , are stories in which many
black women can find themselves; thus they can get an outside perspective and they can change
their mentality and even life, by noticing certain mistakes made by them too, or certain acts and
their consequences. These books illu strate women that changed their status and became stronger
through sisterhood, a practice which has its origins in the African tribes . Therefore, they
represent important examples that suggest that things can be changed, for every colored woman
confronted with similar problems. The study of the African -American literature is essential for
the understanding of the black people‘s h istory, consisting in struggles and sacrifices, a fate
which was not deserved. The Color Purple represents an essential reference in this case,
depicting the effects of the patriarchal power in a marriage, and a complex image of the African –
American woman, illustrated through various characters. Through this novel, Alice Walker
succeeds to trace a connection between the black America ns and their origins, by introducing
them to a world that they have never had the chance to know; secondly, she can also inspire in
forming sisterhoods among the female readers, who could get the courage to change their destiny
and be free.
In spite of all these efforts and merits, why is the voice of a female still not worthy to be
listened to, mostly if it happens to be black too? This was the question present in every black
woman writer‘s mind that confronted w ith male domination, stereotyping , misjudgments and
rejection of her writings. Often confronted with negative reviews, Walker succeeded to prove
that her voice is worthy to be listened to and that her fiction an d poetry are more important than
her private life. Through her characters and he r own life story, Alice Walker embodies the
woman who gave an ideal to every African -American female that had similar stories, fears and
internal conflicts. Therefore, my paper will firstly present how central historical issues like
slavery, racism and sexism were viewed from a womanist perspective ; secondly, I want to
demonstrate how Walker became a valuable person, both for the black fiction and the African –
American history.

6
The sources I have chosen to use in this respect are the novel The Color Purple and the
collection of essays In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens by Alice Walker and various historical
writings, concerning topics like slavery, racism or the image of the black woman and her status
in the society and in the private life. The first chapter is the most complex on e, containing three
subchapters, which assure the historical background for the analysis of the African -American
characters . I intend to explore the Negro‘s history from the origins and to follow the evolution of
events in a chronological way. Thus, in the first subchapter I will deal with the arrival of the
Africans in America through the slave trade, their weak condition unde r slavery, their several
escaping attempts and the long -expected abolition of slavery. In the second subchapter , I will
focus on the several means by which colored people were discriminated by the white society. I
will concentrate mainly on the feminist si de, by analyzing the black woman‘s image from
different perspectives ; moreover, I will try to shape black women‘s characteristics through the
comparison with the white women . The third subchapter is dedicated to the presentation of the
African culture , top ic which is present in Walker‘s novel and which creates a strong bond
between the African -Americans and their ancestors. The African experience belongs to Nettie,
one of the main characters of The Color Purple ; thus every detail about the African culture a nd
tradition s, the resemblances between the lifestyle of the tribe and the discrimination existent in
the United States are depicted from a womanist perspective.
The second chapter deals with Alice Walker‘s biography and her implication in every
event that had to do with black women ‘s fight for their rights and for their acknowledgment in
the literary world. As a child, Walker was marked by an accident that had ter rible consequences
upon her personality, but she also passed through different difficult moments during her
adulthood. An unexpected pregnancy and an abortion, the suicidal thoughts, her struggles in
facing the preconceptions and earning the public‘s appre ciation, or her divorce are just a few of
her hard times. Alice Walker is one of the writers who inspire themselves from their own lives
and, for this reason, it is essential to know details from her private life in order to understand
some of her characte rs. The second part of this chapter explores Alice Walker as a womanist
voice, using as a reference her volume of essays, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens . This book
is very significant for the black literature, because it includes many authentic stories gathered
from the African -American women . Brought together, they shape a clear image of the black
female‘s identity and life struggles. The volume also represents a tribute to her ancestors that

7
Alice perceives as models, for their strength, creativity and courage of moving on, despite any
type of obstacle. Walker associates all these authors and all the creative spirits with the image of
―the mother ‖, because she appreciates them and feels indebted to acknowledge their merits,
when the society ignored them. The collection of essays also includes pieces of Walker‘s
autobiography, the focus being on the events that marked her in some way and on her interior
conflicts and contradictory feelings. In this book, the author also depicts the circumstances in
which she wrote her famous novel , placing a great importance on her characters:
―Eventually we found a place in northern California we could afford and that my
characters liked. And no wonder: it looked a lot like the town in Georgia most of them were
from, only it was more beautiful and the local swimming hole was not segregated. It also bore a
slight resemblance to the African village in which one of them, Nettie, was a missionary‖1
The third chapter is entirely dedicated to the analysis of the main female characters from
The Color Purple . My aim is to expo se different types of black wome n and to analyze, in detail,
their thoughts, internal conflicts, fears and expectations through their relationships with the other
characters. Black women have always been the target of the stereotyp ing, being classified in
certain categories, according to their personality and physical appearance . Following the
chronological evolution of events, I will focus on the way in which these chara cters dealt with
some issues and changed their initial status.

1Walker, Alice (2005) In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens London: Phoenix p.357

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I. Slavery, Race and African tradition
I.1 The roots of slavery
I.1.1 The slave trade
The African American people‘s history traces its roots to hundreds of years ago, when
Africans were sold in great numbers to the European traders, in order to be turned into slaves for
the white buyers of the ―New World‖. The fact that the slaves represented a source of free labor
led to the flourishing of the slave market and to the development of the economy. The
enslavement of th e African people also led to the appearance of the concept of ―race‖, as a
justification for all the injustices and the mistreatments endured by them. Having a darker skin,
no education, different religion, culture and odd rites, the dark people were class ified as the black
race, which was obviously inferior to the white one. Seeing the black people more closed to apes
than to human beings, the traders and the slave owners treated them as such.
In fact, the concept of ―slave‖ existed before the apparition of the European merchants in
Africa, since some of the Africans were themselves slaves of the chiefs of their communities.
Unlike the financial reasons for which the Negroes were taken to Europe or America, the
Africans enslaved in their own country were p unished like that as a consequence of being war
prisoners, of seducing married women or of being responsible for different crimes. What was
different in this case, was the status of the black people, who were still considered human beings
and, moreover, pa rts of the community. Their value laid in the reputation and the respect of their
owner and they were treated very well, in contrast with the slaves sold to the white buyers,
whose value decreased to the status of objects or animals. The oppression of the black people
began actually before the process of being turn ed into slaves, because the demand for them was
very big and the traders tried more methods for catching them than just waiting for them on the
coast. Therefore, the slavers attacked villages , generating the death of many innocent people and
the separation of the families by taking prisoners. They also organized multiple shore attacks, or
they even turned some coast tribes against each other‘s, in order to take advantage of their fights
and to proc ure hundreds of slaves. The process of chasing and kidnapping the natives
represented a real slaughter because many of them died and mostly because of the harsh
treatment: ―The raids in Africa were carried a score of leagues inland, untold and unspeakable

9
atrocities were perpetrated upon the natives in thousands of cases. No end of cruelty, no end of
bloodshed, no end of diabolical torture was the order of the day. Although growing side by side
with America‘s maiden efforts in a humane civilization, and the introduction of all manner of
anti-cruel methods, the treatment of the African slave, nevertheless, from start to finish has
simply been a picture long drawn out of hellish brutality, unbridled sensuality, and demoniacal
practices. No other kind of cattle have ever been thus dealt with in the world‘s history.‖ 2
The massacre continued on the ships, during their transportation to the new continent.
Not only the poor food and the unsuitable conditions in which the natives were transported
represented the re asons of their death, but also the cruelty of the ship crew, who behaved like
beasts with the savages. In some cases, the slaves tried, in different ways, to kill themselves, as
an English captain depicts: ―We had about 12 negroes did wilfully drown themse lves, and others
starv'd themselves to death; for 'tis their belief that when they die they return home to their own
country and friends again.‖3 In other cases, they started a rebellion, but with no success. Instead
they caused additional deaths, the ins tigators being harshly punished in front of them, as a lesson
that was to be taken into account. In The Negro a menace to American civilization , by Robert W.
Shufeldt, a case of rebellion and its consequences is shortly illustrated: ―They were in the hold
and packed together as usual, chained two and two. The mutiny was quickly suppressed, but the
captain decided to make an example of the ringleaders, so he shot and hanged 46 of the men and
a negress. When they were hung, a rope was put round their necks an d they draw up to the
yardarm clear of the sail. This did not kill them, but only chocked or strangled them. They were
then shot in the breast and the bodies thrown overboard. If only one of two that were ironed
together was to be hung, the rope was put around his ne ck and he was drawn up clear of the
deck, and his leg laid across the rail and chopped off to save the irons and release him from his
companion, who at the same time lifted up his leg till the other was chopped off as aforesaid, and
he released.‖4
The inte rval between the mid of the 15th century and the 19th century consisted of dozens
of atrocities against the enslaved people, most of them ending up with violent deaths. The

2 Shufeldt, Robert W. (1907) The Negro a menace to American civilization , Boston: R.G. Badger , p.60
3Taylor, Quintard (2000) THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: A HISTORY OF BLACK AMERICANS from 1619 to
1890 ,Department of History University of Washington p. 52
4Shufeldt, Robert W. (1907) The Negro a menace to American civilization , Boston: R.G. Badger p.60 -61

10
progression of the slave trade was not due just to the registered income, but also to the influential
people who contributed at the maintenance of the institution of slavery. This system was built up
on basis of violence, inhumanity and lack of compassion and all the laws concerning the slaves
were formed against them. It was very diffic ult for a slave to defend himself and to make justice ,
given the fact that he had no rights, he was not allowed to bring proves against the white
oppressor or to be fairly judged in a trial. Punishments were very harsh too, even for minor
deeds, speaking h ere about whipping, burning or chopping certain parts of the body. But this was
not an impediment for the slaves, because they have always tried to gain their freedom. From the
hunger strikes on the vessels to different forms of resistance on the plantatio ns like ―working
slowly, sabotaging crops or machinery, running away, armed resistance and even suicide‖5 , the
natives have tried everything in order to escape an d be free. What is more is that actually , the
numerous attempts of escape and mostly the succ essful ones led to Civil War (1861 -1865),
because the runaway blacks headed to North in order to be free. The Republicans‘ intention of
prohibiting slavery in the whole country was taken as a threaten by the Southern States, which
based their economy mostl y on the slavery institution.6
If on the one side, the slave trade was associated with cruelty and murders and was
interpreted as a sin against humanity, on the other side, the slave trade represented a helpful way
for the improvement of the whites‘ econom y. Therefore, many people got involved in this
business, working as carpenters, shipbuilders, traders or seamen. Moreover, the slaves working
on the plantations signified an important source of money, on the basis of which the slave
owners financed other b usinesses and increased their income considerably. Beside these
investments, the white people used the money for political power; some institutions, like banks,
were also founded thanks to the slave trade. Thus most of the government members or the
individ uals of the high rank in the society were involved in the slave trade in a way or another,
ensuring its continuity as a normal event, for several decades. All of these terrible acts of
oppression were disguised under masks full of lies and racist comments. Everything started from
the statement that classified blacks as barbaric creatures lower than human beings, as heathens
who practice sacrifice and other strange rituals, as beings with low intellect, but with well –

5 Kaye, Mike (2005) 1807 -2007: Over 200 years of campaigning against slavery , The Printed Word, UK , p. 3
http://www.antislavery.org/wp -content/uploads/2017/01/18072007.pdf
6http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ContemporaryAmericanSociety/Chapter%2014%20 –%20Racial%20inequality –
Norton%20August. pdf

11
developed sexual instincts. Another lie t hat advocates the above preconceptions was that the
Negros didn‘t cohabit as a society and it was a relief for them to be taken out of Africa and to
start a new life in a civilized world.7 Moreover, the institution of slavery was considered
beneficial, be cause it was the only way through which the natives could be civilized. The
religious side of this cultivation process had a major contribution, because the Africans were
taught the Word of God, belief that promotes love and forgiveness as man‘s main virtu es. Hence,
the Negros had to understand that their pagan practices as ―exorcism, witchcraft, Obi worship ,
spells and blood sacrifices‖8 were not appropriate to their new status and they had to resign.9
Under these reasons, the slaves could be easily oppre ssed and killed, their lives having only a
monetary value .
I.1.2. The condition of slaves
From the perspective of the enslaved Negro, all these series of events that had to do with
his life signify a traumatic period that truly affected him. Being taken by force from his home,
being separated from his family, hungered, beaten, bound to work on harsh conditions without
even being paid, the slave lost his whole human condition: ―One day, when all our people were
gone out to their works….and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and
a woman got over our walls, and in a mo ment seized us both; and without giving us time to cry
out, or to make our resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest
wood. Here they tied our hands and continued to carry us as far as they could, till night came on,
when we reached a small house, were the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night….
The next day proved of greater sorrow….for my sister and I were separated.‖10 The whites
considered the slaves inferior, and then they didn‘t even allow them to be ed ucated, to lose their
barbaric status and wild behavior: ―In slavery times they were taught many things -but book –
learning was not included – comparatively few negroes could read and write and fewer still had

7Kaye, Mike (2005) 1807 -2007: Over 200 years of campaigning against slavery , The Printed Word, UK , p. 5
http://www.antislavery.org/wp -content/uploads/2017/01/18072007.pdf
8 Smith, John David (2015) Slavery, Race and American History Routledge Taylor&Fra ncis Group London and New
York p. 83
9 Eppes, Susan Bradford (1925) The Negro of the old South : a bit of period history Chicago : Joseph G. Br anch
publishing company, pg. 175 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008386651;view=1up;seq=173
10Taylo r, Quintard (2000) THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: A HISTORY OF BLACK AMERICANS from 1619 to
1890 , Department of History University of Washington p. 53

12
even an inkling of a higher education‖.11 In some states, like North Carolina, there were specific
laws that prohibited the blacks‘ nurture: ―any free person, who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to
teach, any slave within the State to read or write, the use of figures excepted, or shall give or sell
to such slave or slaves any books or pamphlets, shall be liable to indictment in any court of
record in this State having jurisdiction thereof, and upon conviction, shall, at the discretion of the
court, if a white man or woman, be fined not less than one hu ndred dollars, nor more than two
hundred dollars, or imprisoned; and if a free person of color, shall be fined, imprisoned, or
whipped at the discretion of the court, not exceeding thirty nine lashes, nor less than twenty
lashes.‖12 Instead, the slave owne rs preferred to make themselves clear and to keep the slaves
under control by any means of violent acts and cruel punishments. In a capitalist world that they
weren‘t able to understand, the most important thing was the profit made on their behalf. Well –
known myths about the inferiority of the blacks in relation with their color, their incapacity to
learn, their pagan beliefs, or the fact that enslavement represented their chance to redemption,
had an important role in the expansion of the capitalism: ―For capitalism the Negro is a dull
ignorant fool at one time and place and a highly cultured and brilliant individual at another – so
long as by using this sort of propaganda and diplomacy capitalism can reap a profit‖13
The slave era was not a dark period just for the Africans brought to America through the
Trans -Atlantic -Slave Trade, but also for other races that were enslaved, like the Native
Americans. Unlike the Negro slaves, who were taken away from their land, the indigenous
inhabitants were chased away fr om their land. The territory has always been a worthy thing to
fight for and this happened in the case of the Native American tribes too, because they fought
against the invaders, in order to keep their own ancestral land. Being defeated most of the time,
the indigenous people had to make certain agreements concerning the land and their rights on it,
but not even in this case, the settlers didn‘t entirely respect the treaties made. This thing
happened primarily because they always claimed that the tribes we re nomadic and had no

