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

Character Analysis of Nettie- Suraj Suresh

     In the novel- ‘The Colour Purple’ by Alice Walker, the entire storyline revolves around setting and relationships. Though the story goes in-depth to create a picture of what goes on with Celie, the elder sister, there is a constant presence of her younger sister- Nettie that is felt throughout the novel. Nettie’s role is of prime importance because even though the sisters are forcefully separated in the early stages of the story, Celie continues to picture and think of her throughout. Both Celie and Nettie end up living fairly different lives, the former being holed up in a farm in Georgia while the latter travels to other parts of the world like Africa.

     Nettie, though younger than her sister, comes off as more confident, intelligent, intellectual and strong in terms of personality. She is more educated and often takes on the role of the elder sister in order to protect Celie. They share an extremely strong bond with both sacrificing and looking out for one another. After their step-father takes Celie out of school, Nettie tries to teach her everything she learns and she does so till the time they’re separated. Nettie is not as naive as her sister and stands her ground placing no man above her. This quality of hers may have been induced after seeing what had happened of her sister. She has a certain rebelliousness with innocence about her that is evident even after she becomes a grown woman.

     When Celie’s husband kicks Nettie out of his home after she resists his sexual advances, she is heartbroken and makes her sister a promise that she would keep writing to her and nothing would keep them apart. She keeps her word and writes numerous letters to her all in vain until many years after. She seeks refuge with Corrine, Samuel and the children and travels with them to West Africa and later England and this gives her exposure to the world outside what she had known. She does missionary work with them and lives amongst an African tribe. She spreads the word of good and is respected by the Africans. Here she realises that women are treated unequally there too. This makes her see how inequality among women is prevalent almost everywhere in the world. She mentions this to her sister in letters explaining how she is also looked down upon by the tribe as she is unmarried and single. Though she faces such instances, she does not care much for it and is content with her way of life. When Nettie leaves Africa, she leaves with a whole new perception of God. She does not look at it the same way as she did before. The tribesmen had shown her different ways of looking at things through nature and this shapes her overall idea of the supernatural. Nettie’s personality does not go through much change from beginning to end. Her sister is hardened by her experiences which applies to her too but not in such extreme forms. Even though she found out her letters were not reaching her sister, Nettie continued to write on. Her character shows extreme faith and also displays the theme of hope that is constantly prevalent with her and her sister no matter how hard the circumstance.

     Nettie’s character has faced a lot of criticism from many. Many found her role to be too minimum or unnecessary. Some felt that her character was of less significance because the author does not keep her role in for long after the beginning. Though it seems that Nettie is absent after the beginning stages of the book, it goes without mention that her character is of prime importance to Celie throughout. Her role is different from usual characters in novels and so is the way in which Alice Walker uses her character. Nettie is never really always present but her importance is definitely felt.

References:

Walker, Alice. Colour purple. Orlando: Harvest Book, 1982. Print.

Suraj Suresh-1313213

CIA III - The Color Purple

CIA III – THE COLOR PURPLE

Submitted To: Dr. Arya Aiyappan,

                        Assistant Professor,

                        Department of English,

                        Christ University

Submitted By: Oindrila Mukherjee,

                        1313263, II PSEng

WRITING STYLE OF THE NOVEL – THE COLOR PURPLE

An epistolary novel, The Color Purple by Alice Walker was initially not received in a positive manner. This was primarily because it went against the standard societal norms, exploring themes like the disruption of traditional gender roles, racism, patriarchy, sexual identity, etc. However, it may be said that it was Walker’s beautiful and unique style of writing that elevated her and her novel to the position of being the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize.

The novel comprises of 51 letters written by Celie to “God”, the rest are letters exchanged between Nettie and Celie. In this way, the novel is a double-voiced/dual narrative. All the letters are written in first person. A major part of the story unfolds through Celie’s letters which are addressed to God, probably out of isolation and despair.

The writing style of the novel refutes the prevailing literary culture and is characterized by spelling errors, sentence fragments, lack of subject – verb agreement, incorrect verb tenses, etc. The sentences are not grammatical and lack proper punctuation indicating Celie’s poor education. This is because Celie’s environment is characterized by racism, oppression and patriarchy. She gets married very early and this stops her from completing her education.

