文学作家作品之The Color Purple.ppt

1、,The Color Purple -By Alice Walker,Introduction Main Characters Symbolism Epistolary Writing Style The Female Bonding,Alice Walker is an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, and activist. Alice Walkers creative vision is rooted in the economic hardship, racial terrorism, and folk w

2、isdom of African American life and culture, particularly in the rural South. Her writing explores multidimensional(多面的)kinship among women, among men and women, among humans and animals, and embraces the redemptive(救赎的）power of social, spiritual and political revolution.,Introduction,Introduction,Wa

3、lker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, the youngest of eight children. Her father, who was, in her words, “wonderful at math but a terrible farmer,“ earned only $300 a year from sharecropping and dairy farming, while her mother supplemented the family income by working as a maid. Living under Jim Crow

4、Laws, Walkers mother had struggled with landlords who expected the children of black sharecroppers to work in the fields at a young age. When she was four years old, Alice was enrolled in the first grade, a year ahead of schedule.,The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enac

5、ted (颁布)between 1876 and 1965. They mandated（批准）de jure（根据法律的） racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly “separate but equal“ status for black Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans, system

6、atizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages.,In 1952, Walker was accidentally wounded in the right eye by a shot from a BB gun fired by one of her brothers. Then she was permanently blind in that eye, felt like an outcast and she turned for solace sls to reading and writing po

7、etry. She subsequently became valedictorian（作告别演说者）and was voted most-popular girl, as well as queen of her senior class, she realized that her traumatic injury had some value: it allowed her to begin “really to see people and things, really to notice relationships and to learn to be patient enough

8、to care about how they turned out,“ as she has said.,Activism,Alice Walker met Martin Luther King Jr. when she was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta in the early 1960s. Walker credits King for her decision to return to the American South as an activist for the Civil Rights Movement. She attend

9、ed the famous 1963 March on Washington. On March 8, 2003, International Womens Day, on the eve of the Iraq War, Alice Walker, Maxine Hong Kingston, author of “The Woman Warrior“, and Terry Tempest Williams, author of “An Unspoken Hunger“ were arrested along with 24 others for crossing a police line

10、during an anti-war protest rally outside the White House. Walker wrote about the experience in her essay “We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For.“,In November 2008, Alice Walker wrote “An Open Letter to Barack Obama” that was published on The root. com. In March 2009, Alice Walker traveled to Gaza

11、 along with a group of 60 other female activists from the anti-war group Code Pink, in response to the controversial Israeli offensive of December 2008-January 2009. The purpose of the trip was to deliver aid, to meet with NGOs(非政府组织） and residents, and to persuade Israel and Egypt to open their bor

12、ders into Gaza. She planned to visit Gaza again in December 2009 to participate in the Gaza Freedom March,Select awards and honors,Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Color Purple (1983) (first black woman). National Book Award (First black woman) O. Henry Award for “Kindred Spirits“ 1985. Honorary Degre

13、e from the California Institute of the Arts (1995) American Humanist Association named her as “Humanist of the Year“ (1997) The Lillian Smith Award from the National Endowment for the Arts The Rosenthal Award from the National Institute of Arts & Letters The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, the Merri

14、ll Fellowship, and a Guggenheim Fellowship The Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswomans Club of New York Induction to the California Hall of Fame in The California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts (2006),The Color Purple(1982),It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fi

15、ction and the National Book Award. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same time. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life during the 1930s in the Southern United States, addressing the numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in Am

16、erican social culture.,Introduction,SettingAs the outcome of the effects of white culture, black women have the lowest status in American society in which men are dominant. They suffer great persecution of racial and sexual discrimination, living a poor and tragic life. To black men, they are only t

17、he machine of sex and slave that men can control freely. Black women have no any rights to ask for equality and respect. At the same time, being influenced by white culture directly or indirectly, black women, as a stream of new strength, begin to wake: their inner world is full of pain, oppression

18、and unbending spirit and they have strong capacity for living and strong will of struggle in the adversities, showing black womens particularly flash point in their deep soul.,Introduction Plot The novel opens with a demand for silence that leaves a fourteen-year-old girl named Celie with no way to

