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1、学 号：200994620134HEBEI UNITED UNIVERSITY毕业论文GRADUATE THESIS论文题目：从紫色中的分析中看黑人女性的自我觉醒学生姓名：谢冰清专业班级：09英语3班学 院：外国语学院指导教师：李小艳 讲师2013年05月21日Self-Consciousness of Black Women in The Color Purple ByXie BingqingA graduate thesissubmitted in partial fulfillment of the requirementsfor the degree of Bachelor of Ar
2、ts to theCollege of Foreign LanguagesHebei United UniversityMay 21st, 2013摘 要摘 要爱丽丝沃克是一位著名的黑人女性作家。紫色是她最著名的作品，自这部作品出版以来引起了很多评论家和读者的关注，因为这部作品不仅涉及了种族歧视的问题，也提及了女权主义的问题。与其他作家不同的是，爱丽丝沃克不仅是看到了黑人女性的自我觉醒，还关注了女性之间的友情和黑人女性心中的信仰。本文通过分析紫色，去观察黑人女性的自我觉醒过程，在种族歧视和男权主义的双重压迫下，女主角西里由忍受到自我认识，最后到自我觉醒的精神状态的改变，冲破了种族歧视和男权主义
3、两道精神枷锁。本文从心理、社会、文化、信仰等方面来分析黑人女性如何在她们地位受压迫的时代突破双重枷锁。西丽的自我觉醒不仅激励黑人女性，而且对当今社会女性也有鼓励的作用。本文旨在通过对紫色的分析，激励女性读者，并让男性读者有一个更正确看待女性地位的态度。关键词 紫色；自我觉醒；黑人女性；非洲中心主义-13-ABSTRACTABSTRACTAlice Walker is one of the greatest contemporary Afro-American writers. The Color Purple is the most famous of her works and since
4、it was published, many critics and readers are interested in it, because it talks not only about the racial discrimination but also about the feminism.Different from other authors, Alice Walker not only sees black female awakening, but also pays attention to the friendship between women and black wo
5、mens believes. In this paper, through the analysis of The Color Purple by observing the self-awakening progress of black women in the double oppression of racial discrimination and male chauvinism, the heroine Celie is found to have changed in her mental state from enduring to self-awareness, and fi
6、nally breaking the two mental shackles.This article analyzes how the black women break the double yokes in the era that they are enslaved from psychological, social, cultural and devotional views. Celies self-consciousness encourages not only black women but also modern women. This article aims to s
7、timulate female readers, and gives a correct manner to male readers about the social status of females.Keywords purple；self-consciousness；black woman；African centralismCONTENTSCONTENTS摘 要IAbstractIiChapter 1 Introduction11.1 Introduction of The Color Purple11.2 Introduction of Alice Walker21.3 Impli
8、ed Meaning of Purple2Chapter 2 Double Oppressions Black Women Suffered42.1 Racial Oppression42.2 Sexual Oppression4Chapter 3 CelieS Self-Consciousness63.1 Influence of African Culture63.1.1 African Centralism63.1.2 Influence of African Centralism on Celie73.2 Influence of Other Women in The Color Pu
9、rple83.2.1 Nettie83.2.2 Sofia93.2.3 Shug93.3 Self-Consciousness of Celie10Chapter 4 Conclusion12Bibliography14Acknowledgements15Chapter 1 IntroductionChapter 1 Introduction1.1 Introduction of The Color Purple The Color Purple is the master-piece of Alice Walkers works. Since it was published in 1982
10、; it has become the bestseller and was republished many times in following years. Alice Walker has poured her full sentiment into this work. When being completed, she suddenly thought that it seems all of her beloved have lost in suddenly. In 1983, she was awarded the Pulitzer Literature Prize for T
11、he Color Purple. Then she became the first black woman writer which laid her irreplaceable position in the history of American literature. Nearly a century after Lincoln issued Declaration of Abolitionist; United States separation and discrimination were still strong in the South. Alice Walker was b
12、orn in 1944, a poor black family in Georgia Ethan Dayton, the south of US. The prejudice in society and the poverty of family made her deeply realize the distress of black people. Therefore, each of her literary work displays her struggles for the black, particularly for black women to pursue racial
13、 equality and self-independence. Born in the south, naturally, Alice Walker specially preferred southern literature. As a black woman writer, Alice Walker was actively engaged in the womens movement and became a prominent feminist. Although she was outraged at the injustice for the black woman, she
14、explored shining path unceasingly and helped the other women to loose the oppressions. Walker insisted that black women fight for equality between men and women, the struggle against racial and economic oppression tightly related. She abandoned feminism and replaced it with womanism which is defined
15、 as the person who devoted his life to the realization of all people, including men and women, survival and perfectionism. Alice Walker, the concept of womens liberation is not narrow. She recognized that a black woman was not only the black, but also a woman, a human being. Womens liberation means
16、the emancipation of men, even the liberation of all mankind. These viewpoints were revealed in The Color Purple to the greatest extent. In the novel, Walker, with the most realistic approach, described all unfortunates of the black women in male chauvinism, reflecting the self-consciousness of femal
