A discussion of how Alice Walker portrays social issues in the rural South during the first half of the 20th century in her book, “The Color Purple”.
This paper examines Alice Walkers’s novel ,The Color Purple, and reveals how, through the characters of the book, Walker addresses several social issues of the era. In particular, it looks at how, throughout the novel, she is devoted to exploring women’s roles within the patriarchal system, emphasizing their desires for freedom, spirituality, and creativity and how she is able to communicate to the reader what it means to be poor, black, and female in the rural South during the first half of the 20th century. It shows how, through the lives of the characters in “The Color Purple”, she presents several individual social aspects such as patriarchy, sexuality, and spirituality.
“Walker advocates freedom of expression for women. She also believes that a person who is not free to express his or her love is a slave of themselves, just as anyone who would prohibit expression of love has a “slaveholder’s mentality (Living 91). Celie is beaten by her stepfather because he says she has winked at a boy, she writes: I don’t even look at mens. That’s the truth. I look at women, tho, cause I’m not scare of them.” (Color 6). Celie is attracted to Shug. “First time I got the full sight of Shug Avery, I thought I had turned into a man” (51). The two women lived together for awhile until Shug meets a young man and falls in love with him. Celie is heartbroken and returns home. During this time of her life, Celie and Mister become friends and he proposes marriage.”