Purple Purpose..

            “Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic novel of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.” Simply, this statement can sum up the brilliance of The Color Purple. Alice Walker lends her articulate style and strong voice to this fictional novel and creates a realistic situation of early 1900’s southern life. I really liked that the author chose to write in journalistic form because it truly captured the essence of a young African American female attempting to overcome the boundaries set by the domineering men of her time. Walker’s informal diction and syntax create a very realistic feeling of southern culture throughout the tale. The most unique aspect of The Color Purple is the author’s willingness to be openly provocative in an attempt to expose the true controversial gender issues brewing in the rural south.

Purple Presidents..

One of the main purposes proposed by Walker in her passionate novel The Color Purple is the idea of suppressed women, specifically African American, in the rural south during the early 1900s gaining an opinion of their own and a voice to state it. Sexism and gender issues still exist in modern day society with many traditional citizens against the idea of women participating heavily in politics. During the 2008 presidential election, one candidate stood among the rest as a woman rising from behind the shadows of the dominance of men in the political realm. Hilary Clinton posed policies and promises of her own to set herself apart from Barack Obama and John McCain in the election for our new leader just as Celie, the strong young woman in the novel, opposed her father and the preeminence of the men in her life to gain her civil and social freedoms and rights that she knew she deserved. By relating Alice Walker’s female empowering story to that of modern controversy with sexism helps readers understand the author’s true intentions and purpose in writing.

Purple Prose..

·       “Harpo sit on the steps acting like he don’t care. He making a net for seining fish. He look out toward the creek every once in a while and whistle a little tune. But it nothing compared to the way he usually whistle. His little whistle sound like it lost way down in a jar, and the jar in the bottom of the creek,” (Walker 67).

·       “I don’t remember that, he say. You come by the house with my mama friend, Mr. Jimmy, I say,” (Walker 96).

·       “They say everybody before Adam was black. Then one day some woman they just right away kill, come out with this colorless baby. They thought at first it was something she ate. But then another one had one and also the women start to have twins. So the people start to put the white babies and the twins to death,” (Walker 273).

In The Color Purple, Alice Walker exposes her voice and style through Celie’s informal letters to God and Nettie. Syntax by definition is the way words are put together to form phrases and sentences. The author’s form of syntax is very rare in fictional writing due to her omission of quotes when relaying dialogue. Her style represents a more realistic situation, as if Celie were actually writing letters to her sister and to God. Much like the informal diction used in the story, the sentences Walker forms using colloquial words are frequently short and fragmented, which portrays declarative statements said typically by the women in the tale. These quick, declarative statements help reveal the purpose of this novel: to give southern African American women a voice in their homes and societies. 

Purple Patois..

·       “ast” (Walker, 180).

·       “yall” (Walker, 222).

·       “aint” (Walker 209).

·       “The man us knowed as Pa is dead,” (Walker 244).

·       “Dear God,” (Walker 114).

·       “What us gon sell?” (Walker 245).

·       “…I git a postcard…” (Walker 259).

  The Color Purple is a novel that is written very similar to that of a journal or a diary. Suppressed African Americans inhibited the rural south during the early 1900s and that is clearly evident throughout Walker’s tale by her use of informal diction and southern slang. Whenever Celie writes a letter, aside from the ones she addresses to Nettie, she begins with “Dear God”. This biblical allusion displays the African Americans' strong religious foundation during these times. The words Celie uses on a daily basis in her letters such as “aint”, “yall”, and “ast” characterize her as an outspoken and determined young southern woman trying to overcome the suppression of men. Diction by definition is how the word choices of an author establish tone and characterization. Walker’s colloquial diction contributes to the story’s overall tone of simplistic passion and eminently illustrates the characters’ southern aura. 

Purple Personifications..

·       Imagery/Details: “Every piece of furniture they got is turned over. Every plate look like it broke. The looking glass hang crooked, the curtains torn. The bed look like the stuffing pulled out,” (Walker 37).

·       Simile: “Sometime I look down the path from our house and it look like a swarm of lightening bugs all in and through Sofia house,” (Walker 74).

·       Hyperbole: “My face hot enough to melt itself,” (Walker 77).

·       Oxymoron: “Little fat queen of England stamps on it…” (Walker 119).

·       Personification: “For six months the heavens and the winds abused the people of Olinka. Rain came down in spears, stabbing away the mud of their walls,” (Walker 153).

·       Wit: “Its time to leave you and enter into the Creation. And your dead body just the welcome mat I need,” (Walker 199).

It is apparent that the author of The Color Purple identifies her casual style of fictional writing by her use of copious rhetorical strategies, most prominently those in which she is blatantly comparing two things. Shown in the example of simile above, Walker exposes her style through the similarity of the brightness of a house to lightening bugs, which is a very identifiable scene with African American southerners. In this compelling novel, Walker also portrays her style through Celie, the main character, with the wit she provides in her letters to God and Nettie. These devices characterize Walker’s simplistic and provocative approach to writing and her free spirited way of confronting sensitive issues in the early 1900’s rural south.