11Eppes, Susan Bradford (1925) The Negro of the old South : a bit of period history Chicago : Joseph G. B ranch
publishing company p. 194 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008386651;view=1up;seq=173
12Taylor, Quintard (2000) THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: A HISTORY OF BLACK AMERICANS from 1619 to
1890 , Department of History University of Washing ton p. 131
13 Revolutionary Workers League (1904) Negro Slavery Then and Now , W.Division Street Chicago p.2
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015074197883;view=1up;seq=1

13
constant settlements or cultivated terrain that could prove their ownership of the land.14 Even so,
the slaves brought from the African continent were the most oppressed, their color being a strong
reason for their inferiority. This b elief attracted so many unjust laws, whose aim was just the
harm against the blacks and the expansion of enslaved people. Therefore, a white woman was
not allowed to have a relationship with a slave, because through their marriage, she would lose
her freed om and become a slave too; another case would be that of a child of an enslaved woman
and a white slave owner, who would naturally inherit the status of his mother.15 In terms of
slaves‘ lives on the plantations, there is so much to talk about given the fa ct they were exploited
in such an inhuman way.
First of all, the slave trade was so requested because the slaves‘ life expectancy and the
rate of reproduction were very low and many of them died at young ages. The most popular
cause of death was the fact that they were overworked, hungered and bad treated by their
masters. In contrast with other territories that imported slaves, like Brazil, Barbados, the English
and French West Indies, the United States registered a higher rate of reproduction, but many
deaths as well: ―American slaves were over -worked to a degree that shortened life. In Louisiana,
Alabama, and Mississippi, slaves on sugar plantations were driven so hard that they had to be
replaced every seven years.‖16
Second of all, the treatment of the slave owners was so cruel that it erased any shades of
African ancestry from the black people‘s body and spirit as well. Under slavery, the natives were
given new names, being forced to forget their former ones that had so much to do with their
national an d cultural identity, their religious beliefs, and their family heritage. The whites saw
themselves to be in condition to decide upon the lives of their slaves, as if they had new
accessories. As regarding the body, the slaves were branded or marked in cert ain ways in order
to prove their ownership and to be easily identified in case of escape17 : ―In an advertisement in
the Raleigh ―Standard‖ on July 18, 1838, Micajah Ricks stated ―Ranaway, a negro woman and

14http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ContemporaryAmericanSociety/Chapter%2014%20 –%20Racial%20inequality –
Norton%20August.pdf
15Swanson, J. Stevie (2015) Slavery Then and Now: The Trans -Atlantic Slave Trade and Modern Day Human
Trafficking: What Can We Learn from Our Past? p.132
http://commons.law.famu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1148&context=famulawreview
16Ibid p.133
17Ibid p.135

14
two children; a few days before she went off, I bu rnt her with a hot iron on the left side of her
face, I tried to make the letter M.‖60 R.P. Carney stated in an advertisement, on December 22,
1832, in the ―Mobile Register‖ the following: ―One hundred dollars reward for a negro fellow
Pompey, 40 years old , he is branded on his left jaw.‖18
Many declarations of former slaves prove the brutality and the cynical attitude of their
owners, who were capable, for instance, to demand their slaves to ―go on their knees and thank
their owners‖ or to have them say ―Go d bless you‖ after being beaten, to feed them with their
left-overs, or to rape the female slaves. But beside these acts of atrocity, the several types of
torture that they used on blacks go beyond any imagination. Theodore Weldin, one of the
abolitionists of slavery depicts a series of cruelties that led to slow and very painful deaths:
―frequently flogged with terrible severity, have red pepper rubbed into their lacerated flesh, and
hot brine, spirits of turpentine (…) that they are often stripped naked, their backs and limbs cut
with knives, bruised and mangled by scores and hundreds of blows with the paddle, and terribly
torn by the claws of cats drawn over them by their tormenters; that they are often hunted with
blood hounds and shot down like beasts, or torn in pieces by dogs; that they are often suspended
by the arms and whipped and beaten till they faint‖19
I.1.3 The abolition of slavery
After decades of slavery and oppression, many people, blacks and whites as well, decided
to bring everything to an end. Therefore, many abolitionists unified and tried, by different
measures, to achieve their purpose. Taking into account the fact that most of them were black
escapees, there was no other better way of exposing the truth behind the slavery institution, t han
telling their own experiences and reproaching the several types of abuse endured. The
implication of women was very significant, because they saw in those movements not just a way
for the slaves‘ redemption, but also an opportunity for claiming the equ ality between men and
women. Harriet Jacobs for instance, a former enslaved woman and an abolitionist, transposed her
personal story into a work of fiction. She ―explained through the character of Linda Brent the
particular horrors of slavery for one woman . Jacobs described the sexual intimidation and
pressures that she faced -even as a 15 -year-old-in North Carolina at the hands of her obsessive

18Ibid p.136
19Ibid p.139

15
master‖.20 Therefore, through anti -slavery literature and other means that crashed the labels put
on the black ra ce, the leaders of the movement tried to signal to the errors made by the American
capitalists and to illustrate life through the eyes of a slave: kidnapped in a world that was not
home, working for people that treated him like a beast, chained, beaten, to rtured, raped,
hungered, having no rights, being not allowed to speak or to seek for justice. In order to gather
more forces in their fight, the abolitionists had to make a call to all the black and white people
that were able to understand the real things that were happening to the slaves behind the racist
stereotypes that labeled them under any human position: ―Wealthy abolitionist leader Gerrit
Smith felt ―it was essential for whites to develop ‗a black heart,‘ in the sense of seeing the world
‗through N egro eyes.‖21 ; ―once you are informed about the ills of slavery, you have a moral
responsibility to do what is right; i.e. advocate for its abolition.‖22
Two people that had a major role in the abolition of slavery were the couple Theodore
Dwight Weld and A ngelina Grimke, who made great efforts in order to gather as many proves as
possible and achieve their aim. In the book ―American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a
Thousand Witnesses‖, Weld and his wife concentrated significant testimonials regarding slaver y.
Its reliability laid in the fact that all the sources were real and related with the subject. Thus, the
whole material was collected from slaveholders, from people who were involved somehow in the
business or from newspapers from certain states, which a dvertised different issues concerning
the institution of slavery.23 Another important abolitionist was Harriet Tubman, a runaway slave
and, further, a railroad conductor, who risked her own life in order to save hundreds of slaves.
Despite these peaceful m ethods, the abolitionist had to make use of violence too. John Brown for

20Berry, Daina Ramey (2012) Enslaved Women in America an Encyclopedia , California: Daina Ramey Berry and
Deleso A.
Alford https://books.google.ro/books?id=3FnKIhjHHlgC&pg=PT128&lpg=PT128&dq=Deborah+White,+Ar%27n%27t
+I+a+Woman?:+Female+Slaves+in+the+Ante –
Bellum+South&source=bl&ots=khbHtubLxy&sig=ftLvqXY4aDYhaAPhxW_F6JTcDbE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7n
PWEgYTSAhXMXhQKHdX5 Bi0Q6AEIPjAG#v=onepage&q=Deborah%20White%2C%20Ar%27n%27t%20I%20a%20W
oman%3F%3A%20Female%20Slaves%20in%20the%20Ante -Bellum%20South&f=false
21Swanson, J. Stevie (2015) Slavery Then and Now: The Trans -Atlantic Slave Trade and Modern Day Human
Trafficking: What Can We Learn from Our Past? p.142
http://commons.law.famu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1148&context=famulawreview
22Ibid p.143
23Ibid p.144

16
instance, tried to attack a vessel that was transporting slaves, but his attempt failed and he was
killed, becoming ―a martyr for the anti -slavery cause in the process.‖24
The advocate s of the abolition received a helping hand from the religious institutions as
well, through the promotion of God‘s word, which says that we should love our neighbor as we
love ourselves.25 Therefore many people were touched by these words and by the sorrow of the
victims of oppression and joined the abolitionist groups, achieving their common purpose.
Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States, had a major role in the abolition of slavery.
Even if his main interest has always been the preservation of the democracy and of the Union, as
himself admitted: ―My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and not either to
save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and
if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and
leave others alone, I would also do it‖26 , his acts led to the end of slavery in 1865, as a
consequence of the Civil War. Another version of the story is that the abolition of slavery relied
also on financial reasons, as the practice of slavery started. Because the increasing mass of
African people, both southern and northern whites had to lead west gradually, in order to get
more land. Thus, the rush for profit headed to certain conflicts between the two, mostly because
they promoted different types of organization: the southern Americans dealt with the slave trade
and owned slaves for working on the cotton, su gar cane or tobacco plantations, while the
northern Americans had a capitalist structure, free blacks and a well -developed industry. The
triumph of the northern society meant, therefore, the official abolition of slavery.27
―Race is a social category, not a biological one. While racial classifications generally use
inherited biological traits as criteria for classification, nevertheless how those traits are treated
and how they are translated into the categories we call ―races‖ is defined by social conventio ns,
not by biology.‖28

24Ibid p.144
25Ibid p.157
26Foster, A. Gerald, AMERICAN SLAVERY: THE COMPLETE STORY , p. 405 http://www.cplpej.org/wp –
content/uploads/2015/08/Foster -Gerald.pdf
27Revolutionary Workers League (1904) Negro Slavery Then and Now , W.Division Street Chicago p.2
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015074197883;view=1up;seq=1
28http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~wright/ContemporaryA mericanSociety/Chapter%2014%20 –%20Racial%20inequality –
Norton%20August.pdf

17
I.2. Racism and its consequences
I.2.1 The oppression of blacks
The end of slavery did not coincide with the end of racism and discrimination against the
―black race‖. One of the most popular forms of domination was lynching (―the act of violence
white men performed to racialize — to invoke the context of black inferiority and sub
humanity —the victim; the aura of sexual transgression is also always produced around the
lynched by the lynchers, white men guarding the turf of the ir racial and sexual hegemony.‖)29
This method made thousands of victims by the end of the 19th century. Actually, lynching came
up from the frustration of the white Southerners, who realized that they didn‘t have the bl acks
under control anymore, feeling economicall y threatened by the blacks‘ successful businesses and
socially threatened by the demographical increase of their population. Thomas Moss was one of
the thousands of Negros who were punished because they tried to advance: ―For Thomas Moss,
everyone knew, wa s a good man, a loving husband and father, and a sterling citizen. His only
crimes were to succeed at a business of his own, then to defend himself when Whites tried to
destroy it.‖30 An earnest type of lynching was the ―terror lynching‖, which could be co mpared
with a really violent slaughter. Sometimes happening on broad daylight and even having the
whole white population as witness, the killings of the black people represented a way of showing
the white supremacy and its control over the inferior race. T he brutality of these mobs reached
unbelievable proportions regarding the means by which the victims were forced to die
―prolonged torture, mutilation, dismemberment, and/or burning‖31 , as well as regarding the
transformation of this massacre in a festival . These manifestations were aimed to have a strong
impact on both races, in some cases, the blacks being forced to watch the annihilation of their
own ancestry. On the ground that the criminal justice system was too permissive for people of
that mediocre r ace, the white community established their own laws and sentences. The
intriguing fact was that many lynchings were not even based on a serious crime, but on minor
accusations, like any insulting vocabulary or aggressive action towards a white individual: ―In

29Bloom, Harold (2000) Alice Walker's the Color Purple Chelsea House Philadelphia p. 6
30 Giddings, Paula (1984) When and Where I Enter The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in Am erica , New
York : HarperCollins Publishers Inc. p. 19
31 Equal Justice Initiative (2015) Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror Second Edition,
Montgomery, Alabama
http://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching -in-america -second -edition -summary.pdf

18
1940, Jesse Thornton was lynched in Luverne, Alabama, for referring to a white police officer by
his name without the title of ―mister.‖ In 1918, Private Charles Lewis was lynched in Hickman,
Kentucky, after he refused to empty his pockets while weari ng his Army uniform. White men
lynched Jeff Brown in 1916 in Cedarbluff, Mississippi, for accidentally bumping into a white girl
as he ran to catch a train.‖32
The first half of the 20th century was marked by another type of lynching and that was
against th e black people who had the courage to oppose to the mistreatment and claimed the
observance of their civil rights. Like in the time of slavery, there were people who engaged in the
conflict with their oppressors by refusing to work or by damaging their fac tories and properties.
While some Negros directly revolted against the whites, others participated indirectly, by hiding
and helping the escapees, who were in great danger.33 The lynching expanded a truly terror
among the black folks and, consequently, many of them fled to North and West for their safety.
One of the consequences of the series of killings that shook the Negro family was the fact that
black women began to look for white men and this led to the increase of the American
population with many half -breed children, thus a new generation of people that had African
origins.34
The lynching era represented a painful period for the black community, which had
traumatic effects for all those who lost their families, who witnessed or survived the terror. The
same happened to the white children who were present at the bloody ceremonies. On the one
hand, the feeling was different because they didn‘t experience the fear, the pain and the injustice,
but, on the other hand, they remained with unforgetable images and with a permanent sense of
distance from the other race.35
Another manner pointed only the black men and boys because of an old preconception
that compared them with a ―buck‖. Therefore the black man was always perceived by the whites
as a sexual, aggressive and dangerous male. The association between the color of a man and the

32Ibid
33 Ibid
34Eppes, Susan Bradford (1925) The Negro of the old South : a bit of period history Chicago : Joseph G. Branch
publishing company p. 151 https://babel.hathitrust. org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008386651;view=1up;seq=173
35Equal Justice Initiative (2015) Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror Second Edition,
Montgomery, Alabama
http://eji.org/sites/default/files/lynching -in-america -second -edition -summar y.pdf

19
label of ―murderer‖ was just an excuse that allowed the killing of many innocent people.36 On
the ground that it was impossible that a white woman be willing to have a relation with a black
man, many Negros have been accused of sexual assault and executed without any proof many
times: ―Wells gave an example of a lynch victim who had tried to escap e the advances of his
boss‘s daughter, even to the point of quitting his job. The woman pursued him, however, and
when they were discovered together, the girl charged rape.‖37 The mass imprisonment of the
black males represented a new opportunity for the p olice to apply their means of harassment.
Furthermore, prison goes hand in hand with discrimination in the way in which a man with a
criminal record faces many injustices, as denial of public housing or of the access to certain jobs
or to public institutio ns. Discrimination manifests against the black children as well, they always
having fewer rights than the white children, but more chances to be harassed than the others.38
Regarding the educational system, several studies proved that teachers did not trea t their students
equally, the black ones being treated more harshly and thus more vulnerable to expulsion.
Therefore, the end of slavery meant actually, the beginning of exploitation by any means.
There was a clear border between the black and the white ci tizens, in the way in which blacks‘
living in ghettos was miserable, and on the back of that, they had to pay for housing more than
whites. Even institutions like colleges were divided, the blacks being not allowed to join the
―white‖ colleges. The same si tuation existed in the public transportation, which had separate
compartments according to each race. Thus, the African -Americans were forced to avoid places
like restaurants, which were destined only to the white people. Not to mention about the right to
vote, which represented a significant weapon of discrimination of all the times, even if addressed
to inferior races as blacks, or to an inferior gender as women.
Concerning the employment area, the discrimination of the blacks could be easily
noticed. Th ere are many cas es when applicants at a job had been refused only because they were
blacks. Thus the color of the skin and the African -American name were far more important than