19、express her pain and confusion except in the letters she writes to God. Celie is raped repeatedly by her stepfather, Alphonso, and has two children by himchildren he gives away without her consent. Later, she is forced into a loveless marriage, leaving her sister Nettie alone with Alphonso. Nettie e

20、scapes his sexual advances by moving in with Celie and her husband, Mr. Albert. This arrangement is no better than the previous one and Nettie is again forced to leave. She ultimately ends up in Africa where she writes to Celie of her experiences.,For Celie, marriage is nothing more than a shift wit

21、hin the quicksands of abuse and male domination. Albert beats her because she is not Shug Avery, the woman he loves but does not have the courage to marry. Surprisingly, Celie and Shug develop an intimate relationship. More than anyone, Shugs influential presence and acceptance give Celie the streng

22、th she needs to redefine herself, take charge of her life, and leave Albert. Shug and Celie move to Memphis where Celie begins a career designing and selling unisex(男女通用的)pants. After her stepfathers death, she returns to her family home. Nettie also returns with Celies two children. The novel ends

23、with a reconciliation of Celie and Alberts friendship.,Main Characters,Relationship,Celie,Albert,Adam,Alberts father,Shug Avery,Nettlie,Samuel and Corrine,Harpo,Sophia,Olivia,Squeak,Alphonso,Celie,Celie, the main actor and narrator of the Color Purple, is a poor black woman living in a patriarchal s

24、ociety in the south of America. When she was only fourteen, her stepfather raped her. But what she can do is to bear all these silently. All her tolerance doesnt change into happiness or freedom, but the marriage to Albert. Celie does not know about Netties attempts to communicate with her until Shu

25、g finds the letters from Nettie that Albert has hidden.,Albert,Albert is the widower with four children who buys Celie from her stepfather. Albert treats Celie with cruelty, using her to satisfy his sexual needs and to take care of his children. He really loves Shug Avery, who later comes to live wi

26、th Albert and Celie when she is sick. Albert later in life softens and Celie takes him in as a helper in her business.,Adam Adam is Celies son who was adopted by the missionary, Reverend Samuel, and his wife, Corrine. When the Reverend and his family return to America, Celie is reunited with her gro

27、wn son.,Alberts Father,Alberts father comes to visit when he hears that Albert has taken Shug Avery into his house. He says many nasty things about Shug and expresses his disapproval of what his son is doing. Albert asks him to leave.,Alphonso,Celies stepfather. When Celies mother is sick and dying,

28、 he rapes Celie and continues to do so long enough for Celie to have two children, whom he sells to a local missionary and his wife. He doesnt tell Celie what has happened to the children, and initially Celie thinks he killed them. Celie later learns that he is not her real father. Her real father w

29、as lynched years before by a white mob. Alphonso tells Celie not to tell anyone but God about what he has done to her. He warns her that if she tells, it will hurt her mother.,Shug Avery,Shug, a blues singer, is the woman that Albert loves. She is a sophisticated and liberated woman. After she comes

30、 to stay with Albert and Celie, who care for her while she is sick, she and Celie develop a deep relationship. Shug helps Celie gain self-esteem and teaches her to speak up for herself. She finds the letters from Nettie to Celie that Albert has for years kept hidden away from Celie. Shug also helps

31、Celie get started in her business by encouraging her to sew. Later in the story, Shug returns again to Celie and Alberts home, but this time with a husband. Along with Sofia and Nettie, Shug is a role model who helps Celie change her life.,Harpo,Alberts son. Harpo marries Sofia and they have five ch

32、ildren. In his relationship with Sofia, Harpo tries to live up to his fathers role as the domineering male. Because Sofia is a strong-willed young lady, she becomes disgusted with the way Harpo treats her and leaves him for a time. When she returns with a boyfriend, Harpo is jealous. Eventually, the

33、y get back together, but their relationship changes. Harpo accepts her strong character and stops trying to dominate her.,Nettlie,Celies younger sister. Nettie is saved from a fate like Celies because she has been taken in by the Reverend Samuel and his wife Corinne. When they leave for Africa on mi

34、ssionary work, Nettie goes with them. Netties letters to Celie are written in standard English to reflect the fact that she received a better education than Celie. In her letters to Celie, Nettie tells her a great deal about Africa, which comes to represent the larger world as well as African-Americ