          In the novel, Celie uses eye dialect – she writes her sentences the way she speaks them – which results in numerous spelling mistakes. For e.g. she uses words like “tho” (though), “flue” (flu), “neumonia” (pneumonia), “orkestra” (orchestra) and “two berkulosis” (tuberculosis). The letters do not contain the date or time which makes it difficult for the reader to understand the time period during which the events take place.

Celie writes in her vernacular, what Walker calls Black Folk English instead of Standard English. Walker has Celie speak vernacular because she wants Celie to maintain her autonomy. The two women who attempt to teach Celie to talk properly believe in speaking white people’s language, but they fail to persuade Celie to do the same thing. Celie’s style of writing dialogues between two people has an effect of verisimilitude and vivid characterization on the reader.

After reading Celie’s letters to “God”, when the reader is introduced to the letters written by Nettie, a contrast in language, style, rhythm as well as in the subject matter can be noticed. Due to a difference in their individual life experiences, Nettie has a good command over her English and writes about a variety of topics such as slavery, women’s position in society, colonialism, and environmentalism.

In the first half of the novel, Celie’s letters are very short. She only mentions her difficulties in the shortest possible way and her letters touch upon topics very briefly. Celie’s letters focus only on what she does, hears, sees, and feels. She narrates the events that occur but fails to comment on them. Over time, her letters grow to include more complex themes and insights. After Nettie and Celie reconnect, Celie’s letters get longer and more detailed. She is happier in her life, and tends to express joy by writing more.¹ Her letters are more elaborate, expressive and embellished. Her vocabulary is increasing, her sentences are getting complicated and she develops an assertive tone. Now, she not only narrates events but also comments, argues and describes her feelings. However, the letters from Nettie are still read through Celie’s eyes.

Throughout the novel, what strikes the reader the most is Celie’s simplicity and naturalness in her way of writing. She pays a lot of attention to the oral sounds of words rather than their actual spellings which emphasizes the truth in her letters. The reader can feel the honesty and truth in Celie’s words while reading it. Her poor language is incredibly powerful and this power forces the reader to empathize with Celie’s situation.

She addresses all her letters to God saying “You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.”² There is an element of fear in this statement. She thinks that she is not supposed to confide in anybody but God and therefore does not emotionally connect to any other human being. She has faith in God which gives her the strength to carry on in spite of the tormenting misery she feels everyday.

Celie has a very low self-esteem and sense of self worth. She feels very valueless, unimportant and has little self-confidence. So, she turns to God. She also doesn’t sign any of her letters in the beginning. All her letters are very direct and private, like journal entries.

From the novel we learn that it is crucial to express one’s thoughts and feelings in order to develop a sense of self. Initially, Celie has a low self worth and cannot express herself through action or words. When Shug comes into her life, she learns that she can create her own narrative, a new interpretation of herself and her history that counters the interpretations forced upon her.³ Gradually, after constant interactions with Shug and after discovering Nettie’s letters, Celie realizes that she has the capability of creating her own powerful narrative.

Walker, through her novel tells her audience about the importance of words and speech to assert the self and stand up for oneself in order to stop oppression. However, sometimes, such opposition can also be dangerous. For e.g. when Sofia vigourously refuses Miss Millie’s offer to work as her maid, she ends up going to jail because of her use of words.

          On the whole, Walker’s style of writing in this book succeeds in pushing the reader to reflect on the plight of such women like Celie, Nettie, Sofia and Shug who were doubly cursed by being born as a member of the female sex in the Afro-American community. 

CITATIONS:

1.    The Color Purple Analysis. www.shmoop.com. 2008. Web. 27 August 2014.

2.    Alice Walker. The Color Purple. London, Phoenix, 2004. Print.

3.    The Color Purple – Themes, Motifs & Symbols. www.sparknotes.com. 2002. Web. 27 August 2014.

REFERENCES:

1.    Alice Walker. The Color Purple. London, Phoenix, 2004. Print.

2.    The Color Purple Analysis. www.shmoop.com. 2008. Web. 27 August 2014.

3.    The Color Purple – Themes, Motifs & Symbols. www.sparknotes.com. 2002. Web. 27 August 2014.

4.    Pi-Li Hsiao. “Language, Gender, and Power in The Color Purple: Theories and Approaches”. Feng Chia Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 17 (2008): 93-120. Print.

