A Study on Womanism in The Color Purple through the Analyses of Celie’s Female Awakening Consciousness

【Abstact】The color purple is the work of the most outstanding black women writers， Alice Walker. In the novel， black women suffers with racial oppression and family violence. Alice Walker expresses black womens misery to awaken their self-consciousness.

【Key words】female awakening consciousness； womanism； racialism

【作者簡介】齐欢（1993.7- ），男，汉族，黑龙江海伦人，哈尔滨师范大学，西语学院，研究方向：英语语言文学。

I. Introduction of The Color Purple

The Color Purple， with the same pattern， focuses on the exploration of both the unequal relationship between whites and blacks and the internal relations within the blacks. It mainly tells a story about the protagonist Celie， a black womans awakening consciousness engendered through the transformation from submission and oppression to independence and liberation. At the beginning， Celie was an innocent girl but was later raped by her stepfather and then she was forced to marry a black widower living with his several children. He treated her as badly as she was his inferior creature. But when Celie became acquainted with Shug， her husbands lover， a newly independent woman， living a totally different life from her， Celie was much influenced by Shugs new thought that woman should strive for their rights and equality spontaneously and eventually escaped from her miserable life and lived freely and independently.

II. Alice Walkers Womanism

Womanism， coined by Alice Walker， is a social theory based on the discovery of the limitations of the Third-wave feminism movement in regards to the history and experiences of black women， and other women of marginalized groups. Alice Walker first utilized the term “womanist” in her work， which is derived from the southern folk expression “acting womanish.” According to Walker， feminism is incorporated into womanism but womanism also expands the incorporated theory. It focuses on both patriarchal and racial oppression and holds the belief that the double oppression is the source of black womens miserable lives.

The ultimate goal of womanism which is definitely different from feminism is the wholeness， the wholeness of woman， the man and the world. In The Color Purple， the wholeness mainly refers to the wholeness of black people. After black women realize their independence， they will not stand against the black men. What they will do is to build new relationship with them. Black men， the former oppressors， could also achieve transformation influenced by black women.

III. The Analyses of Celies Female Awakening Consciousness

The black female was the lowest class in society. Their role was restrained due to the dual oppression of patriarchal society and racial discrimination. In the novel The Color Purple， after Celies entire detachment from her previously life， her husband gradually realized that his former behaviors to Celie was totally wrong and begged for Celies forgiveness. Celie doubtless accepted his apology and became mutual friends. From this perspective， black women and black men finally coexisted， formed a new relationship and achieved the wholeness life which was considered as the ultimate goal of womanism under Alice Walkers writing. Walker advocates that after the black women win their independence， they should not be hostile to black men. Instead， both black women and men should reconcile with each other. Whats more， the black men， former oppressors， could also achieve transformations themselves influenced by black women. Finally， both black male and female could build new harmonious relationship and make progress together for the fusion of all nations.

References：

[1]Cui Hui.From the Oppressed to the Liberated—The Analysis to the Personality Development of the Protagonist Celie in The Color Purple[D]，Hebei University，2010.

[2]Gao xia.An Analysis of Alice Walkers Womanism in The Color Purple[D]，Huazhong University of Science&Technology.2009.;

[3]Wilfred L.Guerin，Lee Morgan，et al.A Hand book of Critical Approaches to Literature[M].London：Oxford University Press，2004.