36Swanson, J. Stevie (2015) Slavery Then and Now: The Trans -Atlantic Slave Trade and Modern Day Human
Trafficking: What Can We Learn from Our Past? p.147
http://commons.law.famu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1148&context=famulawreview
37Giddings, Pau la (1984) When and Where I Enter The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America , New
York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. p. 22
38Swanson, J. Stevie (2015) Slavery Then and Now: The Trans -Atlantic Slave Trade and Modern Day Human
Trafficking: What Can We Learn from Our Past? p.149
http://commons.law.famu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1148&context=famulawreview

20
the studies or the skills of a candidate. Somehow, the quality of an occupatio n in terms of salary
and working conditions was much related to the racial level. Hence, taking into account that the
blacks were given the worst jobs and the lowest wages, they had no chance to evolve on the
social scale.39 In this way, the destiny of an African -American child was already labeled. In a
society that takes your dad away, gives you no chance to a proper education and the working
opportunity that you deserve, that treats you differently and makes you feel inferior and
marginalized, it is reall y hard to progress and to change anything: ―Black people should not be
indicted for being black —their ancestors built this nation. No one in America would have the
opportunities that they do but for centuries of suffering endured during the Trans -Atlantic Slave
Trade.‖40 This cycle of black families who live in ghettos, have imprisoned members and
confront with different issues like the lack of money, the lack of education or the invading of
their rights seems to go over and over and load the hate between t he two races year by year.
After this overview concerning the racial oppression, one could draw the conclusion that
the white society was the only culprit of the awful things that happened to the African –
Americans. The truth is that, beside the racial oppr ession, the Negro community also confronted
with the class oppression, meaning that, like in every society, the people is differentiated by class
and the rich ones control and exploit the poor ones.41 While this separation is noticeable in the
working area , in cases of racial discrimination , the boundary between the two classes vanishes
and the only thing that remains is a common ideal, a central cause that is worthy to fight for
together.
The perpetual conflict between the whites and the Negros has transfe rred to the artistic
world too, insofar as the white historians who wrote books about the African -American history
that included the slavery and the racism issues, felt threatened by the black historians‘ attempts
to write on that topic, because they could make certain changes that were not appropriate.
Generally, the black writers searched for as many sources as possible, in order to create works

39Revolutionary Workers League (1904) Negro Slavery Then and Now, W.Division Street Chicago p.3
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015 074197883;view=1up;seq=1
40Swanson, J. Stevie (2015) Slavery Then and Now: The Trans -Atlantic Slave Trade and Modern Day Human
Trafficking: What Can We Learn from Our Past? p.151
http://commons.law.famu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1148&context=famulawre view
41Revolutionary Workers League (1904) Negro Slavery Then and Now, W.Division Street Chicago p.4
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015074197883;view=1up;seq=1

21
based on truth and to debunk all the preconceptions regarding the black race. W. E. B. Du Bois,
an important bl ack historian succeeded to destroy the presumptions that tagged blacks all over
the history as "ignorant", "lazy, dishonest, and extravagant", and "responsible for bad
government during Reconstruction".42 A strong assertion that defended the black people‘s status
as a race belonged to Kenneth Stampp, in the book The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the
Antebellum South : ―innately Negroes are, after all, only white men with black skins, nothing
more, nothing less.‖43
I.2.2 . The evolution of the black woman’s image
The African American woman has always represented an interesting topic on account of
her importance in the slavery time, the preconceptions regarding her, her disadvantaged status by
means of race, class and gender, her opposite images as a black wom an. During the Trans –
Atlantic Slave Trade, the main reason for which the slave holders imported so many Negro
women was their reproductive abilities, in order to have a flourishing number of workers. The
presence on the plantations of the female slaves was very helpful because they took advantage of
the wet soils of the South and improved the agrarian manufacture by using their knowledge of
rice farming and cooking. The relation between black women and nature had also an important
significance, because they possessed a broad knowledge regarding plants, their curative, but also
poisonous effects. Thus they had a major role in the progress of medicine in the United States.
Regarding the African tradition, the female slaves were responsible for the preservation and the
perpetuation of everything that defined them as African people: the cultural heritage, the
language particularities, the traditional music and the religious beliefs.
Even if black women were exploited by different means under slavery, their maste rs were
milder and took care of them when they were pregnant. Shortly after giving birth they were
forced to go back to the fields though, having to leave their baby in the care of other members of
the family. Other times the women took their child with th em at work, in order to keep
themselves an eye on him, even if this meant the exposure of the child to certain dangers as hot

42 Harris, Robert L. Jr. (1982) Coming of Age: The Transformation of Afro -American Historiography Association for
the Study of African American Life and History, Inc. p.112
https://blogs.stockton.edu/hist4690/files/2012/06/Robert -Harris -Coming -of-Age-The-Transformation -of-Afro –
American -Historiography.pdf
43 Ibid p.114

22
temperature or different diseases. The slave holders‘ main interest always laid in the economic
and social supremacy. In this way, every new born child represented a new source of free labor
and contributed to the white‘s finances. The social control manifested through the fact that the
slaves were not allow ed to marriage , primarily; secondly, the family represented a good
impediment that could prevent the attempts of those willing to escape. The family bonds were
used as a punishment method by the masters, meaning that certain disturbances could lead to
separation of the family. The most vulnerable in this case were the women and chi ldren, who
were moved to other plantations, in order to do domestic work. This led to a larger exposure of
the girls to sexual and physical abuse, because they couldn‘t be protected by their families
anymore.
The bonds formed among the Negro community were getting strong day by day by means
of compassion and protection. For instance, the families offered their help to the bond people
when they were exposed to oppression; the man, who was perceived as the head of the family,
preferred to take the blame upon him and be punished by his master , instead of his wife or child.
Things looked the same in the case of the mothers too, who preferred to sacrifice for their
children instead of watching them suffering. Even if the slave families were considered
patriarchal , the real power and liberty of decision were owned by the whites. Furthermore, the
law which claimed that a new born child was free or enslaved according to his mother‘s status
represented a valuable proof of the father‘s denied patriarchy. The cases of b lack matriarchy
were instead, more likely to appear, considering the great number of separated families.44
Moving further, another reason for which the black women were exploited was their
beauty. Features like light skin and youth were the factors of decision, the slave holders taking
them for being their partners, but for selling them to flesh traders as well . Therefore, the young
women with a pleasant physical appearance were the most affected, being separated from their
parents or own children, exposed to rape and bad treatment and, finally, traumatized for their

44Berry, Daina Ramey (2012) Enslaved Women in America an Encyclopedia , California: Daina Ramey Berry and
Deleso A. Alford
https://books.google.ro/books?id=3FnKIhjHHlgC&pg=PT128&lpg=PT128&dq=Deborah+White,+Ar%27n%27t+I+a+
Woman ?:+Female+Slaves+in+the+Ante –
Bellum+South&source=bl&ots=khbHtubLxy&sig=ftLvqXY4aDYhaAPhxW_F6JTcDbE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7n
PWEgYTSAhXMXhQKHdX5Bi0Q6AEIPjAG#v=onepage&q=Deborah%20White%2C%20Ar%27n%27t%20I%20a%20W
oman%3F%3A%20Female%20Slaves%20in%20the%20Ant e-Bellum%20South&f=false

23
entire life. The lighter and the darker color of the black girls denoted the main type of distinction,
in the way in which the dark skin signified ‖productivity, strength, and endurance‖45 and the
light one was associated with ―delicacy, intelligence, and gentility‖.46 Thus, while the darker
women we re sent to work on the plantations, the lighter ones were used as servants in the house
or sold for sexual exploitation.
The South from the second half of the 20th century was still characterized by poor
industrialization and by middle -class families that had black female servants. The discrimination
was very popular and the Negro women didn‘t have many options to survive, than working as
maids for a miserable salary or staying home and taking care of their children. The black father
was still considered th e one who had to provide for his family, the child nurturing being not a
responsibility suited for a man.47
The capitalism and the racism have always been the main weapons against the black
society. Because there were many misconceptions that created a bad image of the Negros, their
possibilities of finding a job and of advancing were very weak. Women were even more
oppressed because they have been always treated with inferiority not only on the social scale, as
a race, but also in their families, as a gende r. The black people‘s dehumanization process
increased in such a way that manhood laid in having a good job and money, while womanhood
laid in the sexual purpose. Moreover, the women‘s single contact with the outside world
happened through the person of th eir partner, their accessibility to culture, interesting
experiences and intellectual development being denied by the society. Additionally, the women
had to endure the harassment of their husbands, who were glad to find themselves in a superior
position, taking into account the fact that the white society always discriminated and subjugated
them. As regarding the women who had a job, they were overtly subjected to economic
exploitation, in the way in which they were paid less than men, for doing the same l abor. The
continuing growing process of the black population over the years led to a new type of control:
the sterilization of the women or other dangerous measures that sometimes failed and caused the

45 Ibid
46 Ibid
47Kenschaft, Lori, Clark, Roger and Ciambrone, Desiree, (2016) Gender Inequality in Our Changing World A
Comparative Approach Routledge Taylor& Franci s Group New York and London p.86

24
death of the patient. In this way, black women were us ed as experiments for new types of
medicines and medical procedures, which were afterwards destined to the white women‘s use.48
I.2.3 . Black woman vs. white woman
The Negro women‘s image had been misinterpreted by the colonizers since they watched
them work ing or dancing under the hot sun of Africa. The high temperatures made them wear
few clothes and this was interpreted as a proof of sensuality and lewdness. This association of
dark women with sexuality was transferred to the ―New World‖ too. The physical characteristics
that differentiated them from the white women, transformed them into a prey for the white slave
owners who were willing to try something new. Women were very often exposed on the field,
firstly because their work couldn‘t permit them wearin g clothes that covered the whole body, and
secondly because they were stripped and whipped in public by the master. To some of them, this
action had certain sexual implications, the victim‘s screams of pain providing them pleasure: ―I
have often heard Garr ison say that he had rather paddle a female than eat when he was hungry –
that it was music for him to hear them scream, and to see their blood run.‖49 The way of clothing
was perceived by the Southern men as a factor of differentiation between the two race s. For
instance, the white women were associated with an image of decency, because they were dressed
in such manner, that no part of their body could be publicly exposed. The black women though,
represented only a body that could be uncovered, beaten, rape d and exploited several times,
because it was considered to worth no protection and no respect. The Negro women were
perceived only as sources of money, firstly because their fertility contributed to the growth of the
slaves‘ population, and, secondly, be cause they were very often sold for sexual exploitation.50
Beside women‘s apparel, another criterion that differentiated the two races in terms of femininity
was their hair. While white women expressed refinement through their ―soft,‖ ―glossy,‖ ―silky‖
and ―refined‖ hair, the black ones‘ curly hair was perceived as ―stubborn,‖ ―harsh,‖ and ―stiff.‖51

48Bambara, Toni Cade (2005) The Black Woman An Anthology Washington Square Press Published by Pocket Books
p.109 -116 http://intellhisblackamerica.voices.wooster.edu/files/2012/03/Frances -Beale_Double -Jeopardy -To-Be-
Black -and-Female1.pdf
49Taylor, Quintard (2000) T HE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENC E: A HISTORY OF BLACK AMERICANS from 1619 to
1890 , Department of History University of Washington p. 134
50Ibid p. 132
51Lindsey, Treva Blaine (2010) Configuring Modernities: New Negro Womanhood in the Nation’s Capital, 1890 -1940
Department of History Duke Un iversity p. 95 -96

25
These reasons led further to the classification of the typical black woman in two antithetic
figures: the Mammy52 and the Jezebel.53 The first category included the women that were not
sensual and attractive, and that were sent to work on the plantations, or in the house, as servants
and baby -sitters for the whites‘ children. They were supposed to dedicate entirely to the serving
and the protection of the white f amily, while their own children were forced to grow up without
the love and care of their mothers. The second category included the women who were believed
to have a tempting attitude and a permanent search for sensual pleasures. The Jezebel was often
expo sed to sexual exploitation ―justified by presenting her as a woman who deserved what she
got.‖54 and denied any right to defense. In her case, rape was considered impossible because of
her lustful and wicked nature. While the Mammy was desexualized and rep resented no threat for
her female masters, the Jezebel was seen as a temptation for the white man. In order to protect
themselves, many women tried to hide their sexuality and the signs of mistreatment, many times
appealing to silence.55
―Like White women, one writer said, ―Black women had the brains of a child, the
passions of a woman,‖ but unlike Whites, Black women were ―steeped in centuries of ignorance
and savagery, and wrapped about with immoral vices.‖19 In this era the idea of a moral Black
woman was incredible. ―I sometimes hear of a virtuous Negro woman,‖ wrote a commentator for
The Independent in 1902, ―but the idea is absolutely inconceivable to me…. I cannot imagine
such a creature as a virtuous Negro woman.‖
The image of the black women was so a ssailed, that even the fact that black men, who
were stereotyped as virile and always governed by sexual desire, were like that because of the
women‘s permanent lust and need to be satisfied. Even in the slavery times, the African women
were perceived as s educers aimed to tempt the white traders.56 Therefore, this image of
depraved women led to their scoff and abuse, on the one hand, and to the emphasis on the
gracefulness and the sensitivity of the white females, on the other hand. In this way, the

52Disparaging and Offensive. (Formerly in the southern U.S.) A black woman engaged as a nurse to white children
or as a servant to a white family. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/mammy?s=t
53A wicked, shameless woman. http://www.dictionary .com/browse/jezebel?s=t
54Morton, Patricia (1991) Disfigured Images: The Historical Assault on Afro -American Women Praeger New York
55Glass, R. William and Graff, Agnieszka, Race, Sexuality, and African American Women Representing the Nation: an
Interview wit h Elsa Barkley−Brown http://www.asc.uw.edu.pl/theamericanist/vol/26/26_17 -36.pdf
56Giddings, Paula (1984) When and Where I Enter The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America , New
York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. p.27

