Celie’s bildungs in The Colour Purple.

The Bildungsroman is a literary genre that originated in Germany and spread throughout Europe
in the nineteenth century. The form traces the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist
from youth to adulthood. The term “Bildungsroman,” or the “novel of formation” (German word
‘bildung’ means formation or development and the French word ‘roman’ means novel) was
invented by Romantic critic Karl Morgenstern (1770–1852), and introduced to the critical
vocabulary by the German philosopher and sociologist Wilhelm Dilthey (1833 –1941).
Bildungsroman is a novel that portrays two or three of a set list of characteristics, including
“childhood, the conflict of generations, provinciality, the larger society, self-education,
alienation, ordeal by love, the search for a vocation and a working philosophy”(Buckley 1974).
Franco Moretti in The Way of the World makes a bold claim for the Bildungsroman as the
“symbolic form of modernity”. He argues that the defining characteristic of the novel of
formation is “to be found not in the protagonist’s organic growth, but rather in his youth.”
Moretti pays scant attention to female development, evident in his use of the gendered pronoun
which didn’t go unnoticed by female scholars.

American novelist Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Colour Purple (1982) is a
recognized female Bildungsroman. Written in epistolary form, it outlines Celie’s journey from a
young, abused and timid African-American female to a strong independent and stable woman.
The Colour Purple is a “pivotal text in the tradition of the literature by black women writers who
have taken as their theme a young black woman’s journey from silence to voice and authentic
female selfhood” (La Grone). Born in a household where her duty to serve and obey men has
been punched into her head, quite literally and metaphorically; Celie is chained down by the
patriarchal values forced upon her. It is the sisterhood of the strong female characters like Sofia
and Shug that help her break away from these chains and assert her identity as a free person.
They help her master her fate and discover her sexuality. Her relationship with Shug Avery, a
blues singer and her husband’s mistress helps her acknowledge and accept her lesbian identity.
Her sister Nettie’s letters and the relationship with her step son’s wife Sophia and step son’s
girlfriend Squeak- strengthen and revive her spirit, thus helping her pave way to selfhood and
economic independence.
Readers witness a development in Celie when she decides to leave Mister after discovering that
he hid Nettie’s letters from her, and moves to Memphis with Shug. The Celie in the beginning of
the novel would have never been able to do this. The courage she displays in retaliating to his
refusal to let her leave suggests that something has changed in her. She finally raises voice after
years of abuse and confidently answers that “You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong ... It’s time to
leave you and enter into the Creation. And your dead body just the welcome mat I need” (Walker
173). In Memphis, Celie replaces her dependence on Mister with dependence on Shug. But she
learns that she does have a life independent of others, even those she truly loves. Celie discovers
her value as an autonomous human being when she begins to make pants. “People value her
work; therefore, she, too, is valuable.” (Law 1986) Celie can now make money for herself. She
has freed herself. The Color Purple ends with Celie's personal emancipation. Not only has she
effectively found her freedom from the slavery she suffered under Mister, but she has also
discovered through her separation from Shug that she is not dependent on that or any other
relationship either. (Law 1986)