1、.淺議紫色中黑人女性的覺醒與抗?fàn)帉W(xué)院畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計(jì)） .;Black Womens Awakening and Resistance in The Color PurpleBy *Submitted to the Department of Foreign Languages of Shandong University of Political Science and Law in Partial Fulfillment to the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in EnglishUnder the Supervision

2、 of Professor *February, 2012淺議紫色中的黑人女性的覺醒與抗?fàn)幷喊愃刮挚耸敲绹?guó)文學(xué)史上最著名的黑人女作家之一。她的代表作品紫色發(fā)表于1982年，一經(jīng)出版便引起了評(píng)論界轟動(dòng)，并獲得普利策文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)和美國(guó)國(guó)家圖書獎(jiǎng)。艾麗斯沃克深受女姓主義影響，并把爭(zhēng)取種族平等、女性解放作為其畢生的事業(yè)，她的這種女姓主義思想在小說紫色中得以體現(xiàn)。小說紫色深刻分析了黑人女性所遭受的來自種族主義和性別主義的雙重壓迫，揭示了阻礙黑人女性覺醒與獲得解放的因素，呼喚黑人女性自我意識(shí)的覺醒，把爭(zhēng)取女性平等的斗爭(zhēng)擴(kuò)大到黑人群體中。小說揭露了黑人男性和白人對(duì)黑人女性的歧視和壓迫，并展現(xiàn)了黑人女性團(tuán)結(jié)一

3、致擺脫壓迫，重建黑人男性和女性之間的和諧關(guān)系。本文旨在闡述紫色中黑人女性的覺醒與抗?fàn)幰约八齻冇X醒抗?fàn)幍脑颉Ｈ墓卜譃樗恼隆５谝徽聻橐裕饕榻B艾麗斯沃克的生平和她最著名的小說紫色；第二章主要闡述黑人女性所遭受的雙重壓迫黑人男性的性別歧視和壓迫以及白人的種族歧視和壓迫；第三章分為兩部分介紹紫色中黑人女性的覺醒與解放：第一部分闡述促使黑人女性覺醒與抗?fàn)幍脑颍诙糠謴?qiáng)調(diào)黑人女性從逆來順受到覺醒抗?fàn)幍霓D(zhuǎn)變過程，黑人女性團(tuán)結(jié)一致擺脫壓迫，獲得獨(dú)立，重新構(gòu)建了男女之間的和諧關(guān)系；第四章是結(jié)論，對(duì)全文進(jìn)行總結(jié)并重申重要觀點(diǎn)。關(guān)鍵詞：艾麗斯沃克，紫色，黑人女性，覺醒，抗?fàn)嶣lack Womens Aw

4、akening and Resistance in The Color PurpleAbstract: Alice Walker is one of the most outstanding black women writers in American Literature. The Color Purple, published in 1982, is considered as her representative work. The novel has aroused great reverberation since its publication and also makes Al

5、ice Walker win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Greatly influenced by feminism, Alice Walker regarded achieving racial equality and women liberation as her life career, which was greatly reflected in the novel The Color Purple. The novel deeply analyzed the double oppression of black

6、women, which were racism and sexism and revealed the barriers of black women awakening and liberation. It encouraged black women to wake up and fight for selfhood. It expanded the struggle for the black womens equal rights. The novel exposed the black men and the white peoples oppression and discrim

7、ination to black women. This thesis will analyze how the black women characters in The Color Purple seek self-identity under the two oppressions from and the reason of their awakening. The specific contents will be divided into four chapters. Chapter one is the introduction part, which introduces th

8、e basic information about Alice Walker and her most famous novel The Color Purple. Chapter two focuses on the double oppression that the black women suffer, which are the sexual discrimination and oppression from the black men and the racial discrimination and oppression from the white people. Chapt

9、er three emphasizes the awakening and liberation of black women from two different aspects. The first aspect analyzes the factors which contribute to the awakening and resistance of the black women in The Color Purple; the second part introduces black womens transformation from submission to rebelli

10、on. Chapter four is the conclusion part which delivers a summary and restates the theme of this thesis.Key Words: Alice Walker, The Color Purple, black women, awakening, resistanceContent摘要i關(guān)鍵詞iAbstractiiKey WordsiiChapter One Introduction11.1 Basic Information about Alice Walker11.2 About The Color

11、 Purple1Chapter Two Black Womens Double oppression32.1 Black Womens Sexual Oppression from the Black Men32.2 Black Womens Racial Oppression from the White People4Chapter Three Black Womens Awakening and Resistance73.1 Black Womens Awakening73.2 Black Womens Resistance9Chapter Four Conclusion11Biblio

12、graphy12Black Womens Awakening and Resistance in The Color PurpleChapter One Introduction1.1 Basic Information about Alice Walker Alice Walker (1944- ) is one of the most influential African-American black women writers in American literature. She was born on February 9, 1944 and was the eighth and