 

The Concept And Treatment Of God In The Novel The Color Purple- Adithya

The concept of god is prevalent throughout the novel The Color Purple and this idea or mental representation of god and his being as a dynamic or ever changing being is unambiguous from the prologue till the epilogue of the novel. This dynamic nature of god, exposed to the reader through the mindset of the several characters, is evident through their interactions with the superior supernatural being, especially reinforced in the communication between the character Celie and god. Letters are the medium of communication between the character Celie and god and it is clearly evident throughout the novel the God is the form of salvation for Celie. God and her communication with him, or “it” as the story progresses, enables Celie to maintain her sanctity and nurtures her mental well-being. Celie’s belief in god meanders in the course of the story but is reinstated through the wise words of Shug. Celie communicates with god, through writing letters, a habit influenced by the idle aggression of Alfonso. Celie chooses to write letters to as it is the only form of self expression allowed by Alfonso, who encourages this behavior to keep secret his wrong doings. She loses faith in the concept of god, viewing him as a “white man with a beard” degrading god to being a mere mortal, because she feels that god doesn’t listen to her and her troubles, like how the society treats her. The title of the novel, The Color Purple, is very significant in emphasizing on the role of god in the lives of the characters, especially Celie. The color purple, according to the bible, is the mixture of two different colors, blue and red. The color blue symbolizes law or commandment and the color red symbolizes war, blood and judgment. The color purple, hence means that Jesus Christ maintained the law and order, abolishing the evil, Satan and his heinous deeds, by shedding his blood on the cross in turn satisfying the judgment of god upon the imputed sins of his elect people. This shows Celie that there is hope and that she has to believe in the martyr who sacrificed his own life for the betterment of his loved ones. Hence god provides the understanding to Celie that no matter how much she suffers she should always be unbiased and true to herself and others. Celie’s letters to god and the way she wrote her letters gives us an insight into her personality. She used simple language and didn’t follow the rules of the English language, which shows us that she was uneducated but more importantly that she was authentic and truthful, she wasn’t fake and didn’t try to embellish things. She was simple and straight forward, as she said what she thought and felt. Celie’s personality changes as the story progresses and is very evident when comparing her initial letters to god and her final address. Celie’s last address to god is "Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God." Which portrays that Celie not only sees god in the nature but also in the people. This depicts a change in her thinking and her perspective about god and people further reinstating her higher reasoning and maturity that she possesses as the story progresses. Her letters to god and her understanding and image of god is different at different points of the novel. She learns to not perceive god as a mere mortal but rather as a supernatural, complex being whose decisions aren’t influenced by meager matters but rather always hold some significance. She re-imagines god or her view or opinion of god which shows Celie’s ability to make her own decisions, have her own opinions, and hence also symbolizes the transition of Celie to a strong independent woman. Through the letters that she has written Celie understands an important duty of a human being, which is to create one’s own story, one’s own world, through which one realizes that he or she holds the power and responsibility to change that world or criticize the world created by another or him or herself. References: 1. "Color Purple in Scripture - The color of royalty in the bible." Color Purple in Scripture - The color of royalty in the bible. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Aug. 2014. <http://dentonpbc.org/color_purple.htm>. 2. Walker, Alice. The Color purple. London: Women's Press, 1983. Print. Name: ADITHYA VENUGOPAL Roll Number: 1313254 Class: II-PSENG Semester: 1

Pearl Pereira

1313264

II PSEng

Analysis of the theme of Loss of Childhood and Adolescence in the book The Color Purple

‘But I don’t never git used to it. And now I feels sick every time I be the one to cook. My mama she fuss at me an look at me. She happy, cause he good to her now. But too sick to last long’

 Celie’s story is a transcription of her psychological and spiritual growth. Through the device of letter writing, Walker brings her audience into an intimate communication with Celie, the principal storyteller in the novel. The above quote has been taken from the first letter that our protagonist Celie writes to God. From the beginning of the book we see the theme of loss of childhood and adolescence hovering and this makes the reader reach out and feel towards Celie and her sister Netti.

