The narcissist society of America lead Alice walker to write
Color Purple. According to the historian Lasch, narcissism is one of the
cultural revolutions that have produced the worst features of collapsing
civilization. The worst part of this is alienation and trauma and also portrays
cultural poverty and how families pass on the pathologies of life to successive
generations. Now, looking at economical reasons for poverty, social and class explanations
for rape and, materialist explanations for the development and use of
patriarchy, walker has efficiently reduced explanations to their least common denominator.
Walker has explained rape in terms of men and how patriarchy is the cause for
black women's oppression and according to Alice walker, the solution to this
problem should be found outside the home .i.e. in terms of education and entrepreneurship.
Also the characters of color purple may be seen alive in today's world as many
of us can relate to the isolation and alienation from father, stepfather and
husband. Here her success is viewed only in terms of economical position that
she holds later according to the plot of ‘The color Purple’. The voice in the
novel is of a victim of rape. Walker has universalized the victimization. In
addition to this, Walker says that there is no escape but only transformation .i.e.
a transformation that duplicates relationship and the manner of petty bourgeoisie.
Like Fanon has mentioned in his work "in the wretched of the earth” Where
he says that the petty bourgeoisie do not want to fight the colonizer but claim
to take over the possessions of colonizer,
In Walker's novel, the colonizer is the men and the women
are victims. But at the end, the plot conforms fanon's ideology of the possessions
of oppressor being taken over by the oppressed in terms of home, money and business.
Apart from walker, there were many other feminist writers who have spoken about
this like, Susan brown miller in her book called ' Against Our Will', or Angela Davis who has
limited the explanation of rape to racial/gender explanation. One of the
reasons for the implication is proliferation and use of stereotypes of black
women that are same as the male-created image of "good" and
"bad" women. There are of course differences of opinion on this theme
but, the monolithic image always predominated for the black women.
In order to break away from the stereotypes and to find
their own historical subject, black women have explored it through making black
women as victims and through which they have also vented out their anger and
self-hatred. In some instances one can tell that black women have used counter
stereotypes, aesthetic and also political strategies that heightens attention
to the goals that have to be achieved. In case of walker, she had brought back the
old stereotypes in order to bring about awareness of certain issues.
Some might contradict the above statement and say that
walker has not used stereotypes but "metaphors" to point the irony in
what others see "the progress of the group". Example: we might look
at the character Sophia who is completely broken down because of her assertive
will. Through the collection of blacks and whites and men and women, her
destruction is achieved.
Another irony in the novel of treating female characters is
the concept of "motherhood". The irony is that every woman in the
novel has children but none have "nurturing" character, rather it is
seen as a burden and responsibility. One more noticeable fact the relationship
of men comes in the master/slave arrangement, be the master black or white, the
patriarchal ideology remains same which is united by sexism.
By using Bell Hooks one can see the sociology behind The
Color Purple. It is a classic "victim" melodrama where the oppressed are
both the targets and perpetuators of oppression. In the novel the "way
out" was to assume the style and values of bourgeoisie.
In 19th century, this became a resounding theme in feminist literature.
Mary Wollstonecraft wrote "Vindication of the Rights of Women" in
which she defends the changes that took place during her time in the society,
which included French revolution and a defence for it. The position of women
was what concerned her the most. Especially the emergent bourgeoisie class of
women or middle class. Completely distinguished from peasantry and aristocracy,
after English and French revolution, this class got the legitimacy. This was a
class whose status stemmed not from family origin but from accumulation of
capital. For men, this class offered mobility and a career for talent and for women;
it was a process of disaffection from productive work. While men could achieve
mobility through education, arts, literature, war etc, women were termed as
ladies of leisure or household workers. This was called as the plight of women
in male society Wollstonecraft’s model of tyranny. Wollstonecraft is also of
the view that widows are lucky as they will have the freedom to maximize their
reasoning capacity and their by their moral character. The absence of men is in
a way helpful as the wives and daughters will learn to live independently. She also
admires the neglected wife and neglected mother as they do not need men and
would have learned self-sufficiency.
Alice walker and Wollstonecraft view this type of women and
even in Walker's novel, the plot ends in revolutionary manner. Walker's and
Wollstonecraft's women are the product of their imagination of class
consciousness and hence both of them embrace bourgeois values. The oppression
that women face by the men sensitizes women about the agonies of poor and oppressed
male society. But as Wollstonecraft says, women cannot make a revolution as
there is no basis for a change in consciousness.
While Wellstone’s work gives us some insight into walker's
intentions, she seems to use the novel to search the answers for the dilemma of
modern urban petty bourgeois through the rural black past. Alice Walker also
cannot escape beyond the socials constraints, the ideology of submission. She
says, that this ideology is not defeat because it’s social realist. Walker says
that we need not fight and what we want would be within our midst only and we
would have kept ourselves from it through our mythologies of difference. She
says that we need a release from the bounds and constrictions of community that
has prevented women from finding their individual identities rather than a new
society itself. She offers narcissism as salvation. She also offers the philosophy
of self-indulgence, of gratification, of consumption and the philosophy of post
industrial society.
REFERENCE
1. Cynthia Hamilton Journal of
Black StudiesVol. 18, No. 3 (Mar., 1988), pp. 379-391
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.
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