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1、PILGRIMS PROGRESS: CELIES PURSUIT OF FEMALE SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE COLOR PURPLEName: Han Xiaodong（ Major: English Education（英语师范）Grade: 2004 ( Class 7) College: College of Foreign LanguagesDate: May 21st, 2008Tutor: Wang Lan Abstract: This essay discusses the course of the heroine in The Color Pu
2、rple, Celies pursuit of her self-consciousness. Even though her life is full of hardship, Celie persists in looking for her self-consciousness and finally she successfully achieves the value of herself. This essay is based on historical evidences and womanism. It analyses Celie, a black woman growin
3、g up in the South. She writes letters to God in which she tells about her lifeher roles as a daughter, a wife, a sister, and a mother. In the course of her story, Celie meets a series of other black women who help shape her life: Nettie, Celies sister, who becomes a missionary teacher in Africa. She
4、 also becomes Celies spiritual dependence after Celie knows that God doesnt exit in reality, and the guardian of Celies two children who symbolize Celies hope; Shug Avery, the Blues singer, who her husband Mr. X is in love with, and who becomes Celies salvation; Sofia, the strong-willed daughter-in-
5、law of Celie whose strength and courage inspire Celie. Celie finally gets rid of those troubles which have been bothering her. Through the constant awareness of the life and the influence from a few women around her, she realizes her true self, having her own work, life, family. And at last she forg
6、ives her husband which symbolizes the compromise between black women and black men. There is a special spirit on her. The spirit is that she dare fight with adversity, dare pursuit life. And there is always a strong belief of optimism in her. This essay names the course pilgrims progress.Key words:
7、Celie letters black woman womanism God The Color Purple论文摘要本论文探讨的是紫色这部小说中的女主人公，茜利，在她充满坎坷困苦的一生中，去不断的追求女性自我意识并最后实现自我价值的过程。本文从历史角度及女性主义入手，分析茜利，一个生长在美国南方的黑人妇女，写信给上帝去讲诉她作为女儿、妻子、姐姐、妈妈的角色的一生。同时，有几个影响了她一生的黑人妇女，聂蒂，她的妹妹，一个非洲的传教士，她不但是茜利认识到上帝不可能真正走入她的生活中帮助她后的精神寄托，也是象征着黑人妇女希望的茜利的两个孩子的监护人；莎格.埃佛里，蓝调歌手，她丈夫的情人，成为了她的
8、拯救者；索非亚，她的儿媳，意志坚定，一直激励着她。最后，她终于摆脱了一直困扰她的那些烦恼。通过对生活的不断认识，以及周围的几个女人对她的影响，找到了一个真实的自我，完全拥有了自己的工作，生活，家庭，并原谅了她的丈夫。在她身上有一种精神，一种敢于与逆境搏斗的精神，敢于探索人生的精神和对自己对生活充满信心的乐观主义精神。最后她实现了自己的人生价值，自我意识得到了体现。本论文称这个过程为天路历程。关键词： 茜利；信；黑人妇女；妇女主义；上帝；紫色Contents. Introduction.1. Pursuit of Self-consciousness through Suffering.6A.
