Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is a perfect archetype of not only the treatment and life of African American women in this time period, but it also appeals to the everyday human in its unique narrative style. By having Celie tell her own story, a better representation and understanding of her everyday life is created. The obstacles that she faces and overcomes are relatable and are very characteristic for someone in her relative situation.
First, Celie is born and raised in a rural area and works on her Father’s farm. She is overworked and unpaid, and lives in a hostile environment. This is a common theme in books with a similar plot and setting. It does, however, stand out from others like it because of its unique format. Celie writing letters to God, while faith is also a characteristic part of such a setting, exemplifies the personal aspect of this story and sets the scene for the classic protagonist and innocent persona Celie is expected to have in her situation.
For example, one common event that links such characters is a great loss at a young age. For Celie, it is her mother that becomes ill and passes away which has a great impact on the rest of the story. Because her father is abusive, there is no one to teach her of the world and she must learn on her own. She is commonly naive and inexperienced, learning things the hard way. This sense of innocence is a recurrent theme in such protagonist characters like Celie.
As her story continues, she is met with more and more obstacles in which she must overcome. This includes the death of her father, finding out about her real father, the loss of Nettie, and struggling to find value in something in her life. While there are some things she may never overcome completely, it identifies coping methods as a release. Nonviolent and easy ways for her to relieve her stress and fight for what she believes in are common characteristics of novel heroes.
In addition, one of the most obvious archetypes is found in her faith. In a time period where there is more hope than action in terms of rights for African Americans and women, faith is a common central theme. Celie relies on God and expects him to hear the prayers that she rights ever since her Father sexually abused her and told her she could not speak of it to anyone but God. As all good heroes, she remains hopeful and her faith stays strong. As a reader, being able to read and understand how she sees the world and copes with her unfortunate situation offers a greater explanation of how things were at this time.
In conclusion, while The Color Purple by Alice Walker stands out in its genre it is also the perfect archetype of its genre as a whole. In a way it explains its genre in greater detail from the eyes of the main character allowing readers to more easily identify with her story and, in fact, see the commonalities and archetypes displayed in other novels like it.
1 comment:
Jess, I really liked your post! I noticed that you characterized Celie's story, and the novel as whole, as an archetype for the struggle of African American women during the time period, and I found that concept very interesting. On the one hand, I agree that many of the aspects of Celie's life fit the archetype perfectly, such as her inability to have a job or get out from the oppression of her husband. However, on the other hand, there is a plethora of evidence in the book which supports the claim that Celie's case was not typical, particularly from the abuse aspect. Nettie, and Shug Avery are both examples of African American women, who lived in the same time period, but whose situations were not the same as Celie's, and often not even similar. This suggests that Celie's life was in fact uncharacteristic, at least to some extent, of African American women during the time period in which the book takes place. However, I agree almost completely with your analysis of the narrative style Walker uses to tell the story, and how it affects the reader. As a result, your post on this topic gave me a new understanding and appreciation for the novel which I had not preciously had. All around great blog, nice work!
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