The Concept of Evolving Self and Women Bonding in Alice Walker’s the Color Purple

This paper examines the assertion of “self” by the protagonist named Celie in The Color Purple. The color in the title itself suggests that Afro-American literature is the product of the different history of racial conflict. As a consequence of that, we also observe distinctive literary tradition which also sheds light upon the cultural diversity. It is a well-known fact that women writers strongly favor writing a novel than any other literary form probably because novel readers are mostly Women according to the survey. Alice Walker has always tried to raise voice against humiliation meted out to women. She has tried to conceptualize the marginalized psyche of women enriching her literary tradition. The Color Purple is very interesting as it offers multiple interpretations being a novel of violence, a tale of domestic tragedy, the story of black women in the quest of “self” and most importantly it evokes Afro-American slavery not to forget the fact that it is also epistolary novel. Walker voices all the above-said issues collectively in the novel.