 We learn that Celie is a young girl of fourteen years of age. From the beginning of the book we see that she feels like she lacks the apparatus for success and happiness and is an extremely downtrodden character. Surrounded by other poor, uneducated blacks, she sees nothing in her race to be particularly proud of.  She is constantly being subjected to abuse and told she is ugly, thus she’s always subjected to negative energy. She decides therefore that she can best ensure her survival by making herself silent and invisible. When her mother falls sick she is by default expected to take care of her younger siblings. She does this without any fuss as she has been growing up forced to believe that it was her duty. In a way she never really realized what it was to be a child. Her love is displayed through selfless sacrifices for her sister’s wellbeing. For the majority of her life, the protagonist’s only receives love from her sister and only gives love to her sister. At the age of fourteen she was constantly abuse to help her step father fulfill his sexual needs. Just at the tender age of fourteen she faced such traumatic experiences. She knew it wasn’t supposed to happen but didn’t know how she could escape from it, basically, a helpless soul. She wasn’t given a chance to prove her intelligence as her step father always felt that she was dumb. We realize that Celie was never given a chance to live like a child, never given the chance to be carefree, never given a chance to feel loved. Her socio economic background snatched away her chance and right of childhood.

‘My Mama be dead. She die screaming and cussing. She scream at me. She cuss at me. She cuss at me. I’m big. I can’t move fast enough. By time I git back from the well, the water be warm. By time I git the tray ready the food be cold. By time I git all the children ready for school it be dinner time’

Through these lines we see how much Celie, a fourteen year old had to do. Always confined to house work she never had the chance to fulfill her needs as a younger growing girl. She did all the household duties, got her younger siblings ready for school, took care of her mother and yet had to face all the screaming and shouting.

Another instance where we see this theme is when Celie writes in her letters about how she got pregnant twice, by her own step father. So innocent was she that she didn’t know what was happening to her body. She was so confused about the changes that were taking place. In one of her letters she says, ‘When I start to hurt and then my stomach start moving and then that little baby come out my pussy chewing on it fist..’ We feel so much pity towards this young girl. A fourteen year old going through pregnancy twice and without any help is a very sorry state. And when her father kills her first baby and then takes away the second one too Celie develops a stone cold heart and is void of emotions. This can be noticed later in the book when Shug Avery asks her if she misses her children she replies saying ‘Naw. I don’t miss nothing’ We see how scarring these events are to Celie. Instead of having a childhood full of happy memories the words ‘joy’ and ‘happiness’ seem quite foreign to her.

The violence that Celie faced in her adolescence and early adulthood play a very important role in shaping her personality. The protagonist suffers repeated violence from her father and husband and reacts by shutting down emotionally and being very submissive. Eventually, when Celie realizes the extent of the emotional violence committed against her, she finds the strength and the willpower to leave her husband and start a new life.

Events that take place in ones adolescence and childhood are one of the most influential in developing ones personality. The Color Purple is a very good example of this. Celies adolescence was snatched away and replaced with adulthood. This really affected her personality in ways she had no clue about. Though she grew up to be a loving, god fearing individual the events that took place in her teenage life would always leave a scar in her memory. We see that later on Celie is shown love through Shug Avery, a beautiful and seemingly empowered woman, and is treated with much more respect which in turn affects her personality as she feels more accepted and important. She learns to fight back against her step father and her husband. After Shug moves into Celie and Mr._____’s home, Celie has the opportunity to be friends with a woman whom she loves and to learns, at last how to fight back.

All the negative events that took place in the life are then slowly replaced with the love and support that she gets from Shug. Celie recovers her own history, sexuality, spirituality and voice.

Towards the end of the book, after all the events that snatched away her childhood Celie is self actualized and transforms into a successful, independent woman. She becomes more creative and is more self expressive. After being voiceless for so many years she is finially content, fulfilled and self sufficient and later on in her last few letters says that ‘Don’t think us feel old at all… Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt’.