9、Cultural and Historical Background.61. Womanism62. Historical Events of the Novels Coming into Being.11B. Exploration of Self-consciousness through Suffering.121. Two Oppressions Upon the Black Women.12 2. Celies Unusual Childhood.13 3. Celies Unhappy Marriage life.14 4. The Stepsons Wife, Sophias A
10、ffection.15 5. Shugs Coming into Celies Life.166. Celies Leaving for Her Own Life.18 7. Netties Letters.198. Women Themselves, the Only Goddesses to Save Themselves.209. The Final Independence of Celie.21. Conclusion.24Notes.27Bibliography.29Pilgrims Progress: Celies Pursuit of Female Self-conscious
11、ness in The Color Purple. IntroductionAlice Walker is one of the most important and prominent contemporary black American woman writers. She is a novelist, a critic, and a poet at once. Her novel The Color Purple causes the critics attentions due to her new conception and unique techniques. After it
12、s publication in 1982, the novel immediately became the best seller in the United States. In 1983, it won both the Plitzer and the American Book Award. In 1984, it was adapted for film by Steven Spielberg. Alice Walker became the first Plitzer winner among the American black women writers. She rose
13、on the stage of the American literature like a brilliant star and has become well known to every family.Alice Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia on February 9, 1944. A black child born into poverty, Walker started her life with many disadvantages. Her family lived as sharecroppers in the Deep Sout
14、h. At the age of eight, Walker lost eyesight in one of her eyes when an elder brother accidentally shot her with a BB gun. Her childhood was typical like other black women of her time; she often had to confront racism and sexual abuse. Due to the loss of eyesight and scars on her face, Walker soon g
15、rew isolated from the rest of her community, spending most of her time reading and writing about people around her. During this period, she developed a deep bond with her mother and other women relatives who inspired her to become an independent black woman. Despite these obstacles, Walker grew up t
16、o be quite successful. She graduated at the top of her high school class and soon graduated from college. Walker lived in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement and was an avid activist for minority and womens rights. In 1983, Walker was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her most famous novelThe
17、Color Purple. Walker will be remembered not only as an award-winning author, but also as a leader for black womens rights.Alice Walkers achievements as a writer are equally at home with poetry and fiction-its worth remembering her first appearance in book form as a poet, not as a novelist or fiction
18、 writer. Indeed, as an essayist alone she would be a noteworthy presence in American letters. But it is her novels that she is best known for, and it is her novels that the full complexity of her vision is most evident in.Until now, Walker has published five novels: The Third Life and Grange Copelan
19、d (1970), Meridian (1976), The Color Purple (1982), The Temple of My Familiar (1989), and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992). Her short stories have been collected in two volumesIn Love & Trouble(1973) and You cant Keep a Good Woman Down (1982). Walkers publication of poetry has kept pace with her
20、novelsHer collections are Once (1968), Five Poems (1972), Revolutionary Petunias & Poems (1973), Good Night, Willie Lee, Ill See You in the Morning (1979), and Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful (1984). She has published two important collections of her own essays, In Search of Our Mothers
21、Gardens (1983) and Living by the Word (1988);a significant collection of the writings of Zora Hurston; and a young adultbiography of Langston Hughes.The Color Purple, Alice Walkers third novel, was published in 1982. The novel brought fame and financial success to its author. It also won her conside
22、rable praise and much criticism for its controversial themes. Many reviewers were disturbed by her portrayal of black males, which they found unduly negative. When the novel was made into a film in 1985 by Steven Spielberg, Walker became even more successful and controversial. While she was criticiz
23、ed for negative portrayal of her male characters, Walker was admired for her powerful portraits of black women. Reviewers praised her for her use of the epistolary form, in which written correspondence between characters comprises the content of the book, and her ability to use black folk English. R
24、eflecting her early political interests as a civil rights worker during the 1960s, many of her social views are expressed in the novel.In The Color Purple, as in her other writings, Walker focuses on the theme of double repression of black women in the American experience. Walker contends that black
25、 women suffer from discrimination by the white community, and from a second repression from black males, who impose the double standard of white society on women. As the civil rights movement helped shape Ms. Walkers thinking regarding racial issues at home, it also shaped her interest in Africa. Du
26、ring the 1960s, a strong interest in ethnic and racial identity stimulated many African Americans to look for their roots in Africa. The primary theme of The Color Purple, though, reflects Walkers desire to project a positive outcome in life, even under the harshest conditions. Her central character
27、 triumphs over adversity and forgives those who oppressed her. This central theme of the triumph of good over evil is no doubt the source of the books great success. The color purple is about thirty years of the life of Celie, a southern black woman born at the turn of the twentieth century, and gro
28、wing up in the South. In her teens，she is raped by her stepfather, who sells the two children whose mother is Celie. Celie is married off to Albert, whom she calls Mister. Albert expects Celie as a wife, to work in his fields and to accept his beatings which was, a common belief in the world among h