13、the last child of a sharecropper family in a small rural town in Eatonton, Georgia. When she was eight, her brother accidently shot her in the eye and then she became blind in her right eye, which also made her bore an ugly scar. Thinking herself to be ugly, she became depressed, solitary and just h

14、id herself in a room all the time. However, this period provided her with a good chance to read a lot of books, which played a very important role in her later writing career. She attended Spellman college from 1961 to 1963 and then transferred to Sarah Lawrence college, earned a B.A in 1965. During

15、 her college life, she was very interested in the U.S Civil Rights Movement and continued the activism after graduation, which influenced her writing of her novels. Another movement that deeply affected her was the Womens Liberation Movement, which made Alice Walker realized the necessity of feminis

16、m and the necessity for black women to rebel and win freedom under the double oppression of society and family. Greatly affected by feminism, Alice Walker regarded striving for racial equality and women liberation as her life career. Alice Walker is a prolific writer whose work includes poetry, nove

17、ls, short stories, essays and criticism. Her works like 1965-To Hell with Dying (short stories), 1973-In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women (a collection of short stories), 1976-Meridian (novel), 1982-The Color Purple (novel), 1985-Horse Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful (poetry)，and so on.

18、 Among all her works, the novel The Color Purple is the most famous one, which made Walker become the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize and it was also awarded the American Book Award in 1983 and National Critics Association Award.1.2 About The Color PurpleAs we all know, The Color Purple

19、is Alice Walkers representative work. The novel aroused great reverberation in the critical field, and created a lot of enlightening of its form, content and theme after its publication in 1982. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the American Book Award for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circ

20、le Award in 1983. In 1985, the novel was made into a very popular movie by Steven Spielberg. The Color Purple tells the story of Celie, a poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old black girl living in rural Georgia, who is also the protagonist and narrator of the novel. Celie writes to God to tell about h

21、er lifeher roles as daughter, wife, sister and mother, because she undergoes the double oppression since childhood. The novel is composed by 92 letters which include the letters Celie writes to God, the letters Celie writes to Nettie and the letters Nettie writes to Celie. The novel tells a story of

22、 how the heroine becomes an independent, confident and courageous woman from a meek, timid, and submissive black woman from. The story happened in the south of Georgia. Celie was violently raped by her stepfather Alfonso many times, but she dared not to say to anybody except God because her stepfath

23、er threatened her. Celie had two children but they were taken away immediately by Alfonso when they were born. Later Alfonso married her to Mr. Albert, who just considered Celie as a tool for sex and housework. As a result, Celie endured a hard and loveless life. Albert even had evil intentions on h

24、er sister, Nettie. So Nettie ran away and in the following thirsty years, Celie didnt hear from her. Being illness, Shug Avery, an American-African singer also Alberts lover, was brought back to his home. Under the good care of Celie, Shug gradually recovered and established a good friendship with C

25、elie. Influenced by Shug, Celie became confident and also learned to appreciate herself. Later, with the help of Shug, she found that Albert had secretly kept Netties letters to her for many years. She was so angry that she left Albert finally. She got economic independence by making pants. After Al

26、phonso died, Celie inherited the house that her biological father left. On the other hand, Albert went down slope after Celie left him. After introspection, he transformed to be a good man and became friends with Celie. In the end, Celie reunited with her sister and her own children. Celie not only

27、won her respect, love and dignity, but also established a harmonious relationship with men. Chapter Two Double Oppression on Black WomenAs is known to all of us, in the Bible, the first woman is created by God from a rib of Adam, the first man in the world. From that time on, women were considered t

28、o be mens subsidiary which makes them always in the submissive position to men. They live in the bottom of the society and they dont have the equal rights with men. Both white and black women are in the same miserable situation that women are oppressed by men. However, a black family is worse and mo

29、re complicated than a white one because the blacks are in the lowest status in American social structure. According to the racial segregation and discrimination, white people treat black people badly which imposes great physical pain and mental anguish on them. When black men know that they could no

30、t overturn the white oppression and could not change their social status, they are depressed and need a way to let off their frustration and to reestablish their lost masculine power. Under this circumstance, the black women are the best choice. As a result, the black women endure both sexual and ra

31、cial discrimination and oppression from not only white people but also black men. 2.1 Black Womens Sexual Oppression from the Black Men As we all know, people live in the patriarchal society for a very long period of time. In a patriarchal family, men are in the absolutely status and authority and t

32、hey have the power to control womens destiny and to confine womens ideas and way of living, which makes both white and black women in the miserable situation; That is, women are oppressed by men. However, white womens situation are better than black womens, white women just bear the oppression from

