The Color
Purple Narrative Style
(First Person Narrative)
"I don't say nothing. I think bout Nettie, dead.
She fight, she run away. What good it do? I don't fight, I stay where I'm told.
But I'm alive."
(Walker, Alice; Part 1, pg. 29; The Color Purple)
The novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker is written
in the first person narrative style. This epistolary explores self-discovery
and through the characters eyes as she faces hardships, struggles and achieve
goals through inspiration. This novel written in the first person gives the
reader the feeling of having accessed another person’s mind and the ability to
see the intimate side with no detail hidden. This novel comes across as
different from the traditional I-story as it narrates the story in between
situations where the writer of the letters doesn’t necessarily know the outcome
of any action. Celie who is the narrator and writer of these letters also creates
a self-reflecting and confessionary aspect by using the first person narrative
style. Walker’s chosen narrator shows that all people, including uneducated,
poor, victimized black women have an important story to tell.
The first half of the book showcases letters by Celie
addressed to God talking about things in her life and that of people around
her. This is written from her point of view. The second half of the book
comprises of the letters exchanged between Nettie and Celie. This half shows
the difference in language, grammar and writing styles of both the women and
their educational backgrounds and circumstances they had to face. Celie lack of education shows in her poor
spellings and grammar. Nettie on the other hand is an educated woman with a
strong voice. She writes about more complex things like women’s rights, civil
rights, politics, religion etc. in a grammatically correct manner. Yet the
stories both have to tell are powerful and interesting. Celie writes to God
because she isn’t allowed to express herself to anybody.
Walker’s use of God helps her be expressive and open as
no one else is actually reading these letters. Celie initially starts writing to
God to seek for and request answers to why she is the recipient of all the violence
she faces. She then abandons this style of narrative and opts for simple
narrative that isn’t directed towards her or her inner contemplations but
rather the story about people around her and all that they face. Walker makes sure that the reader is involved
by using the interactive tacts she uses in The Color Purple. Due to the dialect
Walker amalgamates into her novel, the reader is required to figure out the
meaning of certain phrases and must also work out meanings in between lines to
get the full idea and intent of writing this way. The use of dialect also makes
the book full of character and colorful.
As this is book is written in a first person form we
can clearly see the change and growth in the narrators character and maturity. The
difference in approach and importance given to situations especially that of
rape differs from the first few to the later letters and the maturity can be
clearly observed.
Walker chooses to write through black vernacular English
and the poor spelling and grammar throughout the letter enables the reader to
pay more attention to what Celie is saying and slows down the pace of the book.
This dialect form also helps in establishing a bond between the reader and the
narrator due to Celie’s naïve use of language. The shocking language in used in
the opening letter affects the readers and makes them want to give answers to
her pleas for help. Celie has shorter and blunter sentences in the initial few
letters and deals with more complex images later on in this novel. Nettie’s letters
add a different and a broader perspective to this book. Her letters also
challenge the status of Standard English and deal with important matters and
issue in society. Although the first person narrative stands to bring about a
great individuality to this novel , Celie’s language seems more ethnic with
great use of dialect and imagery unlike Nettie’s letters which seem rather
bland and is the traditional way of writing.
Fluidity is maintained in the narrator’s
self-expression by the novelist by creating and maintaining immediacy in the
narration of her work. She seems to portray an authentic- seeming voice of the
protagonist. Walker also attempts to
showcase duality and ambiguity in the achievement of the narrator’s self–
identity. This form of writing finally supports the novelist in being able to
reinvent forms or genres of writing such as autobiography and coming-of-age
novels.
References:
· http://www.bookrags.com/notes/tcp/quo.html
( Quote )
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