35、an ethnic identity in the novel. When the Reverends wife dies, Nettie marries him. She continues to raise his adopted children, who happen to be Celies by her stepfather. Nettie returns to America and reunites Celie with her children.,Olivia,Celies daughter by her stepfather. Olivia was adopted by t

36、he Reverend Samuel and his wife Corinne, along with her brother Adam, who was also one of Celies children. Olivia returns to America with the Reverend (Samuel), Nettie, Adam, and his wife, Tashi, and is reunited with Celie, her birth mother.,Reverend Samuel,The missionary who adopts Celies children

37、from Albert. Celie does not know they have been adopted. She thinks Albert killed them. The Reverend, his wife, and Nettie, who has been taken in by them, leave with the children for Africa to do some missionary work there. After the Reverend loses his wife, he marries Nettie.,Sofia,One of the three

38、 major female characters in the story who have a positive influence on Celie. Celie sees how Sofia stands up for herself to Harpo and to the white community as well. When Sofia becomes disgusted with Harpos behavior toward her, she leaves him for a while. When she returns, she taunts him with her ne

39、w boyfriend, a prizefighter. Eventually, Sofia and Harpo reunite in a different relationship. When she is insulted by the mayors wife, she talks back and causes a scene, for which she is arrested and thrown in jail.,Squeak,Squeak becomes Harpos girlfriend after Sofia leaves him. When Sofia returns s

40、he is quite nasty to her, but she also helps Sofia out when she is jailed. Squeak asks her uncle Warden Tom Hodges for help but being insulted by him. At last, Sophia has been saved.,Symbolism,1) Symbolism of the houseAlice Walker agrees with Woolf s opinions that a house is not only a room itself b

41、ut also a symbol of independence. In Walker s point of view, “a room“ not only stands for such kind of free living space, but also symbolizes an unconstrained spiritual space. Owning a room that belongs to oneself means a possession of the economic foundation and material insurance of living, which

42、is a crucial part of womens emancipation. Hence, in The Color Purple, through their struggle and efforts, the female characters, Celie, Shug and Nettie, all had aroom of their own. They decorated their rooms to their tastes.,2)Symbolism of the trousersTraditionally, trousers are mens patents. In the

43、 novel, bothmen and women in Africa, still retain their primitive tribe color.While black men in America imitate the white men s behavior,they also wear trousers, letting black females still wear theirskirts. When Celie realized that she might fight for herself andthoroughly got rid of the oppressio

44、n from her husband, she beganto learn sewing, especially making trousers. Therefore, makingtrousers became her means of living, and furthermore, a way tofight for freedom and equality.,3)Symbolism of the patchwork quiltSewing patchwork quilt is a sort of traditional activity of black women in Americ

45、a originated from Africa and England. Sewing quilt is not only a necessary part of these womens daily life, it is also a symbol of black women s traditional culture and female aesthetics. Sewing quilt, for Alice Walker, not only exhibits the aesthetic tradition of American black women, but an eviden

46、ce of her belief in her culture. Several pieces of discarded cloth can be used to make such a new and beautiful quilt, so does the friendship of the black women. They should have the courage to come out of the shadow from their past life and create their new life. All the sadness and oppression will

47、 disappear, and a bright and beautiful future is waiting for them, like the beautiful quilt.,4) Symbolism of Purple In the novel The Color Purple, purple is a color that Alice Walker uses to symbolize the main character: Celie. In color psychology, purple is a complex color. At first, it has two con

48、tradictory symbolic meanings just as Cehes personality. Secondly, purple is a color which blends blue and red. In western countries, red symbolized man and blue symbolized woman. However, Celie is a person who has both mans and womans characteristics. At last, purple is a changeable color. Celies ea

49、rly misery life is like dark purple which has more of a passive meaning. And her later life turns out to be light purple which symbolizes more of the beautiful things. And the turning of her life may be viewed as awakening of womanism.,Epistolary Writing Style,The Color Purple is a representative ep

50、istolary novel. Generally, it is a literary composition in the form of letters. In The Color Purple, Walker adopts this kind of writing skill and develops it into her own writings. Particularly, Walker sets black females as “I” s in the novel which regards them as the story tellers to express their emotions. With these black female characters narrating in the first-person perspective, this novel not only overthrows(颠覆)sexism from the men s writing mode, but also makes the readers understand the female characters and plots much more deeply.,