Key terminology for 'The Color Purple'

Literary terms:

Epistolary novel

Feminism

Figurative language

Genre

Historical and social context

Indirect speech

Narrative tension

Narrative viewpoint

Patriarchal Society

Protagonist

Voice

Language techniques:

AAVE

Colloquial language

Dialect

Declarative sentence

Ellipsis

Emotive words

Euphemism

Exclamative sentence

Graphology (or graphological features)

Imperative sentence

Interrogative sentence

Lexis

Non-fluency features

Non Standard English

Pronouns

Semantic field

Standard English

Taboo language

Terms of address

Tone

Essay and discussion questions

Essay and discussion questions

 

 

1. Many readers and critics have criticised Walker’s representation of African-American men.  Why do you think this is?  How might you defend Walker’s treatment of masculinity in The Color Purple? 

 

2. Read Nettie’s Letters.  How does Walker dramatise life in Africa?  How does Celie’s education differ from Nettie’s?  Are there any similarities between the experiences of the Africans and the African-Americans?  What does Celie learn from Nettie’s letters? 

 

3. Read Celie’s first and last letters and compare her tone, syntax and use of language.  How does her voice change as the novel progresses? 

 

4. Many readers identify Sofia’s narrative as the most compelling challenge to racism in the novel.  Why is this? 

 

5. After her confrontation with Celie, Sofia suggests that they ‘make quilt pieces out of these messed up curtains’ (The Color Purple, Letter 21).  Alice Walker has revealed that she worked on a quilt while writing The Color Purple.  How does quilting function as a motif in the novel?

 

6. Many readers feel that The Color Purple is, above all else, a celebration of community.  What roles do Shug, Sofia and Nettie play in Celie’s development?  

 

7. ‘Not much funny to me. That funny. I laugh. She laugh. Then us both laugh so hard us flop down on the step’ (The Color Purple, Letter 21).  What role does laughter play in The Color Purple?

 

8. Many critics have taken exception to the utopian ending of the novel, arguing that romance triumphs over reality.  Make cases for and against this argument. 

 

9. Alice Walker defines The Color Purple as ‘an historical novel.’  To what extent does the novel fit this model?  How easy is it to place the novel in context?   

 

10. Shug tells Celie that ‘God love everything you love – and a mess of stuff you don’t’ (The Color Purple, Letter 73).  What role does religion play in the novel?  What forms does spirituality take?  How does Celie’s relationship with God change? 

 

11. Identify and compare the different kinds of family represented in the novel.  What do they suggest about traditional notions of ‘home’ and ‘family’?

 

12. Watch Steven Spielberg’s cinematic adaptation of Walker’s novel.  What impact does his incarnation of The Color Purple have on your reading of the novel?  What does he change and why?  How might different social groups respond to the film?

 

Revision Overview

Whether you are revising for an exam or reviewing your notes in preparation for a coursework essay, the following seven aspects will help you organise your knowledge.   Deepen your understanding by adding textual examples, letter references (you could number them) or page references.

1. Structure
· Epistolary novel (letter form)

· Advantages:
- personal, intimate, sense of character and honesty
- having two letter writers adds variety to point of view
- involves the reader, makes you work harder to understand.

 · Disadvantages:
- no authorial voice
- can sound artificial when used to present narrative
- first person accounts can be partial, biased, inaccurate.


2. Narrative
· spans generations
· spans continents
· involves different families
· revolves around different kinds of prejudice and oppression.


3. Themes
· A wide range, both disturbing and uplifting.


· Disturbing:
- power/powerlessness
- prejudice and oppression (racial, sexual, family, social, economic, imperialism)
- violence, war and destruction

 · Uplifting:
- spirituality and religion
- creativity and self-expression
- education
- independence and freedom
- self-knowledge and self-fulfilment
- love
- progress
- family, friendship and solidarity.

4. Setting
· moves in time – over forty years
· moves in space – three continents: America, Europe, Africa
· settings show contrasts in customs, treatment and qualities
· shows similarities too e.g. oppression in different cultures.


5. Characters
· women support each other in America, e.g. Celie, Sofia, Shug, Squeak, Nettie
· women can be divided and jealous in Africa, e.g. Corinne
· men tend to be divided and outsiders in America, e.g. Pa, Mr ___ , Harpo, Buster (some improvement towards the end)
· men are presented as supportive and honest in Africa, e.g. Samuel and Adam
· female characters tend to be victims; male characters tend to exert power.