26
ascensi on of the white race was made through the degradation of the black race. Black women
have always been characterized through the comparison with the white women. While the white
females were associated with civilization, purity and intelligence, the Negroes were perceived as
savage, immoral and ignorant. The latter ones signified somehow the dark side of the white
women, the embodiment of their flaws.
―If women are allegedly passive and fragile, then why are Black women treated as
―mules‖ and assigned heavy cleaning chores? If good mothers are supposed to stay at home with
their children, then why are U.S. Black women on public assistance forced to find jobs and leave
their children in day care?‖57
After the abolition of slavery, the marginalization and the in justices against the Negro
women transferred to the industrial area. This meant that white women had priority in getting the
most respectable and well -paid jobs, while the black ones were accepted only by the employers
who could use them at hard, dirty and nonintellectual labor, which was considered to be
appropriate to their racial status. The intriguing fact is that the black women who had these jobs
were the few and lucky ones who had a chance to education, while the majority was still bond to
a domestic life.58 In those times governed by stereotypes, race was far more important than
studies, qualifications or skills. The African -American women have always had the dirtiest and
the lowest positions in the manufacturing area, and they were even more oppress ed by being paid
less than the lowest wage a white woman could get: ―because they were thought to be able to
withstand more heat, they got the most heat -intense jobs in the candy and glass factories. In the
bakeries it was Black women who cleaned, greased, and lifted the heavy pans. In the tobacco
industry, Black women did the stripping of the tobacco, the lowest -paid and most numbing work.
Because in many instances White women refused to work side by side with Black women, the
latter usually had to perform the worst jobs, under segregated and dirty conditions.‖59
The attitude of inferiority, worthlessness and resignation was implied to the Negro people
by their parents or by the white society since childhood: ―little black girls learned at an early age

57Collins, Hill Patr icia (200 0)Black Feminist Thought Routledge New York and London p.11
58Giddings, Paula (1984) When and Where I Enter The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America , New
York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. p.69
59Ibid p.136

27
to place themselves in the bathroom for "black women," not in that for "white ladies."‖60 Later
on, the black women were subjected to a new type of class and racial discrimination, and this
was the separated railroad train. While first -class compartments were s uitable to white ―ladies‖,
the ordinary ones were reserved to the black women and to the depraved white ones. Thus the
status had a great importance and the black females had no chance to be perceived as ―ladies‖, no
matter their education or their values.61 Mass media had also a major role in the marginalization
process, by broadcasting a large amount of negative information regarding the black people. For
instance, violence and drug addiction were showed as related mainly with the communities of
blacks wh o belonged to the most dangerous and low -grade districts of the country.
The beginning of the 20th century was very distressful for the black feminine community,
because both black and white women engaged in a campaign for their rights and equality with
men. The movement was feminist and womanist as well and the main aim was the setting of the
right to vote, which was perceived as the symbol of equality between the genders. The women‘s
union for a common purpose did not exclude hostile behavior on racial is sues. Instead, the power
that really united and brought harmony among the black and the white females was the religion.
After many struggles and refusals, women ended up their fight with a success, by receiving their
suffrage right in 1920, through the Nin eteenth Amendment.62 Furthermore, the black race, and
especially the black women stepped into a new world and developed their physical aspect, in
order to look as more like the white ones. Techniques like the enlightenment of their skin or the
straightenin g of their kinky hair were the most popular among the Negros.63
I.3 The African tradition in The Color P urple by Alice Walker
I.3.1 Family and lifestyle
Some of the features of slavery and racism depicted above are also encountered in the
novel The Color Pu rple by Alice Walker. While Celie‘s letters mirror the black women‘s gender
oppression, Nettie‘s ones reflect more the African culture and lifestyle and the racial means of

60Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks (1992) African -American Women's History and the Metalanguage of Race The
University of Chicago Press p.254 http://www.sfu.ca/~decaste/OISE/page2/files/HiggenbothamRace.pdf
61Ibid p. 261
62Giddings, Paula (1984) When and Where I Enter The Impact of Black Women on Ra ce and Sex in America , New
York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. p.175
63Ibid p. 178

28
oppression. Through her pilgrimage to Africa, Nettie had the opportunity to be in direct contact
with the ancestors of her kind and to be part of their community. As regards the natives‘ lifestyle,
there are many similarities with the way of living of the first African slaves brought to America.
First of all, their houses were built in accordance with their modest resources, hot climate and,
maybe, rudimentary knowledge: ―I wish you could see my hut, Celie. I love it. Unlike our
school, which is square, and unlike our church, which doesn‘t have walls -at least during the dry
season -my hut is round, walled, with a round roofleaf roof.(…) Over the mud walls I have hung
Olinka platters and mats and pieces of tribal cloth. The Olinka are known for their beautiful
cotton fabric which they handwave and dye with berries, clay, indigo and tree bark. (…) My only
desire for it now is a window! None of the village huts have windows, and when I spoke of a
window to t he women they laughed heartily‖64 The first African slav es applied the same
structure in their homes building process, when they got to the ―New World‖. Resemblances
could be also noticed concerning the labor they were practicing. Africans‘ life, as Nettie
describes, was based on agriculture. But, like in the c ase of slavery, people worked hard on the
plantations, but they didn‘t own them: ―First there‘s a road built to where you keep your goods.
Then your trees are hauled off to make ships and captain‘s furniture. Then your land is planted
with something you ca n‘t eat. Then you‘re forced to work it. That‘s happening all over Africa,
she said.‖65 Moreover, the manufacturers‘ cupidity went so far, that, beside destroying the
village and the plantations of the natives, they also forced them to pay for water. Thus,
oppression had strong roots in the history and the black race was the most affected. Similar to the
female slaves, who had to bring their children on the field, in order to watch and take care of
them, the African ones were working while carrying their bab ies on their backs. A particular
feature of the African people was their positivity and habit of singing while they were working,
despite of the heat and the hard labor: ―The women spend all their time in the fields, tending
their crops and praying. They s ing to the earth and to the sky and to their cassava and
groundnuts. Songs of love and farewell.‖66
The assumption that the African tribes were constituted by savages with animal instincts
was in fact, a consequence of their polygamy. The most interesting d etail was that the

64Walker, Alice (1983) The Color Purple Washington Square Press publish ed by Pocket Books New York p.146
65Ibid p.204
66Ibid p.159

29
harmonious relationship among the wives was based on sisterhood, a common feature
encountered at the black women. But, their relationship bond was so strong that the shared
husband was not allowed to be part of.67 Regarding the treatment of the feminine gender, there
are two opposing views. On the one hand, from men‘s perspective, the Olinka women were
protected and treated well: ―There is always someone to look after the Olinka woman. A father.
An uncle. A brother or nephew.‖68 On the ot her hand, Nettie has noticed some resemblances
between the Africans‘ attitude towards their women and her father‘s towards her and her sister,
Celie: ―There is a way that the men speak to women that reminds me too much of Pa. They listen
just long enough t o issue instructions. They don‘t even look at women when women are
speaking. They look at the ground and bend their heads toward the ground. The women also do
not ―look in a man‘s face‖ as they say. To ―look in a man‘s face‖ is a brazen thing to do. They
look instead at his feet or his knees. And what can I say to this? Again, it is our own behavior
around Pa.‖69 The Olinka villagers were strong defenders of their customs and beliefs and one of
them was girls‘ lack of access to any form of education. Thus e very girl of the community had to
conform to the status of a domestic woman who depended on her future husband: ―A girl is
nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something‖70 ; ―The men do not like it:
who wants a wife who knows everything h er husband knows?‖71
I.3.2 . Customs and traditions
An aspect that is specifically related to African tradition is represented by different
ceremonial practices in conformity with every important stage of life. The transition from
adolescence to manhood or w omanhood for instance, was marked by a painful ritual. While boys
were subjected to circumcision, girls were subjected to a female initiation custom. Both of the
genders though, had to pass through a scarring process, which consisted in specific cuts on th e
face. The observance of those ceremonies was very important for the tribe because ―it is a way
the Olinka can show they still have their own ways, said Olivia, even though the white man has

67Ibid p.153
68Ibid p.149
69Ibid p.149
70Ibid p.144
71Ibid p.157

30
taken everything else.‖72 ; Thus , the only valuable thing that st ill claimed their ancestry was their
spiritual side: their religious beliefs and their tradition inherited from long time ago.
The funeral ceremony was also realized in a traditional way and the author of The Color
Purple shortly illustrates it through the burial of Tashi‘s father and Corrine, the adopter of
Celie‘s children: ―It was my first Olinka funeral. The women paint their faces white and wear
white shroudlike garments and cry in a high keening voice. They wrapped t he body in barkcloth
and buried it under a big tree in the forest.‖73

72Ibid p.211
73Ibid p.152 -153

31
II. Alice Walker’s womanist voice in In search of our Mothers’ Gardens
II.1 Alice Walker’s biography
Alice Walker is a representative figure of the African -American literature and history,
thanks to her major literary activity and implication in the events and projects that had such a
great importance for the black community in general, and for the black women in particular.
Beside her contribution to black literature, through various poems, novels or essays, she
distinguished among the other black writers by being the first African -American woman who
won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction, thanks to the novel The Color Purple.
Alice Walker was born in 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia, in a typical African -American
family of the time, where parents were sharecroppers and had many children. Thus, from an
early age, she had a direct contact with the harsh life of the S outh, which was dominated by the
segregation between the races and the oppression of the black one. But even if she was raised in
a poor family, Alice had received a good education from her parents, who infused a preference
for art into her and guided her to an academic path. Therefore, she attended the Spelman College
through a scholarship; then she transferred to Sarah Lawrence College, where she completed her
studies.
Walker‘s childhood was marked by an accident that had terrible consequences upon her
personality. At the age of eight, she was shot in the right eye with a BB gun by mistake, by one
of her brothers. Being poor and being refused a loan: ―Why you wanna waste $250 getting your
sister's eye fixed? She's just gonna end up marrying a no -good nigge r like you.‖74 Alice‘s family
was not able to take her to a doctor than after many days, when the bad injury had already
affected the sight of her eye. This physical flaw changed the girl into a shy and solitary child that
couldn‘t bear the jokes and the teasing behavi or of her classmates: ―Now when I stare at
people —a favorite pastime, up to now —they will stare back. Not at the cute little girl, but at her
scar. For six years I do not stare at anyone, because I do not raise my head.‖75 As a result, her

74Interview: Alice Walker, Books, The Guardian
ttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jun/23/featuresreviews.guardianreview23
75Walker, Alice (2005) In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens London: Phoenix p.387

32
parents decided to send her to live with her grandparents, where she could be peaceful.76 If on
the one hand, this disability led Walker to isolation and low self -esteem, on the other hand, it
allowed her to dedicate more time to reading and writing and to pay more attent ion to issues like
racism, sexism, the relations between classes, men and women and women and women. More
than that, the scholarship for the Spelman College was offered her because of her infirmity. Alice
became very interested in stories that were similar to hers, or in stories that shared the same
women‘s struggles for survival, in a world that judged and oppressed them by means of color
and gender. In this way, Walker became a serious activist in the Civil Rights Movement (1960),
and, through her implica tion at protests, her conferences and publications, she represented a great
support to the movement. On this occasion, Walker had the chance to meet Martin Luther King
Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, and she perceived them as models in the fight for equal
rights and justice. Thanks to her social activity, Alice had the opportunity to travel to Europe and
Africa, trips that helped her enrich her knowledge regarding the cultural and the historical
heritage of the visited countries, but also inspired her in her future writings. The trip to Africa
had though, an unexpected result and that was her pregnancy. This brought her a difficult time,
because she was young, alone, poor and not willing of becoming a mother. Her sickening mood
and depressive feelings led her eventually to the decision of abortion. The period that followed
was entirely dedicated to the creating of her first collection of poetry, called Once , which was
inspired from her experience in Africa and after her return from there, and from here struggles
within The Civil Rights movement and intimate life.77 Even if these poems were written during
a hard physical and psychological period, accompanied by suicidal thoughts, the writing of them
kept her alive and made her realize that she likes the f eeling of being alive: ―Writing poems is
my way of celebrating with the world that I have not committed suicide the evening before.‖78
Alice‘s rebel spirit is noticeable not only on the professional level, but also in her private
life, because she had the c ourage to break the norms and marry Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a
Jewish civil rights lawyer. Being the first legally married inter -racial couple in Mississippi, they
had to face many hostile reactions: ―In the beginning, going to the movies was agony for u s. For
several years we were the only interracial, married, home -owning couple in Mississippi. Our

76Brum, El tz Gabriela (2005) Sexual Blinding of Women: Alice Walker’s African Character Tashi and the Issue of
Female Genital Cutting Porto Alegre
77Ibid
78Walker, Alice (2005) In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens London: Phoenix p.249

33
presence at the ticket booth caused an angry silence.‖79 , but they became a strong proof of the
fact that love discounts race or other obstacles, and an impu lse for change, for future
relationships between different races or social classes. Even if the couple separated after nine
years, from their marriage resulted a daughter, whose name was Rebecca.80
II.2 A short approach of In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens
In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens is a collection of essays that presents, in a way, Alice
Walker‘s autobiography, but also her beliefs, her struggles and feelings. Additionally, she
included historical facts and collected stories, in order to illustrate h er concepts and to give
authenticity to her writing. By making known the stories written by her models or by other
African -American women, whose literature had been ignored by that time, Alice Walker
became, through this book, the womanist voice of all the black writers who had been silenced.
Walker actually claimed that she was a womanist and her female characters exemplify the same
characteristics that define her. By qualifying In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens a womanist
prose, the writer felt appropriat e to offer a detailed definition of the term ―womanist‖: ―1. From
womanish (opp. Of ―girlish‖, i.e., frivolous, irresponsible, not serious). A black feminist or
feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, ―you acting
womanish‖ i.e., like a woman. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful
behavior wanting to know more or in greater depth than is considered ―good‖ for one. Interested
in grown -up doings. Acting grown up. Being grown -up. Interchangea ble with another black folk
expression: you trying to be grown. Responsible. In charge. Serious.
2. Also: A woman who loves other women, sexually and/ or non -sexually.
Appreciates and prefers women‘s culture, women‘s emotional flexibility (values tears as natural
counter balance of laughter), and women‘s strength. Sometimes loves individual men, sexually
and/or other women. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female.‖81
The terms ―womanism‖ and ―feminism‖ have been often mistaken, but there is a strong
difference between what they define. Feminism is somehow a branch of womanism, because it is
strictly related to gender, more exactly to the means by which males express their supposed

79Ibid p.225
80https://s3.amazonaws. com/scschoolfiles/112/the -color -purple -alice -walker.pdf
81Walker, Alice (2005) In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens London: Phoenix