29、usbands at that time. Her sister, Nettie, runs away because of the mistreatment of her stepfather, and later is adopted by a black missionary couple who takes her to Africa. The novel consists of three sets of letters: Celies letters to God, about the incest and abuse she can not speak or write of t
30、o anyone else; Netties letters to Celie, mainly about her experience in Africa; and Celies letters to Nettie, emphasizing the theme of sisterhood at the core of this novels concerns. Celie writes letters to God in which she tells about her life-her roles as a daughter, a wife, a sister, and a mother
31、. In the course of her story, Celie meets a series of other Black women who help shape her life: Nettie, Shug Avery, Sofia, and Squeak. Throughout the story, though, Celie is the center of this community of women, the one who knows how to survive. This paper will discuss this topic “how the black wo
32、man finally find her real value of life” through several parts: unit structure of Blacks; the fate of Black slaves; the characters of the novel. It talks about the black womens statues in the society and the contradiction between the Black and the White, then between women and men. The real value at
33、 last breaks through the unit of the society, the community of Blacks, and then the old way that they hold. It expresses the whole meaning from the character of the author, the host in the novel and the community of Blacks. The aim is to tell womens real value of life in the society of USA and the w
34、orld. Pursuit of Self-consciousness through SufferingA. Cultural and Historical Background1. WomanismWalkers works are all inseparable from her deep understanding of the history and culture of the South which provide her with a way of seeing the contemporary world and a field of expressing the true
35、meaning of life for the black people, especially black women. Walker sensed the misery of black people, especially women, many of whom have lived the most miserable life at the bottom of American society for long. Black people suffered from inhumane slavery, plunder and oppression. And today, they s
36、till live in a dreadful plight under racial discrimination and segregation, which has been difficult to ravel out since the black stepped on the land. The history of black people itself has been imbued with humiliation. The division of lines of color was, and is still rigidly in place, though the ci
37、vil rights movement constantly claims credit for desegregation in schools, housing and public transportation. In the state Georgia in which Walker grew up, it was illegal for a black person to enter a public restaurant, library or swimming pool. Her marriage to a white man was also illegal in the st
38、ate of Mississippi. It is thus clear that, black females, together with black males have undergone great hardships from racial prejudice, yet they have also been fretted by sexual discrimination inside. Black men frequently vent depression, frustration and indignation on their long-suffering wives,
39、who can find nowhere to take it out. Suffering from racial and sexual oppression, black women have to endure more than black men and white women. They even live beyond the margin where black men and white women are respectively kept, in the white patriarchal society.Miserable life experiences stimul
40、ated black women to write for themselves. However, it had been excluded out of the “mainstream” of American literature for a long time. Alice Walker discovered that her years at first a prestigious black college and then a prestigious white one had left her with a “blind spot” in her education for t
41、here she could hear “not one word about early black women writers”1. After moving to Mississippi in 1976, she audited a course at Jackson State University taught by the poet Margaret Walker, one of the few black women writers whose works were in print. Ironically, even there the focus was solely on
42、black male writers such as Langston Huges, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and James Baldwin; black women writers were mentioned, but not read, partly because their works were largely unavailable. Since most of the writing were out of print, or cast off, Walker could only found Zora Neale Hurston-an
43、excellent black woman writers name from “verbal footnotes” of white authoritative theories. When asked why black woman writer has been so ignored in America, Walker answered in an interview with John OBrien: shes a woman. Critics seem unusually ill-equipped to intelligently discuss and analyze the w
44、orks of black women. Generally they do not even make the attempt; they prefer, rather, to talk about the lives of black women writers, not about what they write. And, since black women writers are not-it would seem-very likable-until recently they were the least willing worshippers of male supremacy
45、-comments about them tend to be cruel. 2Being neglected, black female writers had to be kept in a state of silence for long. So readers could only see black women images-slaves or viragos-in the white literature or black male writers works, which could not truly or objectively reflect black womans w
46、orld inside out. As a result, since 1970s, Alice Walker, along with many other African-American women writers and critics, advocated Black Feminist Movement from different race, class, and cultural experiences. They endeavored to explore the complexity of black womanhood in white America so as to qu
47、est for their own literary tradition.In 1983, Alice Walker coined the term womanism to replace the word feminism and to express her appreciation of her own female gender. She defines the word womanist in the preface of her essay collection In Search of Our MothersGardens (1983) essentially as the one who is committed to the survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. This idea significantly expands the theory of feminism, thus coalesces a rich cross section of wome