6. Images and symbolism
· names, e.g. Shug = sugar; Squeak reverts to Mary Ann to express self-respect
· religion and spirituality – letters to God, nature (pantheism), roofleaf in Africa
· creativity – quilt-making, pants, cooking, singing, sexuality, nature (e.g. stars in quilt)
· freedom and self-fulfilment – Folkspants Unlimited offers emancipation, economic, personal and sexual freedom
· nature – stars, flowers, trees and wood, animals, weather (pathetic fallacy)
· purple – bruises, royalty (e.g. Shug’s clothes), religion, purple frog (reconciliation).

7. Language and style
· Black English gives authenticity to American deep south setting, characters and social class (begins with a naïve, poor and uneducated narrator)
· change in Celie’s narration reflects her maturity and progress in life
· to reflect differences between characters, e.g. Celie and Nettie
· letter form uses direct address to involve the reader in the personal narratives
· a series of climaxes keeps the reader interested, e.g. not knowing if Nettie has died in the sinking ship
· exchange of letters allows for a gradual development of the narrative.

The Genre Debate

Since its publication, critics and readers have debated the generic identity of The Color Purple.

 

 

To what extent does Walker’s novel fit into the following categories? 

 

 

1. An Epistolary Novel? 

 

Definition: A form of sentimental novel popular in the eighteenth century.  The epistolary novel is composed of letters or documents and usually represents female experience.  Most epistolary novels in the eighteenth century were written by middle-class men.  The epistolary novel appears to dramatise a desire for communication and exchange and enables the writer to set down a character’s thoughts and give a peek at the psychology of the protagonist without authorial framing or interference.  However, this form of novel is usually didactic and ends with the heroine’s surrender to male domination. 

 

2. A Bildungsroman? 

 

Definition: A novel which charts the spiritual or emotional development of its main character, focusing primarily on his or her formative years.  

 

3. A Folk Tale?

 

Definition: A popular story which is passed on from one generation to another through the oral tradition.  The structure of the folk tale is usually simple and the plot generally ends happily.  This category includes fairy tales, myths and fables, all of which may include supernatural elements.  Resolutions are often wrought by a form of trickery.   

 

4. An Historical Novel?

 

Definition: A novel which recreates a particular period in history.  Characters may be historical or fictional but historical conditions anchor the plot.  When Alice Walker first conceived The Color Purple she envisaged it as an ‘historical novel’ (‘Writing the Color Purple’, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (Harcourt 1983, 356).  

Comparison of letter styles

DIY chart – a comparison of letter styles

 

Sort the following list of letter styles into ‘Celie’ and ‘Nettie’.  Some are open to debate!

 

Frank	Short	Later – straightforward
Gripping	Addressed to God/Nettie	At times simply tells it as she sees it without commenting on the horror
No unnecessary ‘frills’	Travel writing	Later – limited vocabulary
Sense of struggle in her life – reader immediately drawn into her world	Addressed to Celie	Direct echoes speech
Echoes school book ‘speak’	Informative	Writes as a child (starts when 14)
Uneducated	Later – more fluent	Very immediate
Childlike expression	Concentrated impact	Later – more complex sentences
Curt observations	Unique	Focuses on immediate people and relationships/events
Sense of urgency	Descriptive	Later – limited understanding
Grey	Missionary style	Later – use of dialogue is vigorous/convincing
Dull	Later – uncomplicated	Later – some figurative language
Like a missionary article in magazine	Writes when young but always feels more adult because of language skills	The more words are used the less we relate simply to Nettie – she writes of others and includes herself occasionally
Writes about much wider issues/themes	Tries to paint a vivid picture for Celie	Long
Historical	Prim

 

Now copy and complete a grid like the one below, and drop the correct phrases into the relevant column.

 

                          CELIE                                                   NETTIE

The role of nature

Walker makes use of nature throughout the novel to present important ideas and to convey character and emotion.

Annotate this ‘map’ with quotations from the novel, and comments on the connotations or symbolic effect.  An example has been done for you:



Questions:


Discuss the effect of using contrasting bird (Celie) and frog (men) imagery.

Write a paragraph, exploring Walker’s use of nature in the novel.  Remember to include quotes, and try to write at least four points.