17、e and the process of improvement of their self-worth. The heroine Celie whom Walker put her heart and soul into shaped, with the desire for life and the pursuit of happiness, became the incarnation of a black woman of a new generational. The Color Purple injects fresh vigor into the development of b
18、lack womens literature and demonstrates the breakthrough of the black literary creation. 1.2 Introduction of Alice WalkerAlice Walker was the eighth and last child of Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Tallulah Grant, two sharecroppers. In the summer of 1952 Walker was blinded in her right eye by a BB gun
19、 pellet and has remained facially disfigured. Despite her partial loss of eyesight, Walker was a diligent student, finishing her classes with top grades. During a trip to Africa before her graduation from college, she discovered her accidental pregnancy and then had an abortion secretly, this sad ex
20、perience made her want to commit suicide at a time. Alice Walker is active in political movements; she participated in the Civil Rights Movement when she was a student in Spellman College in Atlanta. She wrote articles, went to speeches, and even marched on Washington to listen to Martin Luther King
21、s famous speech, I Have a Dream, with thousands of black people. After the graduation with her BADegree from Sarah Lawrence, Walker found a job in Jackson, Mississippi, and accepted a position with the Legal Defense Fund for the Advancement of Colored People. With the assistance of the activist and
22、lawyer Marian Wright Edelman, Walker did many good deeds for the black. Walker also taught African American women at some famous universities, such as Wellesley, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, Yale and the University of California at Berkeley, and supported antinuclear and environmental
23、causes. During the late sixties and early seventies she published her first novel, The Third Life of George Copeland (1970); her next novel, Meridian (1976), a tale with the background of the Civil Rights, which is generally regarded as one of the best novels during that time. The Temple of My Famil
24、iar (1989) is an ambitious novel recording 500,000 years of human history. In Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) the male characters contradict their stereotypical roles; they are the cure to Tashas happiness. Walkers latest novel, By the Light of My Fathers Smile (1998), explores the richness and
25、coherence of the alternative cultural experience of sexuality as a celebration of life, as Walker says that it is the triumphant heart, not the conquered heart, that forgives and love are both timeless and beyond time. She had also written three collections of short stories, three collections of ess
26、ays, six volumes of poetry and several childrens books.1.3 Implied Meaning of PurplePurple is regarded as one kind of noble color that the king dresses, symbolizing the sovereignty and honor. Alice Walker borrows purple as the book title, raising kneeling black women up to the level of royalty, and
27、giving them original dignity and social position.In the novel, the author expresses her intention through multiple use of purple. When Celie just arrives at Alberts family, Albert, who Celies husband but she doesnot dare to call his name, complies to buy clothes for her. At that time she has not see
28、n Shug, but she knows Mr. Albert not only likes, but also respects her. Therefore, what Celie first thinks is the purple clothe that Shug liked. This indicated that she imagines obtaining respect and affection of husband like Shug. She looks everywhere of the entire store for purple clothes in vain
29、attempt. This indicated that opportunity not yet mature. She is unable to obtain the dignity. However, the idea that Celie wants to wear the purple clothes reflects her desire to live a happy life. It is this desire that makes her see her own oppressions, and gradually develop to finally recognize t
30、he value of her own existence. But at the end of the novel, after Celies self-consciousness, she decorates her room with purple color, which shows her desire for a happy life, symbolizing the change of her social position as slave and the beginning of her beautiful completed life. Near the end of th
31、e novel, Albert hand-carved a purple frog for Celie, symbolizing that he recognizes Celies dignity and her right of pursuing happiness.This article concentrates on Celies self-consciousness with the background of other black women supporting or influencing her. Walker takes Celie as a representative
32、 of black women, focusing on how Celie becomes self-conscious with the help of other black women.Chapter 2 Double Oppressions Black Women SufferedChapter 2 Double Oppressions Black Women Suffered2.1 Racial OppressionAfrican-American people had suffered racial discrimination for a long time. First, i
33、t was the selling of black people as slaves. Then, they endured slavery itself, being treated like animals. After slavery was abolished, colored people, especially colored women, still had to deal with racial discrimination, demoralization, subjugation and hatred. Black women had to face unbearable
34、odds at obtaining self-assurance.Women were on the social status of oppression and discrimination. The black women even suffered the double oppression of racial and sexual. With the rise of feminist movement, womens status was gradually promoted, and the black women smashed double shackles. In the m
35、id-1950s to the mid-1960s, African Americans initiated the large-scale movement of struggle against discrimination and racial oppression, striving for social situation and social right. Theoretically, the black people should have gotten their freedom at President Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation i
36、n 1863, but the matter still exists. In The Color Purple, which spans the years between the Depression and the beginning of the Civil Right Movement in the early 1960s, Walker expresses the racial oppression of black people, even the black women in details. Sofia is put in prison because of scolding
37、 and beating mayors wife on the street. Although released, she is still work as a servant in white mayors home. She has the same fate with Celie, oppressed by others, but Celie is a slave for black men and she is a servant for white people despite of breaking the male power in black family. In addit
38、ion, the Olinka people who Nettie mentioned in letter escape to a desolated place because the white build roads in their inhabited area, threatened the existing space of the black. When the white mayor saw the black had the automobile, he bought it to her wife, because he does not want to be more ba
39、ckward than the black. Therefore, the black women suffer not only physical torture but also the spirit. Black women in double oppression of slavery indicate the difficulties that they encountered are multiple in the fight against social prejudices.2.2 Sexual OppressionFeminist movement in the sixtie
40、s and seventies of the last century belongs to the second wave of the feminist movement. Womens movement at this stage was characterized by the male-centered criticism and the awakening of female consciousness. Walker created The Color Purple in the late of 1980s. Although the social situation of wo
41、men has been proved after three feminist movements, the sexual discrimination still exists. When more and more women occupied the leading position of government, school and media, men called out in alarm: the hen crowed!The black women, as colored people, were deeply oppressed by men. They are timid
42、 and think that being submissive is the best way to stay alive. Black men poured their complaint on black women, treating them as life tools without respect. Black men trample on them. In The Color Purple, the oppression which the black females received comes from not only the white people with raci
43、al discrimination, but also the black males; not only the society, but also the family. The protagonist of The Color Purple is Celie. She is a fourteen-year-old black girl who is raped by her stepfather when her mother is away and is warned by her father not to tell “anyone but God”. After her mothe
44、rs death, her two children are taken away by her stepfather, and she becomes a slave both physically and sexually to her stepfather. After her stepfather getting tired of her, she is forced to marry a widower Albert. Albert doesnt love Celie at all but needs a servant to cook and clean for him and t
45、ake care of his three children. Celie is still physically and sexually abused by Albert, but she still keeps silent for she thinks that accepting everything silently is the best and the only way to “staying alive”. When she is beaten, she said: “he beats me like he beats the children. Cept he dont n
46、ever beat them.it all I can do not cry, I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That is how come I know trees fear man.”(Alice Walker 1982) 22 Her sister Nettie teaches her to fight with them, but Celie answers: “But I dont know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.” (Ali
47、ce Walker 1982) 17 Celie even teaches man to beat the other woman without realizing that she is also a victim. This shows that the male-oriented perspective is deeply rooted in the black community. Meanwhile, it can be seen that men maintain their supremacy and when their male authority is challenge
48、d and threatened, the way they use to solve problems is only violence.In the family of patriarchal domination, obedience is womans virtue. As a weak woman, Celie has grown to be accustomed to the slave status in silence so that she does not dare to go against her husband. Writing letters becomes a way to achieve self-awareness as a black woman. Celie lives on the earth just for submissive and enslaved as a cooker, washer, worker, housekeeper and sexual tool. She is poisoned by patriarchal domination so that she thinks being submissive is natural. Chap