34
superiority upon females and by which females respond to their mistreatment; womanism,
instead, signifies much more than that. It is addressed not on ly to the feminine gender, but to a
whole race. The white women who claimed they were feminists have fewer reasons to revolt
against men, than the black womanists, because they were only subjected to their white fathers‘
or husbands‘ power; in comparison w ith their situation, the black womanists had to confront with
a lot more difficulties, like the oppression coming both from the white society and the masculine
gender, or the marginalization and the sexual harassment. Therefore, while feminists had to figh t
for the equality between genders, womanists had to give support to their men in the fight for
racial equality firstly and barely after that, to claim their rights as females.82
In the analyses of the African -American literature, Alice Walker focused her a ttention on
the characters, and especially on the status of the woman in society and in the private life and
tried to gather as many examples as possible, in order to illustrate the themes that functioned as
bonds among them: the inferiority of the black r ace, the suppression of the black women, or the
relationships between women. In the same time, she noticed and publicly exposed her opinion
regarding the differences between the literature written by blacks and by whites. The main
difference had to do with the personality of the characters, expectedly, and through this
comparison, Walker was able to find her model. Between the white character type, who
distinguished through weakness and resignation in front of a tragic faith, and the black character
type, w ho prefers to disobey the norms and to struggle in order to succeed, Alice identified
herself with the latter.
Walker also laid stress on the people that she perceived as examples, both in the fictional
and in the social area. The fact that no black write r had ever been mentioned during her classes at
university grew her interest in researching and studying the literature of her forerunners. The
element that led Walker to her first model was her curiosity regarding voodoo, a magical ritual
which was percei ved to be practiced by the black people. Therefore, by discovering Zora Neale
Hurston ―Zora, who had collected all the black folklore I could ever use‖83 , Alice had provided
herself a wider outlook upon the black myths than what her mother revealed her, th us an
important source of inspiration for her short story: ― The Revenge of Hannah Kemhuff‖. In the

82Andersen, Pernille Thagaard. Christensen, Ida Lindebjerg. Eigminaité, Justè and Schrøder, Ulrikke Speggers. The
Colored Identity, a close textual analysis of The Color Purple https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/12516775.pdf
83Walker, Alice (2005) In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens London: Phoenix p.12

35
same time, she provided herself the model she was looking for: ―What I had discovered, of
course, was a model. A model, who, as it happened, provided more t han voodoo for my story,
more than one of the greatest novels America had produced – though, being America, it did not
realize this.‖84
Analyzing the social background of her childhood, through her own memories and her
mother‘s stories, Alice noticed how imp ortant the community spirit was for the black
southerners. Even if they were sharecroppers and had no money, the Negroes still had dignity
and honor and considered themselves equals: ―We knew, I suppose, that we were poor. (…) But
we never considered ourse lves to be poor, unless, of course, we were deliberately humiliated.
And because we never believed we were poor, and therefore worthless, we could depend on one
another without shame.‖85 The writer herself confronted with judgments based on her race and
social position, like the moment when she was insulted by someone who told her that ―farmer‘s
daughter‖ might not be the stuff of which poets are made‖86 ; another embarrassing situation was
caused by a white woman who had complained that Alice was sitting ne ar the front of the bus;
being forced to move, Alice endured discrimination once more.87 In fact, these obstacles had
more positive effects because they served as an impulse for the writer, to prove the contrary.
Alice Walker was a strong advocate of woma nism and she manifested not just through
her publications and marches at the Civil Rights movement, but also through the seminars that
she taught to the black students. She also had the opportunity to teach black history to a group of
African -American wome n, who worked as school teachers, but who were poorly prepared
regarding their own past as a kin. This was Walker‘s chance to integrate in a group of women
that shared similar stories and difficulties of the day -to-day life. Moreover, this was the chance
of making women aware of their unfair life and making them unite and fight for change.
Walker‘s mission was pretty complicated, because it seemed impossible to women that had lived
their whole life by feeling insignificant, unworthy and ashamed of their col or, nation and culture,
to believe in change: ―How do you teach earnest but educationally crippled middle -aged and
older women the significance of their past? How do you get them to understand the pathos and

84Ibid p.12
85Ibid p. 17
86Ibid p.18
87Ibid p.163

36
beauty of a heritage they have been taught to re gard with shame? How do you make them
appreciate their own endurance, creativity, incredible loveliness of spirit?‖88 For those women
who were accustomed to be silent and who had no courage even to pronounce the word ―black‖,
writing represented the only s olution. Thus Walker asked the teachers to write their
autobiographies, in order to gather different stories marked by the same struggles and feelings;
but, by asking them to read one another‘s confessions, the main aim was to imply them that
awareness of what was wrong and had to be changed.
As a writer who succeeded to develop and earn appreciation in a literary world that was
dominated by male writers, the majority of them being white, Alice Walker felt indebted to
expose the value of the African -America n female writers, who remained in the shadow and
ended up in poverty. Authors like Phillis Wheatley who‖died, along with her three children, of
malnutrition, in a cheap boardinghouse where she worked as a drudge.‖89 , or Zora Hurston, who
―wrote what is per haps the most authentic and moving black love story ever published‖ and who
―died in poverty in the swamps of Florida, where she was again working as a housemaid‖90 ,
were the prototypes of black women who worth to be followed because they were examples of
strength, hope and brilliance.
In the essay The Divided Life of Jean Toomer , Walker shows her concern in studying the
intriguing personality of Jean Toomer , an African -American writer who liked to oscillate
between admitting and refusing his association with the black race, in accordance with his
personal interests. His novel, Cane , represented an original and brilliant work that captivated the
black writers and served as a great source of inspiration regarding the rural life of the black
Southerners and their interfamilial bonds. The originality of the novel laid in its unique form,
which consisted in an alternation between prose, poetry and play. What was i nteresting, actually,
was the paradox between the message of the book and the assertions of its author. While in his
book, Toomer depicted such an authentic story about the life of the Negroes in the segregated
South, in the real life he had always rejecte d the idea of belonging to the black race. The chance
of having a light skin helped Toomer integrate in a white society, hide his origins and overlook
everything that had to do with blacks, like the labels, the marginalization and the oppression,

88Ibid p.28
89Ibid p.3 5
90Ibid p.35

37
which der ived from whites‘ racism. Therefore, his case didn‘t prove that ―a single drop of black
blood makes one black‖91 , but that ―several obvious drops of white blood make one white‖92
―To my dear children,
Florence, Sylvester, Jake, Christy and Alice,
Without wh ose sweet background noises
This book would not have been written.‖93
A piece taken from the novel Second Class Citizen, by Buchi Emecheta, this dedication
represents the element that illustrates Alice Walker as not having a predisposition to motherhood,
as she admits: ―it is exactly the kind of dedication I could not imagine making myself‖94 ; ―What
kind of woman would think the ―background noises‖ of five children ―sweet‖?‖95 This book was
brought into discussion by Walker because it represented a significa nt material about the African
life, topic that had always fascinated her.
The essay Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Jackson reveals another source of
inspiration and also a new side of Alice‘s personality that is well reflected in her novels:
woman ism:‖My own term for such women would be ―womanist.‖ At any rate, the word they
chose would have to be both spiritual and concrete and it would have to be organic,
characteristic, not simply applied. A word that said more than that they choose women over m en.
More than that they choose to live separate from men‖96 The description refers to Rebecca
Jackson, another strong woman, who faced several misjudgments just because she was different.
She was called a ―heretic‖97 and accused of ―chopping up the churche s‖98 just because she

91Ibid p.63
92Ibid p.63
93Ibid p.67
94Ibid p.66
95Ibid p.67
96Ibid p.81
97Ibid p.74
98Ibid.p.74

38
dared to become a minister when all ministers were men; she was called a ―lesbian‖99 just
because she rejected men and lived with another woman.
―Part of what existence means to me is knowing the difference between what I am now
and w hat I was then. It is being capable of looking after myself intellectually as well as
financially. It is being able to tell when I am being wronged and by whom. It means being awake
to protect myself and the ones I love. It means being a part of the world community, and being
alert to which part it is that I have joined, and knowing how to change to another part if that part
does not suit me. To know is to exist: to exist is to be involved, to move about, to see the world
with my own eyes. This, at least, t he Movement has given me.‖100
In the essay The Civil Rights Movement: What good was it? Alice Walker r ecords her
transition from a non-existent, invisible woman to an existent one. The only feeling that she
could sense as a black woman living in a white worl d was alienation, accompanied by solitude,
frustration and despair. In that world, color could cancel all the qualities of a man, leaving him
just a label that gave him no value. Hope came though, through the person of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., ―the fir st black face I saw on our new television screen‖101 , as Walker remembers.
This was the moment that the writer so long had waited for: the chance to exist as a human
being, to have the freedom to be herself, ―something more than a shadow or a number‖102 .
Com ing from a similar social background dominated by racial discrimination, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. had a hope and tried to transfer it to the rest of the black people too. The Civil Rights
Movement marked a moment of social awakening and there were so ma ny reasons to fight for.
Through this movement, Dr. King allowed people to hope for a world in which they were free to
choose and they were no longer oppressed and incited them to struggle for their right to be
somebody. In spite of the benefits of this mo vement lays something more important: the alliance
between people who shared the same stories, dreams and ideals. The fact that he risked the safety
of his own family in order to bring justice and awaked an entire nation by giving them a purpose
to live fo r were the reasons for which Alice Walker considered him ―The One, The Hero, The

99Ibid p.81
100Ibid p.125 -126
101Ibid p.124
102Ibid p.125

39
One Fearless Person for whom we had waited.‖103 Dr. King‘s assassination (1968) had a strong
impact upon Alice, who never stopped to believe in him, to idolize and follow him.
The essay In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens that gives the title of Walker‘s book
represents a tribute to all the black women, including her own mother, who preserved their
creative spirit in spite of any means of oppression: ―How was the creativity of the black woman
kept alive, year after year and century after century, when for most of the years black people
have been in America, it was a punishable crime for a black person to read or write? And the
freedom to paint, to sculpt, to expand the mind with ac tion did not exist.‖104 Calling them ―our
mothers and grandmothers‖, Alice perceived these women not just as prototypes, but also as
parts of the family, a large family that includes generations and generations of black females,
bond by a common artistic si de and by the same experiences, struggles and strength. One of the
typical pieces of art created by the African -American women was the quilt. Even if it consisted
of pieces of useless cloth sewed together, the way in which they were put together was strict ly a
matter of imagination and creation. Thus by illustrating an impressive scene through
insignificant bits of material, the quilt -makers were unquestionable artists. Walker‘s mother
distinguished through another type of art and that was her passion for f lowers. The magnitude of
her art laid in the fact that, in those times, when she was so busy with her domestic duties and the
exhausting labor on the plantations, she had always reserved some time for her plants and she
had the talent of turning any type o f land into a wonderful and colorful garden: ―Whatever she
planted grew as if by magic, and her fame as a grower of flowers spread over three counties. (…)
A garden so brilliant with colors, so original in its design, so magnificent with life and creativit y,
that to this day people drive by our house in Georgia —perfect strangers and imperfect
strangers —and ask to stand or walk among my mother‘s art.‖105
During her artistic career, Alice Walker had confronted, like all the black female writers,
with many negative reactions from reviewers. The reason laid in the fact that black critics
considered the literature written by women far lower than that of men an d their reviews consisted
in comments related more to their private life than to the value of their books. In Alice‘s case, the
critics‘ target was the attack on her marriage with a white man. Under the influence of sexism,

103Ibid p.144
104Ibid p.234
105Ibid p.241

40
black men used to treat black wo men very bad. Beside their predilection for white women, they
also classified the black ones in accordance with their lighter or darker tone of black, expressing
their preference for the former. Growing up in a family dominated by men, Alice had felt the
effects of sexism since she was little. Thus her image about men was shaping year by year,
mainly through the way in which she was treated by the males from her family: ―I desperately
needed my father and brothers to give me male models I could respect, bec ause white men
(…)—whether in films or in person —offered man as dominator, as killer, and always as
hypocrite. My father failed because he copied the hypocrisy. And my brothers —except for one —
never understood they must represent half the world to me, as I must represent the other half to
them.‖106

106Ibid p.330 -331

41
III. The status of the black woman
―I think I was longing, really, to know my ancestors better – the immediate ancestors. My
parents, my grandparents, my great -grandparents, and I just started thinking . . . that I could write
a story about them that I would enjoy, because it would mean spending time with them . . . with
people I hadn't had a chance to spend time with, growing up‖107
As Alice Walker declares in an interview for The Guardian , The C olor Purple was a
novel meant to portray an authentic picture of the typical Negro life in the South, from female
perspective, but also a way of paying homage to her parents and her ancestors. Written in an
epistolary form, the book is divided into two par ts, consisting of letters that fail to get to the
correspondent. The letters from the first part are written by Celie and addressed firstly to God
and then to her sister, Nettie. The letters from the second part are written by Nettie, who tries to
communic ate with Celie and to depict her experience as a missionary in Africa. The Color
Purple can be considered a bildungsroman, because the storyline follows the evolution of the
main character from childhood to adulthood, redeeming all her experiences, thought s and
suffering. Beside the focus on the main character, Walker also shows a great interest in other
types of women, in order to build up a complex image of the African -American woman of the
20th century.
―It's a book mostly about women, and what they're d oing, and how they're carrying on no
matter what the men are doing . . . I think that for many men at that time it was a shock that you
could actually write a novel with women at the centre‖108
III.1 Celie
Celie, ―whose name by various etymologies means "hol y," "healing," and "heavenly"109 ,
embodies the character affected by the gender suppression, a common issue encountered in the
families of those times. Being raped at the age of fourteen by the man who was supposed to be
her father, the girl had to face the problems of the adulthood soo ner that it was normal. Being too
young and innocent to understand and to react to what was happening to her, Celie just had to

107Walker, Alice https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jun/23/featuresreviews.guardianreview23
108 Ibid
109Bloom, Harold (2000) Alice Walker's the Color Purple Chelsea House Philadelphia p.70

42
submit and manifest herself through silence, silence imposed to her by her stepfather: ―You
better not never tell nobody but God . It'd kill your mammy‖110 This is how the idea of writing
letters to God came out. Writing became therefore the only way in which she could feel free to
express herself and to set free her fears, anger and grief, without being judged or punished. The
traum atic experiences that she had lived till that age made her even doubt of her own innocence:
―I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is
happening to me.‖111 Even Nettie remembers her sister‘s words, which betra yed her feelings of
embarrassment: ―I remember one time you said your life made you feel so ashamed you couldn't
even talk about it to God. You had to write it‖112 Later on in the novel, when Celie gets already
used to be treated as she is invisible, the le tters writing gets a more complex significance. The
letters become a genuine proof of her existence and connection with divinity, even if the fact that
she has to face so many difficulties makes her wonder about God‘s existence and even
preference for whit e people. The death of her mother and the harassment of Alphonso, her
stepfather, help Celie in forming a strong bond with her little sister, Nettie. Observing Pa‘s
interest in Nettie, Celie tries to save her from a similar fate. One of the attempts was to draw
Alphonso‘s attention on her, by dressing up in a tempting manner, but she ended up by being
beaten for ―dressing trampy‖113 ; another one was to convince Nettie to marry her boyfriend,
Mr.__. This attempt failed too, because their stepfather didn‘t agr ee to let them marry, preferring
to keep Nettie for himself. Celie‘s devotion to God rises up from her loneliness, which was
caused by consecutive alienations that she was forced to live: firstly from her parents, secondly
from her two babies, who were tak en away and sold by Pa since they were born and thirdly from
her sister, the most important person to her.
Celie represents the typical example of the woman dominated by the patriarchal system,
which endures insults, violence, rape, but has no courage to r evolt. Alphonso sold Celie into
marriage as she was an insignificant object that he had to get rid of: ―She ugly. Don‘t even look
like she kin to Nettie. But she‘ll make the better wife. She ain‘t smart either, and I‘ll just be fair,
you have to watch her or she‘ll give away everything you own. But she can work like a man.‖;
―Fact is, he say, I got to get rid of her. She too old to be living here at home. And she a bad