References

1)    Shmoop

http://www.shmoop.com/color-purple/celie.html

2)    Sparknotes

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/purple/canalysis.html

1313221 Angela Melanie Rego- Celie's Search For Identity In 'The Colour Purple' By Alice Walker

Angela Melanie Rego

1313221

II PSEnglish

Submitted to: Professor Arya Aiyappan
CIA 3- American Literature

Celie's Search For Identity In 'The Colour Purple' By Alice Walker

                        The phenomenal growth of Alice Walker’s protagonist, Celie, in her book “The Color Purple” has served to become a treatise for all women subject to brutal violence; whether emotional, physical or verbal. Celie shows that it is possible to break out of the cycle of oppression, free your identity and as Shug puts it, ‘get on your feet’ (Walker 191). This essay traces Celie’s metamorphosis into an individual leading a healthy emotional life by analyzing her relationship with Shug Avery and events that compel her to emote.

With the death of her biological father at the age of two, Celie’s childhood is spent in a state of constant despair and overwhelming torture. In a single day, Celie experiences catastrophic losses. She loses a caring father and a mother who sinks into psychological depression. She also loses an environment to nurture and grow safely as her mother is no longer able to provide her with love or for that matter, with the basic need of food. “her [Celie’s mother’s] mind was never the same.... she kept waiting for her husband to finish the meal she’d cooked for him and go to the fields himself... she and her small children grubbed around in the yard as best as they could.” (Walker 158). Celie receives no respite after her mother remarries. Her barbaric step-father repeatedly rapes her as a substitute for her mother. Her mother’s mental health does not improve either. Under such conditions, Celie’s developmental growth stagnates. She can no longer express emotions and this becomes her defense mechanism against the abuse she receives from her step father and then later on from Mr.___, the man she is forced to marry. Unable to feel “nothing at all” (Walker 40), Celie becomes like wood, silently bearing her trauma.

From such a state, Celie gradually learns to emote, primarily through female bonding and then later on with Shug’s help, develops a self identity. When Kate, Mr. ___’s sister, gives Celie her first dress, Celie cannot express her gratitude but does, for the first time, feel it. Further on, she gives a much stronger reaction of jealousy when she sees Sophie happily married to Harpo. In addition, she feels shame and remorse for telling Harpo to beat Sophie.

With the arrival of Shug, Celie’s notion of ‘self’ begins to manifest. She starts noticing her appearance and is so beside herself because of her inability to look good. Celie also shows anger by spitting into Old Mr.___’s glass of water when he taunts Shug. When Shug reciprocates Celie’s affection, there is a steady surge in Celie’s once dormant developmental processes. “Miss Celie”, the new name Shug gives her, further empowers Celie by strengthening the bond between the two. She can now see the difference between herself and others and so, is able to tell Shug that Mr.___ beats her.

By insuring that Celie is no longer abused, Shug provides Celie with a safe environment to grow. Once Celie learns to ‘push her button’ from Shug, Celie, for the first time, experiences sexual pleasure; something foreign to her, as apart from being a victim of rape, Mr.__ never sought to fulfil her sexual needs. Moreover, under this safe haven, Celie is finally able to articulate her suffering and experience a catharsis of emotions. This frees Celie’s traumatized mind and destroyed emotional self.

Celie’s final catalyst to break away from the thumb of oppression is Nettie. On finding out that Mr.___ intercepted Nettie’s letters, Celie’s rage pushes her constantly to pick up a razor and kill him. Again, Shug helps Celie to mature by pacifying her anger and placing “A needle and not a razor in my [Celie’s] hand” (Walker 132). Nettie’s letters continue to educate her with accounts on New York, England and Africa. When Celie learns from Nettie that “Pa is not our pa!” (Walker 159), she is able to question her strongest belief which is God. This pushes Celie to retaliate against Mr.___ and leave him despite the conditioning she received, religiously and socially, to place her husband above all else.

Celie achieves economic independence when Shug furnishes her with the opportunity to sew pants. She sews pants not only for money but also out of passion. From having nothing but a cow given to Mr.___ as dowry, Celie has her own business and a house to her name. This economic independence stands as a marker to the remarkable change she undergoes in her identity.

Celie’s final step to forming her personality is when she is able to obtain closure. From hating Mr.___, she forgives him and moves on to becoming friends with him. Her ability to place Shug’s interests before hers and stating “I be so calm” (Walker 257) at the end of the novel shows that Celie finally obtains this closure and develops her self identity.

Works Cited

1.      Proudfit, Charles L. “Celie's Search for Identity: A Psychoanalytic Developmental Reading of Alice Walker's "The Color Purple".” Contemporary Literature 32.1 (1991): 12-37.

