University of Pedagogy

English Department

THE MESSAGE OF ALICE WALKER

IN THE COLOR PURPLE

L Th Thu Phng
Student ID: K38.701.099
Class: 3A
Shift: Tuesday
Course: American Literature

OUTLINE
I.
II.

III.
IV.

Introduction
1. Alice Walker and The Color Purple
2. Thesis statement
Analysis and comment
1. Hyper-masculinity of African American men
2. Self-awareness of African American Women
3. The Racism in the society
Conclusion
Bibliography

The author of The Color Purple, Alice Walker was born in 1944 in Georgia where she spent
her hard childhood with sharecropper parents. Witnessing unfair treatment among people was
the reason for Alice Walker to spend her life working for human rights in the civil rights
movement. The publication of The Color Purple in 1982 as her third novel helped her
become the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. In the plot and
characters of The Color Purple, Alice Walker highlights the issues of hyper-masculinity of
male, self-awareness of African American female and racism in the African American society.
Alice Walkers black men characters describe vividly the idea of hypermasculinity in her
African American society. People use physical and emotional toughness, aggressiveness,

social status and finance as the distinctions of hyper-masculinity (Belgrave & Joshua, 2014).
The characters find that it is completely normal to hold their belief of being Black
masculinity. The female characters suffer hyper-masculinity from being abused to being
discriminated. It comes apparent to the reader that Celie got the mental and physical
exploitation from her stepfather and her husband. Alphonso humiliates and rapes her and
allows Mr._ to take her without considering Celies emotion, But I can let you have Celie.
She the oldest anyway. She aint fresh tho, but I spect you know that. She spoiled. Twice.
Mr_ showed his hyper-masculinity in making Celie obey his orders as a servant by using
violence. It is Mr._ who poses the idea of being a masculine black man on his son, Wives is
like children. You have to letem know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better
than a good sound beating. The frustrations and violence are described as tools for African
American to self-define their position in the community (Beaulieu, 2003), which is depicted
in Walkers characters exactly. The same thing happens to Sofia as she has to fight with her
own family in all her life, A girl child aint safe in a family of men. Furthermore, the
readers find that it is quite tough for female to escape from the poverty with the girl Tashi,
The Olinka do not believe girls should be educated. Alice Walker reflects the black hypermasculinity perceived in the mainstream media as threatening, animalistic, sexually depraved
and crime prone (Slatton & Spates, 2014), which delivers the broad view about her suffering.
Although being discriminated by even their African American men, African American women
have gained their self-awareness at the end in Walkers story. At first, the main character
Celie fails to express her opinion as she wants But I dont know how to fight. All I know
how to do is stay alive. The awareness of black women is always an obstacle for women to
struggle as many activitists tries to do in their life (Menz, 2008). Smith & Watson(1988:106)
proposed that the conditions of slavery and discriminations of race, sex and class made it
impossible for nineteenth-century black women to have access to the identity of the cult of
true womanhood, which is one of the reasons for Celies lack of sense of individual. With the
help of other people such as Shug, Nettie, Sofia and even herself, Celie ultimately gets rid of
her oppression I am so happy. I got love. I got work. I got money, friends and time. WongFong (as cited in Bar-On,2004,p.53) suggested that self-awareness is ability to be aware of
ones feelings and differentiate between them, to know what caused the feelings, which is
considered the characteristics in the process of Celies self-awareness. Walker implying it in
her plot changes feeling of the readers towards the story, from that point the readers could
view a positive future life of black women in the society. Clearly, they are strong enough to
gain the self-awareness over hard time in their life. From these points, Alice Walker delivers
the messages to the readers about the importance of being self-awareness to not only African
American but the women in Vietnam as well. The most essential thing is that not only do
women help each other but they also make effort themselves. Freire (2008) claimed that The
pursuit of full humanity, however, cannot be carried out in isolation or individualism, but

only in fellowship and solidarity. It is true that self-support and power is significant for
women to have a position in the community. Specifically, there has been a gender role
transformation in Vietnam, which proves that women now gain their awareness of finance
and authority importance.
Alice Walker succeeds in demonstrating the racism in The Color Purple mainly through the
story of Sofia and Nettie to the readers. In fact, this issue is significant concern in the time
when Walker used to undergo in her life. There used to be a dual system of segregated White
only and Colored only private and public facilities in the U.S institutions (Lomotey, 2010)
when African American suffers abuse by white American including both men and women.
Netties experience, also the one of Walker, clearly claims it, Only white people can ride in
the beds and use the restaurant. And they have different toilets from colored. Sofias matter is
raised to show other people how tough the racism is in the eye of Alice Walker. Sofia just
fights with the mayor, which puts her into jail but no one considers her situation. It deeply
affects people in African American community as in the conversation between Sofia and
Celie, When I found out I thought God was white, and a man, I lost interest, I know white
people never listen to colored, period. If they do, they only listen long enough to be able to
tell you what to do. Furthermore, African American has to adapt themselves into the White
society, White people busy celebrating they independence from England July 4th, so most
black folks dont have to walk. Us can spend the day celebrating each other. Although there
is policy to treat people fairly but the African American still suffer the discrimination in the
white society as stated in Childrens Rhymes by Langston Hughes
By what sends
The white kids
I aint sent:
I know I cant
Be President.
What dont bug
Them white kids
Sure bugs me:
We know everybody
Aint free.

Lies written down

For white folks
Aint for us a-tall:
Liberty and Justice;
Huh! For All!
The readers get the message of anti-racism, the equality in treatment among people in the
world, which is the wish of activists. Not only do African American suffer in their country but
they also started the war as slaves in Vietnam as the racism of the White (Westheider, 2008),
which has a considerable impact on Vietnamese and is the reason for anti-racism being spread
in order to enhance the solidarity between human beings.
The great effort was put into The Color Purple by Alice Walker in order to provide a deep
insight into the society in Georgia with the dominance of black male, process of getting selfaware of female and the discrimination between the White and the Black. By reflecting on
this work of Alice Walker, people understand the society more and value the equality of
human beings in the community. With how the story is ended, the readers may get a positive
view about the future society, but now they may reconsider the way the y treat the others in
order to get this better future for human beings.

Bibliography
Bar-On, R., 2004. The Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory(EQ-I) : Rationale, description,
and summary of psychometric properties. In Glenn Geher, ed., Measuring Emotional
Intelligence: Common Ground and Controversy. Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science, pp. 111-42.
Beaulieu, E. A., 2003. The Toni Morrison Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood Publishing
Group.
Belgrave, F. & Joshua, B., 2014. African American Boys: Identity, Culture, and Development.
New York: Springer.
Freire, P., 1996. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Continuum.
Lazo, C., 2000. Alice Walker: Freedom Writer. North Minneapolis: Lerner Publications
Company.

Lomotey, K., 2010. Encyclopedia of African American Education, Volume 1. California:

SAGE.
Menz, J., 2008. The Making of Black Female Revolutionaries-Growing Consciousness and
Change of Identity in the Autobiographies of Assata Shakur and Elaine Brown. s.l.:BoDBooks on Demand.
Slatton, B. C. & Spates, K., 2014. Hyper Sexual, Hyper Maculine?: Gender, Race and
sexuality in the Indentities of Contemporary Black Men. Illustrated, revised ed. s.l.:Ashgate
Publishing, Ltd..
Smith, S. & Watson, J., 1998. Women, Autobiography, Theory: A reader. illustrated ed.
London: Univ of Wisconsin Press.
Westheider, J., 2008. The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms.
Illustrated ed. Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield.