Color Purple (673 words)

Color PurpleHistorical:
The Historical approach applies to this novel because it is based on a time period that I have not lived through. Alice Walker wrote this book in the format of how the people spoke in the 1900s Walker herself termed her writing as “Black Folks English.” During the time that Walker wrote this novel there where so many things going on have to do with the Civil Rights movement and women fighting for their right. This book pin points the life of women showing, womens struggle for freedom in a society where they are viewed as inferior to men.
That fact that Walker has lived through the fight for equal rights impacted her writing and can be show in how she portrays Sofia in this book. During Walkers life the equal treatment of opposite sexes was an important issue in her life and is one of the primary elements in The Color Purple. If the reader has never studied this period of time there is no way that this books can be understood because its struggled portray a time that women have hardly any rights. The Supreme Court did not start giving equal rights until the 1970s, while Walker was in her early 30s. Throughout the book Sofia and Harpo fought for equality in their marriage obviously showing that this had some kind of effect on the writers life
Biographical:
Alice Walkers writings in this novel were greatly influenced by the historical happenings around her during the 1950s-1980s. Born in Georgia in 1944, Walker used her same environment that she grew up as the placement for the Color Purple. Walker later experienced a tragic accident affecting her ability to see, opening her eyes to the cruel dealing of people. She begin to see things that she never saw before and this is also shown throughout the book. To comprehend Walkers writing you have to somewhat know what was going on in this time period because it effects the way she portrays the characters lifes on a day today basis in the book. Sit ins, freedom rides, boycotts, and other heated demonstrations were very common at the time. Violence was widespread as well in society. Martin Luther King was one of Walkers biggest influences, so much so that she even attended his I Have a Dream speech in 1963. In 1968 King was gunned down on the balcony of a motel and this struck Walkers view on life again. This is easily shown in the book and how she describes things in the Color Purple, such as the racial prejudiced society Celie lived in.
Gender:
Throughout this Walker demonstrates three different types of gender approaches with the three main women of the story. Celie was looked at as a week women that women that no man wants. She was criticized for her appearance, and sexual relations, and was forced to marry Mr. in an institutional marriage. Sofia was the untraditional women looked at as kind of rebellious. She was looked at as controlling and demanding, and was looked down upon for not being submissive to her husband or her husband Harpo’s definition of the traditional female role. Finally, Shug Avery was the ultimate feminist symbol. She was the woman that every women wanted to be in this time. She walked to her own drum and but was not overly dominate in this time.
Walker does not hide the ruthless realities that Black woman had to, or still have to suffer. She does not hide from this reality in any way nor does she shy away and try to paint a softer picture. In the first pages of the Color Purple she shows the severity of the injustice that women have to go through even still today. She goes into detail of children being raped and women being sold and abused. This book showed to the extreme how women were looked at as just objects of the house meant to cook, clean, and mother children. The sealing of Celia proves pin points this.