2.      Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. London: Phoenix, 2004.

1313267 Susanna Jacob: Literacy and Oral Expressions Used in the Novel

Susanna Jacob

Dr. Arya Aiyappan

American Literature 331

29 August 2014

Literacy and Oral Expressions Used in the Novel

Alice Walker places Celie and Nettie in a society where there is an apparent hierarchy. The whites are higher than the blacks, the men are dominant over the women and literacy is placed over oral expression. In her novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker attempts to reorganize these hierarchies, where the whites need not oppress the blacks, the women are free from the dominance of the whites and oral expression is no longer overpowered by literacy.

During this time in history the black slaves were not allowed to be educated and literacy was used as a device to overpower the slaves. It was looked at as a privilege reserved for the whites, which emphasized the whites’ power over the blacks. But the blacks were eventually given this liberty. As a result the black men decided which of their women would receive formal education and which of who would be bartered into marriage.

As The Color Purple is an epistolary novel, language plays an important role in understanding the novel. Both Celie and Nettie learn to read and write as a way of expressing and dealing with their harsh environments. The novel begins with Celie writing a letter to God, an entity foreign to her but one she believes is white and all powerful, this shows the readers the extent of the white dominated society and the impact it has on her.

You better not never tell anybody but God It'd kill your mammy.

Dear God,

I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me. (Walker 3)

This shows us the desperation with which Celie begins to write her letters to God and that literacy replaces the oral expression. When Celie’s stepfather arranges her marriage to Albert, her ties with her beloved sister Nettie is severed off. It is only after several years that she realizes that Albert hid the letters of Nettie forcing her to lose contact with her sister and also foregoing an opportunity for cultural education. Though the sisters lead different lives, writing becomes very important to them. Celie writes in order to understand the events unfolding around her. She believes that by writing about these event it is possible for her to find herself. Nettie writes to understand her consciousness better. The only common denominator between them is the fact that they both write as a result of being imprisoned in a male dominant society. Both Nettie and Celie realize that literacy their only way out of their oppressive society.

She say, What?

I say, Write.

She say, Nothing but death can keep me from it. (Walker 19)

The above paragraphs show us the relation between literacy and two sisters. We will now look into oral expressions and how it is addressed in the novel. Celie’s experiences though written down are oral in nature. According to Walter Ong, the following points characterize oral expression, rhythmic balanced patterns, repetition-antithesis, assonances, use of proverbs known to a large population, conservative use of language, and they are all present in varying degrees in Celie’s writing.

I talk to myself a lot.... Celie I say, happiness was just a trick in your case.... [Y]ou

thought it was time to have some, and that it was gon last. Even thought you had the

trees with you. The whole earth. The stars. But look at you. When Shug left,

happiness desert. (Walker 235)

At one point she even merges her writing with oral, as believes that her writing would ‘speak’ for her.

Oh, she say. He little. He cute. Got nice buns....

I don't say nothing. I pray to die, just so I don't never have to speak.... I went and

got a piece of paper.... I wrote her a note. It said, Shut up....

But Celie, she say....

He's a man. I write on the paper.

Yeah, she say.... But...

Spare me, I write. (225-226)

Thus at the end of the novel it is almost as if Celie creates a new type of literacy that combines both oral and written expressions.  Her style of writing combines the functions of orality (that is recording human history and it’s re-telling) to the functions of literacy (permanently fixing the events in history so that it lead to introspection.)

Works Cited

1.     Babb, Valerie. “The Color Purple: Writing to Undo What Writing Has Done.” Phylon 47.2 (1986): 107-116. JSTOR. Web. 20 August 2014.

2.     Blount, Marcellus. “A Woman Speaks.” Callaloo 18 (1983): 118-122. JSTOR. Web. 20 August 2104.

3.     Tucker, Lindsay. “Alice Walker's The Color Purple: Emergent Woman, Emergent Text.” Black American Literature Forum 22.1 (1988): 81-95. JSTOR. Web. 20 August 2014.

4.     Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. London: Pheonix, 2004. Print.

5.     Walter J. Ong, SJ., Orality and Literacy:T he Technologizingo f the Word,N ew Accents Series, ed. Terence Hawkes (New York, 1982), pp. 36-57