Alice Walker: A Voice of the Oppressed - Assignment Example

 Alice Walker: A Voice of the Oppressed African Americans always engaged in struggle to assert their identityand oppose the forces that tried to oppress them. African American experience is the name of a different living, with different ideals and aspirations. It is an ideology that fought for equality, justice and self-determination. African American experience involves many lingual, racial class issues that have always pricked the socio-political consciousness of the American Society. Alice is the voice of those oppressed. She favors the cause of those who are doubly oppressed: the black women. At one level black women share with their black men the victimization that is wrought on them by the oppressors and another level they have to face oppression of their black males who with all their split personality try to assert their sought-for power on their females. Alice Walker articulates concerns about heritage and the role in American society of African American women and women of color (Bates 220). The Color purple depicts the story of a woman who underwent a constant violence and oppression at the hands of her father and then her so called husband. She gave vent to her feelings in letters and imagined having established a relationship with God through her letters. Raped and abused by her father, and then left to the victimization of another man Celie becomes of the symbol of that black woman whose plight in American Society is poignant. But that girl bears all this and fares her way in this world in a successful way. Alice’s use of epistolary form is quite appropriate as she seems to assert that expressing one’s feeling is perhaps the true sign of asserting self –identiy.She becomes the voice of Afro-American woman and gives them the feminist message that oppression should be challenged and fought against. Though we see that Sofia had to face the consequence of her self-assertion when she refused to be the maid. But ,in her, we see the counterpart of otherwise silent victim__ Celie.The relationship between Celie and Shug is an escape from the oppression of males. This is a refuge for the protagonist and she wallows in this relationship. This friendship, though it has sexuality involved in it, seems to indicate that solidarity which victims show when faced against a bigger enemy__ male oppression. The male characters though presenting engaged in doing evil are not devil-incarnate. Though they have been shown engaged in severe kind of violence against women, yet they themselves are looking for the identity in the American society where African Americans are doing struggle for their rights. In their confusion they give vent to their anger on their woman. Harpo’s beating of Sofia was actually the reaction of his father’s ridicule of his emasculate fascination towards her. Nettie , her sister, who escaped from the domestic violence shows another type of woman. She has all consciousness of her plight and her homecoming symbolizes the awareness that Afro-Americans females have achieved. In a letter to Celie, Nettie says: “ Today the people of Africa— having murdered or sold into slavery their strongest folks— are riddled by disease and sunk in spiritual and physical confusion. They believe in devil and worship the dead. Nor can they read or right.” Her Consciousness is reflected in the following words, “We are not white. We are not Europeans. We are like the black Africans themselves. And we and the Africans will be working for a common goal: the uplift of the black people everywhere.” Nettie becomes the mouth piece of the writer somewhere. Music and culture are actually the symbols that reflect African-American identity. Alice walker gives expression to black culture through its language. According to Bates, “Walker in The Color Purple, Like Zora Neale Hurtson in Mules and Men, prioritizes African American culture, folklore, and folk expression, treating the language of the ‘folk’ as praxis, an art form or a skill.”(p 93). Being a feminist, she was always charged of her portrayal of men as biased .As she pictures themselves in the condition of the violence against woman. The male characters in The Purple commit all sorts of atrocities against woman: rape, beating and leaving them in the time of adversity. But somewhere in her writing, Alice shows a sympathetic attitude towards these male characters as they are also the victim of racialism and dominance of the white. The treatment they receive in the society becomes the cause of their torturing the female sex at the homes. Alice Walker’s novel represents the study of search for identity in a world that is characterized by abuse and violence. The characters seek refuge in their own self and try to assert their identity by giving vent to their feelings in the form of letter. Epistolary technique has been beautifully employed by Alice Walker to enhance the need for expression. If nobody is going to listen to you, you can speak to God, to your self. But expression is necessary as expression leads to consciousness and consciousness leads to rebellion against this unjustified violence. So this path of revolution starts from the threshold of the heart. The themes of racialism and sexism have been very beautifully tackled by the writer. African American culture has been presented in all its colors. Male female relation in African American society and female to female relation in the same scenario are the true objects of the study. Through these relationships, the reader gets to the very core of the culture and makes his judgment. The oppressed women have been celebrated in this play. Even after so much repression Celie is the most triumphant person in the story as she has preserved her self –identity and womanhood. Works Cited Bates, Gerri. Alice Walker: a Critical Companion.Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005. Hoving, Isabel,and Frans-Willem. Africa and its Significant Others : Forty Years of Intercultural Entanglement. Amsterdam :Rodopi ,2003. Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. United States.Hancourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. Read More