110Walker, Alice. The Color Purple Washington Square Press published by Pocket Books New York 1983 p.11
111 Ibid
112Ibid p.122
113Ibid p.17

43
influence on my other girls.‖114 Thus Celie was removed from school by force, in order to
become an adult, a wife that had to take care of a new household, of her husband and his
children: ―The first time I got big Pa took me out of school. He never care that I love it. Nettie
stood there at the gate holding tight to my hand. I was all dress fo r first day. You too dumb to
keep going to school, Pa say. Nettie the clever one is in the bunch‖115 When Nettie came to live
with her sister, Celie had to make a new sacrifice. While Albert was still attracted by the little
sister and tried to make advance s to her, Celie preferred to help her escape, than witness her
abuse. Even if they vowed to keep in touch through letters, Nettie‘s letters had never reached
Celie, because her husband hided them from her.
Celie‘s stepping into marriage doesn‘t change her fate at all, because she is treated for the
second time as a non -existent person. Beside having just a domestic role in the house, she also
has to bear the disrespect of Mr.__ and of his children, who treated her badly from the first day
of marriage. Celi e‘s obedient conduct towards her husband is also reflected in the fact that she
never addresses him by his name, the only one who calls him Albert, being Shug Avery: ―Who
Albert, I wonder. Then I remember Albert Mr.___ _ first name.‖116
Few of the people who saw something good in Celie‘s person were Carrie and Kate,
Albert‘s sisters, who immediately noticed and appreciated Celie‘s housekeeping skills and well
care of her husband‘s children. Kate also tried to show her support as a woman by asking her
brother t o buy Celie a dress or by ordering Harpo, the oldest child, to help Celie with the
housework. When Kate tries to make Celie aware of the fact that she deserves to be rewarded for
her work and devotion, Celie still has her doubts: ―You deserve more than thi s. Maybe so, I
think‖117 Celie is in fact astonished and thrilled because she was addressed many nice words and
received appreciation, fact that had not happened too often in her life: ―Good housekeeper, good
with children, good cook. Brother couldn‘t have done better if he tried.‖118 ; ―I can‘t remember
being the first one in my own dress. Now to have one made just for me. I try to tell Kate what it
mean. I git hot in the face and stutter.‖119 While Albert accepted to buy the dress at his sister‘s

114Ibid p.18
115Ibid p.19
116Ibid p.51
117Ibid p.28
118 Ibid
119 Ibid

44
assertivenes s, Harpo rejected to help his stepmother, being driven by the preconception that
housekeeping was only the woman‘s responsibility: ―Women work. I‘m a man‖120 In that
situation, Kate advised Celie to fight against the gender oppression, as Nettie told her pr eviously:
―Don‘t let them run over you, Nettie say. You got to let them know who got the upper hand.(…)
You got to fight‖121 Celie rejects the idea of fighting, claiming that she doesn‘t know how to do
it and prefers to bear any type of suppression and to b e silent in order to survive: ―I don‘t know
how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive‖122 Even in the intimate moments when she is
treated with brutality or in the moments when she is severely beaten by her husband, she
responds with passivity, by tr ansforming herself into a tree, which doesn‘t feel the pain: ―He beat
me like he beat the children. Cept he don‘t never hardly beat them. He say, Celie, git the belt.
The children be outside the room peeking through the cracks. It all I can do not to cry. I make
myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That‘s how come I know trees fear man.‖123
Celie‘s maternal instincts are revealed in the moment when she meets her daughter,
Olivia. Noticing the similarities between the girl and herself, Celie dared to get close to Olivia
and her adoptive mother while they were in a store. Even if Celie didn‘t know for sure whether
the lady carrying her was her real mother or not, she felt that she found her child. Perceiving
Olivia‘s adoptive parents as the only rich people in town, Celie saw in them a hope, both for
Nettie‘s future and for establishing a bond with her daughter. Thus, before separating from her
sister, Celie asked her to find The Reverend Mr., Olivia‘s stepfather.
Celie‘s life takes a new turn when sh e meets Shug Avery, Albert‘s mistress and Sofia
Butler, Harpo‘s wife, because they embody female prototypes that are opposite to Celie and give
her a new perspective of life. Celie has been fascinated by Shug before meeting her, more
exactly from the mome nt when she received a picture of her: ―The most beautiful woman I ever
saw. She more pretty then my mama. She bout ten thousand times more prettier then me.‖124
Celie is so fascinated by Shug‘s beauty and elegance that even when she goes to store to buy th e
dress promised by Albert she chooses the color relying on Shug‘s supposed preferences. While
Celie dreams of red and purple, colors associated with royalty and grace, she ends up buying a

120Ibid p.29
121Ibid p.25
122Ibid p.26
123Ibid p.30
124Ibid p.16

45
blue dress, because Kate considered the red color as being ―too ha ppy lookin‖125 Celie‘s status
in her marriage is more of a slave than of a wife, of an outsider that has to watch and even help
her husband to look good for the meeting with his mistress. When Shug was in town, Albert used
to be gone every night, then come back and sleep, while Celie was so tired from working on the
field. When Shug comes to live in Albert‘s house because of her bad condition, Celie doesn‘t
feel any shade of envy or jealousy. Instead, she is excited for having the opportunity of meeting
and taking care of the artist that she adores.
Through Shug‘s presence in the house, Celie‘s process of transformation begins to take
shape. With Shug Avery‘s help, Celie is able to see another type of relationship between a man
and a woman, to confront her o wn sexuality and to develop her strength and self -confidence.
Therefore Celie perceives Shug as a model that is fascinated with because of her beauty,
elegance and power of attraction, but also as a mother who could guide her, listen to her, share
her know ledge of life and also protect her. While washing and combing Shug‘s hair, Celie even
associates her presence with her daughter‘s: ―I work on her like she a doll or like she Olivia‖126
The blues singer also suggests Celie a different view regarding spiritua lity and God‘s image:
―Here‘s the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else.
You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. (…) God ain‘t
a he or a she, but a It. (…) I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was
or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you‘ve found It.‖127
While Celie feels that God didn‘t hear her prayers, she immediately blames him for being a man,
one more ma n that disappointed her. Celie‘s belief that God is white contributes to her
hopelessness of being ever listened to and helped: ―he give me a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a
lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won‘t ever see again. Anyhow, I sa y, the God I
been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling,
forgetful and lowdown.(…) If he ever listened to poor colored women the world would be a
different place‖128 In this situation, Shug‘s merit is that of bringing back the faith to Celie, by
helping her understand that God‘s presence lies in every part of the nature and in her own soul,
not in the image of a man.

125Ibid p.28
126Ibid p.57
127Ibid p.177 -178
128Ibid p.175

46
From her adolescence till her marriage, Celie had never experienced love and pleasure,
her onl y contact with a man happening through sexual abuse: ―he git up on you, heist your
nightgown round your waist, plunge in. Most times I pretend I ain‘t there. He never know the
difference. Never ast me how I feel, nothing. Just do his business, get off, go to sleep.‖129
Consequently she rejected any connection between men and desire, her single image regarding
manhood leading to disgust: ―men look like frogs to me. No matter how you kiss‘em, as far as I
am concern, frogs is what they stay.‖130 The image of Shu g Avery taking a bath, instead, has
different effects on Celie: ―First time I got the full sight of Shug Avery long black body with it
black plum nipples, look like her mouth, I thought I had turned into a man.‖131 For the first time,
she feels tempted by a nother body; she feels controlled by a curiosity and a sexual desire that is
specific mostly to men and this feeling scares her. Observing Celie‘s timidity, Shug tries to
initiate her in the erotic knowledge and to make her aware of her still existent sexu ality. Celie
confronts with opposite labels in terms of her sexual status. While her Pa cynically depicts her as
not being ―fresh‖ anymore, Shug perceives her as still being a virgin.132 The relationship
between them starts in a negative way, because Shug o ffends Celie in the beginning, but
progressively, they become much closed to each other. They experience a complex female
relationship that covers all the layers: from mother -daughter connection, to sisterhood and sexual
relationship. Celie grows to love S hug Avery very much and even feel jealousy on her husband.
Through Shug‘s help, Celie succeeds to overcome her anxiety, to speak about her traumatic
experience with Alphonso and Albert and gain more confidence in herself. Moreover, Celie
learns from Shug h ow to fight back man‘s oppression and how to be independent, by starting her
own business, away from her husband.
The first moment that marks Celie‘s transition from invisibility to visibility takes place
when Shug, performing at Harpo‘s jukejoint, sings a song for Celie and names it after her, in
order to show her gratitude for Celie‘s attention and good care when she was sick. This gesture
blows Celie away, because she has never exper ienced such a feeling of honor: ‖First time
somebody made something and name it after me.‖133 While the book doesn‘t mention the lyrics

129Ibid p.79
130Ibid p.224
131Ibid p.53
132Bloom, Harold (2000) Alice Walker's the Color Purple Chelsea House Philadelphia p.98
133Walker, Alice (1983) The Color Purple Washington Square Press published by Pocket Books New York p.75

47
of Celie‘s song, the film version places more importance on the relationship between the two.
The lyrics from the movie celebrate sisterhood, which was the single way of remaining strong
and moving on for women, in a period governed by the patriarchal power: ―Sister , you been on
my mind Oh Sister, we're two of a kind Oh Sister, I'm keeping my eye on you. I bet you think I
don't know nothing but singing the blues, Oh sister, have I got news for you I'm something, I
hope you think you're something too. (emphasis mine). ‖134 After spending some time together as
sisters and lovers, their love becomes very strong. Nevertheless, unlike Celie, who is totally
devoted to her lover, Shug Avery still needs men in her life. Thus when she appears with Grady,
her new husband, Celie i s hurt and very disappointed: ―Mr.__ feelings hurt, I say. I don‘t
mention mine.‖135
The fact that Celie spits in Old Mr.__‘s glass of water when she hears him talking badly
about Shug Avery is an act of silent rebellion that suggests her coming to self -awar eness.
Another similar moment is that when Celie finds out about Nettie‘s letters; she is about to
attempt to Albert‘s life, when she shaves his beard with the razor, being overseen by anger: ―I
watch him so close, I begin to feel a lightening in the head . Fore I know anything I‘m standing
hind his chair with his razor open. (…) All day long I act just like Sofia. I stutter. I mutter to
myself. I stumble bout the house crazy for Mr. _____ blood. In my mind, he falling dead every
which away. By time night c ome, I can‘t speak. Everytime I open my mouth nothing co me out
but a little burp.‖ In the relationship with Albert, Celie and Shug play opposite roles. Celie
represents the Mammy, which is the typical black woman type, because she is not beautiful, nor
attractive, but she plays a good domestic role and takes care of the children. While the Mammy‘s
duty in the slavery times was to work on the plantations and to be a maid and a babysitter in the
whites‘ houses, Celie has the same role, but in the marriage wit h a black man. At the opposite
pole lays Shug, the Jezebel, who plays the role of the temptation and who has all men under
control, through her sexual skills.
Through writing, quilt making and, moreover, pants designing, Celie had discovered an
artistic si de that made her feel important for the first time. Quilt making has an important role
because it brings people together and helps in creating a certain link among them. When Shug

134Bloom, Harold (2000) Alice Walker's the Color Purple Chelsea House Philadelphia p.153
135Walker, Alice (1983) The Color Purple Washington Square Press published by Pocket Books New York p.106

48
shows some interest in sewing, Celie doesn‘t hesitate any second to share he r knowledge. While
working on the quilt with Sofia, the two have the chance to talk about Harpo‘s recent strange
behavior. Because the first attempts of beating Sofia failed, Harpo is trying to eat as much as
possible in order to get as big as Sofia and ac hieve his aim. He is in fact disappointed by his
incapacity of taming a woman or, moreover, frustrated that he can‘t follow his father‘s example:
―I want her to do what I say, like you do for Pa.(…) When Pa tell you to do something, you do it,
he say. When he say not to, you don‘t. You don‘t do what he say, he beat you.‖136 Celie tries,
with maturity and wisdom, to explain Harpo that he shouldn‘t compare his marriage with hers
because they are different. While Harpo and Sofia got married for love, Celie was sold to
marriage and Mr.__ didn‘t love her either. Instead she suggests him Shug‘s relationship with his
father as an example: ―Do Shug Avery mind Mr.____? I ast. She the woman he wanted to marry.
She call him Albert, tell him his drawers stink in a minute . Little as he is, when she git her
weight back she can sit on him if he try to bother her.‖ 137
The epistolary form of the novel is not randomly chosen. First of all, both the form and
the present tense provide spontaneity and authenticity, easing the attem pt of empathizing with
the situation of the main character. Celie‘s illiteracy is well observable at both lexical and
grammatical levels, because she writes as she speaks: ―She ast me bout the first one Whose it
is?‖ But along the way, Celie‘s knowledge g ets broader and this is also reflected in the letters
that she writes to Nettie. The moment when she finds her sister‘s letters marks Celie‘s transition
from the role of the writer to the role of the reader. Second of all, the story divided into letters is
compared with the quilt making. Celie‘s writing style improves considerably, not only thanks to
the quality and the complexity of the sentences, but also because she starts to analyze and to
interpret the facts. She also begins to sign her name at the end of the letters addressed to Nettie.
Being told that she is dumb for several times by her stepfather, Celie actually believes it, being
not aware of her intelligence and creative mind. Celie proves to have a predilection for poetry
too, by making certain creative associations between nature and the other characters.138 Celie is

136Walker, Alice (1983) The Color Purple Washington Square Press published by Pocket Books New York p.65
137Ibid p.66
138Bloom , Harold (2000) Alice Walker's the Color Purple Chelsea House Philadelphia p.98

49
indeed fascinated and inspired by Shug‘s apparition, seeing her like ―she look so stylish it like
the trees all around the house draw themself up for a better look‖139
Even if Celie tak es care of Albert‘s children as if she was their real mother, she never
succeeds to love them: ―Everybody say how good I is to Mr. _____ children. I be good to them.
But I don‘t feel nothing for them. Patting Harpo back not even like patting a dog. It more like
patting another piece of wood. Not a living tree, but a table, a chifferobe. Anyhow, they don‘t
love me neither, no matter how good I is.‖140 She is treated as an outsider that has no authority
upon them: ―Mr.__ children all bright but they mean. They say Celie, I want dis. Celie, I want
dat. Our Mama let us have it‖141 . In the case of Harpo, the oldest son, the aggressive and
patriarchal attitude towards Celie is inherited and also imitated from her father‘s sexist mentality
and behavior. His first con tact with Celie happens in her wedding day, when he manifests his
hate for the new mother by attacking her and injuring her head with a rock: ―His mama died in
his arms and he don‘t want to hear nothing bout no new one‖142 He considers women inferior
and hi s only wish is to subjugate Sofia by beating her, like his father does with Celie: ―Well how
you spect to make her mind? Wives is like children. You have to let‘em know who got the upper
hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating.‖143 Even i f they don‘t have a close
relation, Harpo feels more comfortable to tell Celie about his lover and their couple issues than
to his father. Being used to violence her whole life, Celie perceives it as a normal behavior in a
marriage and advises Harpo, like Albert did, to beat his wife if he wants to make her ―mind‖.
Being aware of her error, Celie asks Sofia for forgiveness and has her revenge by befriending
Sofia and giving her support to the couple. Celie admits that her act was caused by jealousy
because Sofia had everything she lacked: a marriage based on love, the presence and support of
her sisters, the strength and the courage to speak up and defend against men‘s oppression. In
response, Sofia compares Celie with her mother: ―She say, To tell the truth , you remind me of
my mama. She under my daddy thumb. Naw, she under my daddy foot. Anything he say, goes.
She never say nothing back. She never stand up for herself‖144 Celie possesses such a strong

