Vol. 8, Issue 6, Part H (2022)

The Color Purple is hailed as a classic book in exploring the pathos of black women in social context. Its strength derives from the regeneration of the multitude of characters with the protagonist Celie in the forefront. Walker focuses on racial, political and sexual issues while they highlight women’s struggle for survival. Her true intention in writing this novel is to give voice to black women and to provide them with a path to follow in order to emancipate and get their freedom. Walker shows us the evolution of her major character, Celie, a poor, barely literate southern black woman from being a sexually abused child to a passive wife and finally to an emancipated woman. Walker focuses on Celie, who is trapped by racist and sexist oppression and the way she seeks to define herself is through the use of language. The work reveals the plethora of violence in the form of harsh economic, social and emotional crisis facing the blacks. Celie’s relationship with her step-father and husband is characterized by sexual oppression in the patriarchal society in America. Celie endures a barrage of rape and harshness that causes her to experience her body as fragmented and as being possessed by her victimizers.