The Color Purple                                           

Divya Swamy

1313226

          The choice of words and the construction of sentences  

The Color Purple, published in 1982 is a ground-breaking novel by Alice Walker. The book is a spiritual odyssey of its protagonist Celie in 20th century rural Georgia. The book cuts across a myriad of zones that few authors would dare to articulate about, such as; lesbianism, black feminism, the apparent misogynist  nature of afro American men, graphic fornicatory descriptions,  the subversion of certain religious beliefs and social stereotypes and sexual violence. Such an out spoken nature of the text’s content and narrative caused the text to be banned several times. This paper however is concerned with the language (afro American vernacular) used in the book, paying special attention to the choice of words and construction of sentences.

Largely the language of the text remains that of the vernacular afro American, which is the language spoken by the original African population that was transported to American. The African population initially settled in the south where they worked as slaves on plantations of the whites. It was only later that they migrated to the north due to industrialisation. The Color Purple is an epistolary novel, where Celie writes to God. Making the book a documentation of her life. The conversation that we read between God and Celie is written without adhering to any rules of grammar and the limited vocabulary of the narrating voice becomes evident. This is because Celie had been deprived of an education due to her early pregnancies as a result of the constant sexual abuse she faced at the hands of the her step- father and her early marriage to Mr___.  Nonetheless the writing style that Walker adopts becomes very central to the text itself as.

 Afro American English is known to have been a more simplified version of English used to communicate with slaves and the simplification made it seem like the language used in early childhood. Alice Walker makes good use of this attribute of Afro American English along with the illiteracy of Celie to bring out the innocence of Celie and her inability to understand what was been done to her. The book opens with Celie describing herself been raped by the man she assumes to be her father. “First he put his thing up against my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab my titties. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When it hurt I cry.” (Walker, pg. 3). This goes to show Celie’s innocence as she is unaware of the manners in which she was first defiled. The language used just adds to the pathos Walker wants to create.  The first letter starts with her telling God how she is fourteen years old. Then she goes on to say, ‘I am’, and strikes it out and writes ‘I have always been a good girls.’ (Walker, Pg, 3). In the 12^th letter she addresses God as G-O-D, where she talks about being socialised into Mr_____’s house hold. For her it was like getting into the fire from the frying pan. This letter marks the beginning her loveless marriage and indifferent parenting till Shug Avery would take her away to Memphis. As mentioned earlier she breaks down God into G-O-D in in order to show a temporary impersonal relationship with God for all the subjugations she was about to face. Nowhere in the text is the word pregnant used, instead Walker used “Big”, to reinforce a child’s understanding. The use of minimal words is also evident through throughout the text and most intense emotions or instances that steers the plot into a different direction are disclosed in the most rudimentary manner “A girl at church say you git big if you bleed every month. I don’t bleed no more.” (Walker, Pg 7) Celie chooses to let us know she is pregnant in this manner. Similarly Celie with the crudest construction of sentences and with a limited vocabulary tells us about all the relations she has ever known, “My daddy lynch. My mamma crazy. All my little half brothers and sisters no kin to me. My children not my sister and brother. Pa not pa.” ,(Walker, pg 160). Had the same sentiment of dejection and alienation been explained in a more grammatically refined manner with elaborations the same literary effect might have not been achieved. Walker works well with the power of silence, not everything is disclosed at once which allows the readers to make their own estimates and feel the rawness of the emotions expressed. 

In fact walker makes sure that the even the epitaph is in sync with the entire text. “Show me how to do like you. Show me how to do it.” By Stevie Wonders sets a tone for the linguistic of the text, for the constant conflict that Celie would have with her self-concept and her constant desire to be like Shug Avery.

The language in the text changes with Celie finds from Nettie that Mr____ kept hidden form her. Nettie’s language is refined and erudite than that of Celie.

In the Color Purple Walker uses language, with an effective choice of words as a political tool to subvert the hypocritical norms of society. A book way ahead of its time, the Color Purple today,  seemes to have serve its purpose.

references

the color purple, hartcourt brace jovanovinch inc 2004

feng chia journal of humanities and social sciences, pg 90-123, dec 2008