139Walker, Alice (1983) The Color Purple Washington Square Press published by Pocket Books New York p.50
140Ibid p. 37
141 Ibid p.25
142 Ibid p.21
143 Ibid p.42
144 Ibid.46

50
passivity and capacity of resignation that she can‘t be m ad at somebody. Unlike Sofia‘s intrusive
nature, Celie is more peaceful and humble, being guided by her faith: ―I think. I can‘t even
remember the last time I felt mad, I say. I used to git mad at my mammy cause she put a lot of
work on me. Then I see how sick she is. Couldn‘t stay mad at her. Couldn‘t be mad at my daddy
cause he my daddy. Bible say, Honor father and mother no matter what‖145
Nevertheless, when Celie discovers that Mr.__ has kept the letters from Nettie hidden in
his trunk all this time repre sents the moment that releases all her anger against him and which
marks her transition from a passive character to an active one. With Shug‘s support, Celie
succeeds to abandon her husband and start a new life in Memphis. Her sewing talent becomes a
succe ssful business, which helps Celie make her own living and change her status from a
domestic woman, to an independent and triumphant one. As a consequence of the chain of
confessions and reproaches that startle Albert, he starts insulting and discouraging C elie one
more time by saying that ―Nothing up North for nobody like you. Shug got talent, he say. She
can sing. She got spunk, he say. She can talk to anybody. Shug got looks, he say. She can stand
up and be notice. But what you got? You ugly. You skinny. You shape funny. You too scared to
open your mouth to people. All you fit to do in Memphis is be Shug‘s maid. Take out her slop –
jar and maybe cook her food. You not that good a cook either. And this house ain‘t been clean
good since my first wife died. And nobody crazy or backward enough to want to marry you,
neither.‖146 Albert manifests again his mentality based on gender discrimination, associating the
fact of being a woman and black with having no worth: ―Look at you. You black, you pore, you
ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all‖147 After such a long time of being
subjugated and treated as a slave, Celie has the courage to fight him back: ―I‘m pore, I‘m black, I
may be ugly and can‘t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I‘m here. ‖148 The news that
confirms that her sister is alive helps Celie to be strong and confident that she will be reunited
with her children and Nettie one day. Her spiritual state also improves when she finds out that
her children are not the product of incest, because her Pa was actually her stepfather. After many
years of not seeing each other, Celie has the courage to face her past and meet Alphonso again,
aiming to learn the truth about her real father. The series of events that change Celie‘s fate are

145Ibid p.47
146Ibid p. 186
147Ibid p.187
148Ibid p.187

51
culmi nated by the information that Alphonso passed out and by her unexpected inheritance of the
house and the store that belonged to her real father. Albert changes a lot since his wife has left
him, undertaking all her household duties and becoming more respon sible. Therefore their
situation illustrates a shift of the roles in a marriage. Celie begins a new life based on harmony
and reconciliation, because she forgives her husband, with whom she starts a nice friendship;
moreover she has the chance to reunite w ith Nettie and to meet her lost children, Adam and
Olivia and Adam‘s lover, Tashi.
Celie embodies one of the prototypes corresponding to the black women of the 20th
century: a woman that is humiliated, beaten, sexually abused at an early age, who responds to
male oppression through silence and submissive behavior; a woman that conforms to her social
status and does her best in accomplishing the household duties. Celie‘s situation, though, marks a
change in the continuous cycle of marriages based on patriarc hal power. She proves that women
are not worthless just because men say that, but that they are capable of being independent and
succeeding in life thanks to their own skills and creativity.
III.2 Shug Avery
Shug Avery‘s name is revealed before she actually shows up in the novel, because Mr.__
loses her picture and it reaches Celie. Shug, who is also called Queen Honey Bee, is a famous
blues singer who has a relationship with Mr.__, but who is most of the time awa y from him,
because she travels a lot. She is totally opposed to Celie because, on the one hand, she is
beautiful, elegant, sensual and extravagant ―dress in furs all the time. Silk and satin too, and hats
made out of gold‖149 , qualities that highlight her in front of the men and women as well; on the
other hand, she is a strong woman, a free spirit who enjoys every pleasure of the life and who
knows how to use her skills in order to control men‘s minds. Her most important trump is her
sexuality and she know s very well how to play the role of the temptation. Her sickness represents
the circumstance that introduces her in Celie‘s life. Albert brings her home, in order to be
attended by Celie. Waiting for this moment her entire life, Celie pays attention with e xcitement
to every Shug‘s features and details of her outfit: ―she dress to kill. She got on a red wool dress
and chestful of black beads. A shiny black hat with what look like chick in hawk feathers curve

149Ibid p.104

52
down side one cheek, and she carrying a little sna ke skinbag, match her shoes.(…) Under all that
powder her face black as Harpo. She got a long pointed nose and big fleshy mouth. Lips look
like black plum. Eyes big, glossy. Feverish. And mean‖150 The relationship between the two
women starts in a negative way because Shug is very scornful at first and she insults Celie by
calling her ―ugly‖. She al so shows a pretentious and even bossy attitude by being discontent by
the breakfast options: ―Is that all? What about orange juice, grapefruit, strawberries and c ream.
Tea. (…) I don‘t want none of your damn food, she say. Just gimme a cup of coffee and hand me
my cigarettes.‖151 Even if Celie was stunned by her physical appearance and attracted by her
naked body, she doesn‘t match Shug Avery‘s external beauty with an interior beauty. Shug is
perceived as being ―more evil than my mama‖152 or ―weak as a kitten‖153 , but having the mouth
like a ―pack with claws‖154 . Shug leaves a bad impression to the religious members of the
community too. In their view, she embodies the image of the woman who is ―a strumpet in short
skirts, smoking cigarettes, drinking gin. Singing for money and taking other women mens. Talk
bout slut, hussy, heifer and streetcleaner.‖155 She is also believed to have ―some kind of nasty
woman disease‖156 Mr.__‘s father has also a bad opinion regarding the singer, being the first to
oppose to an eventual marriage. The fact that she is wasteful, comes from a degraded family and
has herself a chaotic life by being always on the road, having children with differ ent men and
leaving them in the care of her mother shape a negative image in the eyes of Albert‘s dad.
Celie discovers a masculine side at Shug, when she appreciates Sofia‘s beauty: ―Shug
say, Girl, you look like a good time, you do. That when I notice how Shug talk and act
sometimes like a man. Men say stuff like that to women, Girl, you look like a good time. Women
always talk bout hair and health. How many babies living or dead, or got teef. Not bout how
some woman they hugging on look like a good time.‖157
Shug plays a significant role in Celie‘s evolution because she reveals her, step by step,
pieces of her knowledge and experience; she tries to resolve Celie‘s timidity by making her

150Ibid p.50
151Ibid p.55
152Ibid p.51
153Ibid p.53
154Ibid
155Ibid p.48 -49
156Ibid p.48
157Ibid p.82

53
aware of her beauty and of her sexuality; beside helping and defending her from Albert‘s
violence, Shug inspires Celie through her strong character. The tie that is taking shape between
them gets stronger day by day. When Shug was sick and nobody accepted to take care of her,
Celie represented her salvation. Celie had not hesitated to give her help, even if Shug was her
husband‘s lover and offended her from the first moment. Thus Shug discovers a pure generosity
through Celie and tries to reward her by taki ng her at Harpo‘s juke joint as a spectator, whom she
dedicates a song ―Miss Celie‘s song‖158 She even angers Albert, by overriding his conception
that ―wives don‘t go to places like that‖159 When Shug Avery finds out that Mr.__ beats Celie,
she decides to d elay her decision of leaving, in order to protect Celie.
Being an aging woman that has played the role of the temptress all her life, Shug still has
the need of seducing males and is afraid of losing her ability.160 Therefore she comes home with
her new hus band, Grady, fact that affects both Celie and Albert. Although she has certain
feelings for Celie and loves Albert as a sex partner, Shug is an independent woman that enjoys
her seductive role, which covers, actually, her entire lifestyle. From this point of view, Shug and
Celie are completely antithetic. While Celie is damaged after so many experiences of sexual
abuse, Shug perceives sex as a fundamental necessity. Shug confesses Celie that she felt the lack
of affection of her mother since childhood and, for this reason she took refuge in men‘s arms,
firstly of her father and then of Albert: ―One thing my mama hated me for was how much I love
to fuck, she say. She never love to do nothing had anything to do with touching nobody, she say.
I try to kiss her, she turn her mouth away. Say, Cut that out Lillie, she say. Lillie Shug‘s real
name. She just so sweet they call her Shug. My daddy love me to kiss and hug him, but she
didn‘t like the looks of that. So when I met Albert, and once I got in his arms, nothi ng could git
me out.‖161 Later on, while the relationship between Celie and Shug Avery progresses, the latter
betrays Celie‘s love one more time by dating a new man. Being a lot much younger than her,
Shug is aware that their relationship won‘t last long an d she asks Celie to allow her to spend six

158Ibid p.75
159Ibid p.74
160Szenti, Teodora (2004) NETWORKS OF FEMININE SUPPORT IN AFRICAN AMERICAN NOVELS Iasi p.28
161Walker, Alice. The Color Purple Washington Square Press published by Pocket Books New York 1983 p.115

54
months with her lover, her last time with a man: ―Just six months to have my last fling. I got to
have it Celie. I‘m too weak a woman not to.‖162
Shug Avery also represents a turning point for Squeak/ Mary Agnes, Ha rpo‘s actual
lover, because she helps her to become a singer. Being young, inexperienced and having not
enough self -confidence, Squeak is afraid to perform in front of a public. Shug tries to advise and
encourage her, by even suggesting her that her voice will be appreciated thanks to its sexual
connotation: ―I tell you something else, Shug say to Mary Agnes, listening to you sing, folks git
to thinking bout a good screw.(…) What, too shamefaced to put singing and dancing and fucking
together? She laugh. Th at‘s the reason they call what us sing the devil‘s music. Devils love to
fuck. Listen, she say, Let‘s go sing one night at Harpo place. Be like old times forme. And if I
bring you before the crowd, they better listen with respect. Niggers don‘t know how to act, but if
you git through the first half of one song, you got‘em‖163
Shug Avery represents the factor that releases Celie‘s anger, but also the one who calms
her down. She is the one who discovers that Albert hided Nettie‘s letters by finding the most
recent one in his pocket. Because Nettie is the person who she most loves in the world, this
information leads to the climax of Celie‘s fury. Her only wish is to revenge on her husband by
killing him and she even has an attempt, but Shug appears just in time to stop her and make her
reconsider. Shug also appeals to Celie‘s love for Nettie and her, in order to banish her negative
impulses: ―How I‘m gon keep from killing him, I say. Don‘t kill, she say. Nettie be coming
home before long. Don‘t make her have to look at you like us look at Sofia. (…) Me, Celie, think
about me a little bit. Miss Celie, if you kill Albert, Grady be all I got left. I can‘t even stand the
thought of that.‖164 In a moment of vulnerability, Shug Avery confesses Celie about her love
story with Albert. She also passed through difficult moments because she had to confront with
Albert‘s parents‘ hostility. Although they loved each other and had three children together,
Albert‘s dad disapproved their relationship by assuming that his son was n ot the father of Shug‘s
children. The thing that affected Shug the most though, was Albert‘s weak nature. Even if he
tried to defend his relationship, his family‘s strong position against his lover was stronger.
Consequently, he married Annie Julia, Harpo‘ s mother, but his relationship with Shug continued.

162Ibid p.220
163Walker, Alice. The Color Purple Washington Square Press published by Pocket Books New York 1983 p.111
164Ibid p.134 -135

55
Although Shug was a self -governing woman that didn‘t like to obey the norms of a marriage, she
preferred, for love and ambition, to let the other women know that Albert belonged to her.
Therefore, she exp resses her regret to Celie for treating her as ―a servant‖165 in the beginning,
just because she was jealous on her.
When Shug Avery goes to Memphis with Celie, Mary Agnes and Grady, she has the
opportunity to help them in building up a new life. First of all, Celie has the chance to see
another side of Shug. Beside her well -known extravagance and taste for beauty, which were
noticeable in the design of her house or in the exquisite fabrics that she used, Shug proves to be a
good cook too. She also possesse s a very creative mind and a strong determination, expressed
through the fact that she projects the house of her dreams, which is round, pink and surrounded
by trees and she is planning to have it in spite of any discouragement. Moreover, she is the one
coming with the idea of turning Celie‘s talent for sewing into a business. While Celie is not
convinced by the idea of creating pants, Shug encourages her by telling her that one time she
wore a pair of pants and Mr.__ found her very attractive. Shug has eco nomical skills too,
because she knows how to make a good profit from this business: ―Let‘s us put a few
advertisements in the paper, she say. And let‘s us raise your prices a hefty notch. And let‘s us
just go ahead and give you this diningroom for your fac tory and git you some more women in
here to cut and sew, while you sit back and design.‖166 The first perfect pair of pants that Celie
makes is reserved for Shug, as a love and gratitude gift. Shug also helps Mary Agnes in
following her singing career. The singer‘s presence in Celie‘s and Albert‘s life is a source of
harmony because their common love for her makes them reconcile.
III.3 Sofia Butler
Sofia Butler illustrates the image of the atypical African -American woman, because she
rejects the patriarchal norms and does not hesitate to fight back any type of discrimination. Like
Shug Avery, she belongs to the same category of women who prefer to control men instead of
being controlled. Though, even if both of them are strong in spirit, while Shug prefers to use her
brightness, Sofia appeals to her physical strength in order to handle men.

