Nitya Isaacs
IIPSEng
1313278
How the epistolary novel, ‘The Colour
Purple’ refutes the dominant literary culture.
The
Colour Purple is a beautifully written classic novel by Alice Walker. This
novel touches upon many of the hardships that were endured by African-Americans
during the 20th century and revolves around the life of a young girl
and her journey to finding happiness and love. It depicts the harsh reality of
the situation the girl is in which is vividly expressed in the book in terms of
violence, sexual abuse etc. There are various elements and explicit content in
the novel that seem to render it as unacceptable and hence the novel has been
banned several times and is therefore considered controversial. On reading the
book it is very evident that the author does not censor or try to dull down the
measure of violence and abuse and this is one of the reasons why the novel ‘The
Colour Purple’ is seen as one that refutes the literary culture that is
prevalent.
This
novel comes under the genre of African-American literature. African-American
literature was literature that was produced by Americans that were of African
descent. As we look at history especially during the 20th century we
see how Africans were ill-treated and discriminated primarily based on the
colour of their skin. It was these racist attitudes that lead to the subjection
of the Black people. The very nature of the life the African-Americans endured
in terms of their struggle and ill-treatment led to the burning desire in some
of these people to voice out their feelings, to express what it was that they
personally experienced in their lives or to fictitiously portray a story that
depicts the hardships that the entire race universally faced. This is what drove many Black writers. As we
see in this novel as well, Alice Walker had a story to share she had a desire
to hit upon the sufferings of a black women in her day and age. Many Black writers began to write and show
that they were on power with American authors and that they had their own story
to share. In American society we also
see how the literature produced was also closely knit with the same power
dynamics that seemed to perpetrate racial discrimination. Alice Walker therefore on writing this novel seems to go
against the stereotype and therefore presents to us a raw touching story that
was so highly acclaimed that it is considered one the of the all-time ‘greats’
of literature.
Throughout
the story we see striking themes such as that of racism and sexism both of
which are very openly expressed and seem to form a sort of social setting to
the story. We also see how throughout the novel Alice Walker breaks the
traditional stereotype of men and women. She seems to paint a very different
picture and some of her characters are bold, confident and assertive regardless
of the gender stereotypes towards women. For example this is clearly portrayed
in the characters of Sofia and Shug Avery that both seem to display certain
strong characteristics. We also see the nature of Harpo, in being rather
insecure as a point that breaks the boundary of traditional gender roles. She
also brings out very strongly in her novel the idea of femininity, which is not
very commonly expressed and she also makes it a point through her writing to
bring out the subtle difference between what is sexuality and gender and the
complexity of both these terms.
Therefore
through all these various aspects it is evident to us that the novel ‘The
Colour Purple’ seems to refute the dominant literary culture and brings out
harsh aspects of truth in terms of the situation that Black women were placed
in. African-American literature has also been viewed as one that is used as a
tool in the struggle for Black liberation.
Citations:
etc.uss.edu/lit2go/African American literature
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