165Ibid p.117
166Ibid p.192

56
Sofia joins Mr.__‘s family, by being Harpo‘s lover and the mother of his first child. The
first meeting between Sofia and his father -in-law marks the recurrence of the hist ory of the
family, because things happen likewise. Sofia is humiliated and disliked by Albert, in the same
way Shug was disapproved by Albert‘s father: ―Young womens no good these days, he say. Got
they legs open to every Tom, Dick and Harry. (…) Mr. _____ say, No need to think I‘m gon let
my boy marry you just cause you in the family way. He young and limited. Pretty gal like you
could put any thing over on him. (…) Your daddy done throwed you out. Ready to live in the
street I guess.‖167 The situations are similar because Harpo is as weak as his father was: ―Harpo
look at his daddy like he never seen him before. But he don‘t say nothing.‖168 Even if she is
affected by the mean comments, Sofia stays calm and responds with dignity. Initiall y, none of
the men has the courage to defend his relationship and to confront his father. Although, while
Albert still regrets the decision of not marrying the woman he loved, Harpo succeeds to marry
Sofia.
Through Sofia‘s character, Alice Walker illustrat es the reality and the consequences of
the racial oppression of the 20th century. The first thing that Harpo likes about Sofia is the fact
she is ―pretty‖ and ―bright‖. Thus color represents a serious matter in choosing a person, the
physical beauty being directly associated with the brightness of the skin color. Sofia gets a
different description from Celie, who compares her with Harpo: ―She bout seven or eight months
pregnant, bout to bust out her dress. Harpo so black he think she bright, but she ain‘t t hat bright.
Clear medium brown skin, gleam on it like on good furniture. Hair notty but a lot of it, tied up on
her head in a mass of plaits. She not quite as tall as Harpo but much bigger, and strong and ruddy
looking, like her mama brought her upon pork. ‖ Being pregnant before marriage, Sofia is already
labeled as a tramp by Mr.__, who doubts about the child‘s paternity. Eventually, regardless the
opposition of both fathers, Sofia and Harpo succeed to marry and start a new life together. Even
if they love each other, they can‘t get along well because, while Sofia likes to be independent,
not to be imposed to do something, Harpo wants to have a marriage similar to his father‘s. Being
taught by his dad ―to let‘em know who got the upper hand‖169 Harpo is willi ng to prove that he
is not weak, but worthy to be considered a real man. In comparison with Celie, who has a

167Ibid p.38
168Ibid p.38
169Ibid p.42

57
conformist attitude and prefers to keep silence, Sofia has grown up as a non -conformist, who
prefers to fight back, knowing how to defend herself v ery well. This attitude bothers Harpo in
such a way that he becomes obsessed by the idea of making Sofia ―mind‖: ―I tell her one thing,
she do another. Never do what I say. Always backtalk.‖170 Firstly, taking his father‘s and Celie‘s
advice, Harpo tries to beat her. Because Sofia is much bigger and stronger than Harpo, he ends
up by being beaten by her. When Sofia finds out that Celie suggested her husband to beat her,
she doesn‘t hesitate to reproach Celie. While Celie apologizes to her for being jealous o f her
strong attitude, Sofia confesses that she was forced to fight all her life in order to survive
oppression, coming from her own family, firstly, and secondly, from society: ―All my life I had
to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothe rs. I had to fight my cousins and my
uncles. A girl child ain‘t safe in a family of men. But I never thought I‘d have to fight in my own
house. She let out her breath. I loves Harpo, she say. God knows I do. But I‘ll kill him dead
before I let him beat me. ‖171 Beside having a fierce character, Sofia also formed a strong bond
with her six sisters in order to combat men‘s superiority: ―All the girls big and strong like me.
Boys big and strong too, but all the girls stick together.‖172 The conversation between C elie and
Sofia ends up with a reconciliation, which is sealed by working together on the quilt.
In order to become as big as his wife and to dominate her, Harpo begins to eat very much.
Celie intends to save their marriage by trying to make Harpo aware of his wife‘s qualities.
Instead, he still wants to tame and control Sofia, on the principle that, being his wife, he has the
right to do it: ―That don‘t mean you got to keep on bothering her, I say. Sofia love you, she a
good wife. Good to the children and g ood looking. Hardworking. Godfearing and clean. I don‘t
know what more you want.‖173 Getting sick of Harpo‘s attempts to beat her and sleep with her,
Sofia decides to leave him and move with her children at one of her sisters, Odessa.
In their marriage, Har po and Sofia had shifted roles, because Sofia preferred to work
outside, to repair the roof of the house, while her husband could take care of the children. In the
same time, in contrast with the common families, where men had the last word in the house, i n
their marriage, Harpo was too weak to command Sofia.

170Ibid p.42
171Ibid p.46
172Ibid p.47
173Ibid p.65

58
Unlike Celie, who rejects the feeling of anger, Sofia is the type of woman who releases
her fury easily when she is provoked. The episodes when she hits Squeak for insulting her, or
when she hits the m ayor‘s wife for humiliating her, are strong proofs that she can‘t control her
impulses. Although Miss Millie, the mayor‘s wife, just asked Sofia to be her maid because she
noticed her children‘ cleanness, Sofia interpreted this proposal as a way of racial oppression. In
those times, it was popular for black women to work as maids in the whites‘ houses, but Sofia
felt offended by this status. She ended up by being harshly beaten and imprisoned, forced to
work in the prison laundry, an unhealthy and inhospita ble environment. Barely on these
conditions had she accepted to conform to the rules: ―Everytime they ast me to do something,
Miss Celie, I act like I‘m you. I jump right up and do just what they say.‖174 Sofia‘s harsh life in
prison leads to the forming of a real sisterhood including Celie, Shug Avery, Odessa and Mary
Agnes, who try to help Sofia somehow. Mary Agnes forgets about her differences with Sofia and
takes care of Sofia‘s children alongside Harpo; moreover she attempts to get Sofia out of prison
with a reasoned plan, but she ends up by being raped by the warden, who was her own uncle.
The plan works though, because Sofia is taken out of jail and becomes Miz Millie‘s maid.
Although she is not beaten, Sofia feels like a slave in the whites‘ house. Sh e has to live in a small
store room, she has many duties and she is allowed to see her children once a year. By joining
the mayor‘s family as a maid, Sofia is forced to embody the mammy role that she hated so much.
While mammies were considered to be kind and to like children, Sofia feels like the most ill –
suited for this role because she feels nothing for those kids. Instead, Eleanor Jane, the mayor‘s
daughter gets attached to Sofia and looks for her when she is set free and goes back home.
Although Sofia manifests as being indifferent to Eleanor Jane, she has to admit that has certain
feelings for the white girl, because she was the only one who treated her well in the mayor‘s
house.175
While Sofia was strong enough to oppose to gender oppression, by disobey ing, beating
and leaving her husband, the prison experience made her aware of the fact that she is not strong
enough to fight back the racial oppression. One of the moments that remind her that she is
colored and inferior to white people is the one when Mi z Millie gives her a ride to visit her
family on Christmas. Although Sofia was the one who sat on the front seat the whole time and

174Ibid p. 88
175Bloom, Harold (2000) Alice Walker's the Color Purple Chelsea House Philadelphia p.110

59
gave her driving lessons, when her husband refused to teach her, Miz Millie didn‘t allow her sit
next to her because of her racist mentality: ―Look where you sitting (…) Have you ever seen a
white person and a colored sitting side by side in a car, when one of ‘em wasn‘t showing the
other one how to drive it or clean it?‖176
Sofia is isolated from the world and separated from her family and this punishment has
bad consequences upon her personality. Even if she becomes more temperate and obedient, Sofia
turns into a wreck of the old Sofia: vulnerable, frighten, resigned and silent: ―Everybody look at
her like they surprise she ther e. It like a voice speaking from the grave‖ The reconciliation with
Harpo and her family, the support of her sisters and friends and the working place that Celie
gives her in her dry goods store help Sofia to be herself again. In her turn, she takes care of Mary
Agnes‘s child and encourages her to follow her singing career. Similarly to Celie, Sofia evolves
as a black woman by surpassing many obstacles in life. In the end, both of them become
independent women, leaving behind their status of black mammy.
III.4 Nettie
Nettie is Celie‘s little sister and the person with whom Celie has the strongest bond. She
belongs to the same category of strong women, as Shug and Sofia, but she follows another path.
She is always compared with Celie by their stepfather, Net tie being always the one who was the
prettiest, the most intelligent, and the most important in Alphonso‘s eyes. Being still a child,
Nettie is not even aware of Celie‘s abuse and protection from the danger represented by their
stepfather. The girls have a special bond because they don‘t have anything left instead of their
love for each other. After Celie marries Mr.__, Nettie runs away from home, to live with her
sister. When Celie is removed from school, Nettie tries everything in order to make her
stepfa ther reconsider: ―But Pa, Nettie say, crying, Celie smart too. Even Miss Beasley says. (…)
But Nettie never give up. Next thing I know Miss Beasley at our house trying to talk to Pa. She
say long as she been a teacher she never know nobody want to learn ba d as Nettie and me.‖177
Because her previous attempts fail, Nettie still tries to help her sister by giving herself spelling
lessons and other knowledge to Celie. Nettie is perceived as a ―good teacher‖178 by her sister,

176Walker, Alice (1983) The Color Purple Washington Square Press published by Pocket Books New York p.101 -102
177Ibid p.19 -20
178Ibid p.25

60
who is proud of Nettie‘s patience, ex ertion and interest in studying and teaching. Noticing her
sister‘s weak character and the injustices she suffers, Nettie strongly advises her to fight against
the oppression. Because of Mr.__ harassment, Nettie has to leave, being separated once more
from her sister. On her way to town she succeeds to escape from Albert‘s raping attempt,
releasing his hate and following revenge regarding her letters.
Nettie joins a missionary group, who happens to be formed by Samuel and Corrine, the
stepparents of Celie‘ s children. Flying to Africa for missionary work, Nettie has the opportunity
to take contact with the roots of the African -American people, to teach them and to witness their
rituals. In the same time, she befriends Samuel and Corrine and gets attached to their children,
later on learning that they were her nephews. Likewise Celie, Nettie writes in order to feel alive:
―Anyway, when I don‘t write to you I feel as bad as I do when I don‘t pray, locked up in myself
and choking on my own heart. I am so lonely, Celie.‖179 Even if she knows that her letters don‘t
reach Celie, she keeps writing to her sister about her experience in Africa. Regarding the writing
style, Nettie‘s letters are different from her sister‘s. Nettie writes in a more formal and accurate
language and her letters move from a personal form to a social and political one. In the Olinka
village, Nettie has to confront with different ideologies and distrust from the natives, but from
Corrine too. Being unmarried, she is perceived as having no value by the Olinka people, who
believe that a woman is something only through her husband. She notices, therefore, a sexist
mentality and certain similarities between the way in which whites discriminate blacks in
America and the way in which the Olinka men tr eat their women. "I think Africans are very
much like white people back home," Nettie writes, "in that they think they are the center of the
universe and that everything that is done is done for them."180 The fact that she resembles
Celie‘s children, Adam and Olivia, make people think that she is their real mother. Even Corrine
begins to doubt about her sincerity and tries to keep Nettie away from her husband, believing
that they had a relationship in the past and the children were theirs. After Corrine get s sick and
dies, Samuel and Nettie really start a relationship. The industrialization process leads to the
destruction of the village and of the plantations, leaving the Africans with no chances of survival.
Nettie is strongly disappointed by the white roa dbuilders‘ deception and cruelty in destroying a
nation, but also by the failure of their Christian mission. In order to escape from an ulterior

179Ibid p.122
180Bloom, Harold (2000) Alice Walker's the Color Purple Chelsea House Philadelphia p.102

61
death, Nettie returns home with Samuel, the children and Tashi, Adam‘s wife. On Fourth of July,
after so many y ears of alienation, Nettie and Celie finally meet and reunite with the whole
family.
Similarly to her sister, Nettie gets through an evolution process, gaining a lot of
knowledge about the world and not only. Thanks to what she saw and learned during her
missionary trip, Nettie improves her status, changing ―from the backward Georgia girl to a
knowledgeable woman with vastly more experience than Celie.‖181

181 http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/34317/2/11%20chapter%204.pdf

62
Conclusion
This paper is meant to bring into discussion global issues, like racism, sexism and
violence , having as a reference Alice Walker‘s novel, The Color Purple . Just the fact that the
author was the first black woman ever awarded for fiction, thanks to this novel, represents a
strong reason for which it should be read and investigated. The Pulitzer Prize and The National
Book award embodies women‘s victory in literature, which was dominated, till that time, only by
male writers. Therefore, Alice Walker and all her female predecessors were brave enough to
choose a long and difficult path, in order to succeed in their careers. Alice Walker differentiated
herself through her non -conformist mentality and through her courage in approaching topics that
were perceived as taboo at that time. More than that, she shocked the audience by introducing
females as main characters and by depicting the events from a womanist perspective, when the
black literature was dominated by the image of men. This daring attracted many supporters on
her side, but it also subjected the author to a harsh critique, mostl y from the male reviewers; they
felt offended by the way in which Alice Walker portrayed men, but also by the roles shift
between men and women.
I decided to study the African -American woman in Walker‘s novel, in order to highlight
aspects that could raise empathy and make readers view everythi ng from a different perspective
they were used to, through the eyes of a black woman. As I mentioned above, the issues
encountered in the novel are present all over the world, and they still turn numerous women into
victims. What Alice Walker tried to expose was the fact that African -American women had a
crueler fate, being sentenced twice by the patriarchal power, for being women and for being
black as well . In this respect, I tried to discover what hid behind the stereotypical masks placed
on every female character and to reveal the fears and struggles they faced because of the racial
and gender discrimination. In order to better understand and make a comple x analysis of the
black female‘s figure, I appealed to several historical sources that provided me with very useful
tools for that. I intended to view how the image of the Negro woman evolved from the slavery
times till the twentieth century, period in whi ch the blacks‘ only concern was the fight for
survival. I laid stress on the connection between African -Americans and th eir ancestors, because
the knowledge about their roots and original culture were essential in the process of
understanding of their iden tity and of the conservation of their free spirit.

63
Beside the main sources, consisting in the novel The Color Purple and the collection of
essays In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens by Alice Walker, I also used historical sources,
articles and pieces from ce rtain interviews. Through the first chapter , I assured the historical
background of the apparition and evolution of the African -American nation. Firstly I focused on
racial oppression during slavery , which decimated thousands of slaves and left the survivors with
traumatic memories. Secondly I closely depicted how the racial oppression looked like after the
abolition of slavery. Thirdly I moved to gender oppression, by exploring the black woman‘s
condition under a double discrimination. In order to better illustrate the Negro women‘s features,
I drew a comparison between them and the white women and I classified them according to the
stereotypes that depicted their look. I dedicated a whole subchapter to the study of the African
culture described in the novel, for a more transparent image of the old African customs and rites.
The second chapter was meant to discover the connec tion between Alice Walker‘s
biography and the plot , or the characters of the novel. As Walker admitted in an inter view, her
intention was to find inspiration in stories about people from her family and include them in her
novel , in order to feel more close to them.
The third chapter had the main role, that of portraying the most important female
characters of The Col or Purple : Celie, Shug Avery, Sofia Butler and Nettie. I chose these
characters because they present different sides of the African -American woman. In the same
time, they are complex characters that pass through several difficulties, that evolve and succee d
to find their identities, everything through love and feminist support. Therefore, as the quilt is
made by different pieces of material sewed together , in the same way, the African -American
woman is a complex character that embodies different identities and who deserves to be listened
to.
To conclude, I can say that African -American women represent a broad topic that covers
several issues which will continue to be discussed about. I deliberately exposed many of the
violent and painful aspects from the black women‘s lives, in order to answer the question: would
have been worth it to have remained silent?

64
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