33、white men while black women endure the oppression not only from white men but also from black men. In The Color Purple，Alice Walker portrays several black women characters who are the victims of sexual oppression, such as Celie, Sofia and Shug. Now we will take Celie as example to tell about how the

34、 black women suffer from the gender discrimination and oppression. The protagonist Celie is a typical representative of this kind of black woman. The oppression that Celie suffers can be divided into two parts. The first oppression comes from her stepfather, Alphonso. Because Celies mother is ill an

35、d cant meet her husbands sexual demand any more, Alphonso turns to Celie to vent his sexual desire. Her stepfather threatens her that she is not allowed to tell anyone about her suffering in the family. He warns her that if she tells to other people, maybe he will take revenge to her mother or her m

36、other will die because she can not accept the fact that her daughter is sexually abused. This command shows that Celie should not resist her stepfather in the surface, but in the extended meaning, it reflects a social phenomenon that women should completely obey mens will and do whatever men command

37、. Raped by her stepfather, Celie has been pregnant twice and gives birth to a boy and a girl respectively, who are taken away immediately by her stepfather. Celies mother doesnt know the truth and keeps cursing Celie until her death because her stepfather tells her mother that she has love affairs w

38、ith some other man. When Celie is pregnant for the first time, her stepfather deprives her rights of being educated, which makes Celie nearly an illiterate person. Other than what mentioned above, her stepfather also beats her violently and unreasonably and she has to do all kinds of housework. What

39、 the role she plays is just a housekeeper and her stepfathers slave. Being tired of her stepfather, Celie is married to Mr. Albert in the cost of giving Albert two cows when she is 20 years old, which brings Celie another kind of oppression, the oppression from her husband. Marriage can not save her

40、 out of the miserable life but continues and even becomes worse. In the new family, Celie still undergoes various oppression and humiliation. Her husband just considers her as a tool of meeting his sex desire and a mammy to look after his four children, so he does everything he wants on Celie withou

41、t considering her feelings. He considers Celie to be useless but just a piece of property of him. While his son, Harbo asks why he beat Celie so frequently, his answer is that Celie is his wife, so he has the right to do everything he wants on her, he also can entirely control her life, her will and

42、 her destiny. Whats worse, Celie doesnt think its wrong but just accepts it as her destiny. She considers what happened to her is right, reasonable and natural, so that she never considers fighting against that; instead, she just keeps silent. From what happens to Celie, we can see that the phenomen

43、on that women are oppressed by men is very common; women are totally controlled by men, especially the black women. Bearing the sexual oppression, women are just mens subsidiary and slave.2.2 Black Womens Racial Oppression from the White PeopleAmerican is a multi-race country and the race issue is a

44、lways an important part in American life. In a very long period of time in the white-dominated society, the whites consider the blacks to be inferior in social position, so the blacks are forced to work for the whites and they have to live at the margin of the society and face the problem of racial

45、discrimination and oppression. All the social systems are built in order to meet the interests of the white people, so once the black people break them or commit an offence against the whites, they will be severely punished.As a black woman writer, Alice Walker has written at length on the issue of

46、race and gender. She has a strong sense of racial injustice and pays much attention to the blacks unfair treatment in society. So in her works, she always depicts many black women characters that are brave enough to go against the racial oppression in black community. As mentioned before, black wome

47、n suffer from double oppression, not only the sexual oppression but also the racial oppression. Sofia in The Color Purple is such a kind of person. Sofia, another female character in The Color Purple, is brave, strong and independent. She is so brave that she can stand up to fight against the gender

48、 oppression in the black community. She falls in love with Alberts son, Harpo, but she has to ask for Alberts permission of their marriage; unfortunately, Albert not only rejects their request but also insults Sofia, however, to his surprise, Sofia rebuts him. Fighting for her marriage, Sofia finall

49、y gets married with the man she loves. She not only fights for her marriage but also fights with her beloved husband. Being affected by his father, Harpo always tries to and makes every effort to control his wife, Sofia. In order to maintain her own identity and dignity, Sofia has to fight against h

50、er husband. Refusing to be controlled by her husband, Sofia moves out with her children to live with her sisters. From what mentioned above, we can see that Sofia is indeed a brave and strong black woman, however, no matter how brave and strong she is, she still cant escape from the racial oppressio

51、n. After leaving Harpo, Sofia and her children are in the street one day, they encounter the white mayor and his wife, Millie, and when Millie notices that Sofias children are clean and tidy, she believes that Sofia has the ability to handle the chores. Then she asks Sofia to be her maid, to her sur

52、prise, Sofia says “Hello no” and even knocks down the mayor for self-defense. In the white-dominating society, laws are established to protect the interests of the white people; obviously, Sofias behavior breaks the law, so she is put into the jail. In the jail, she is nearly tortured to death both

53、physically and mentally: she is beaten so violently that she loses her eye sight in one eye and she is also forced to do heavy laundry work in the prison without a rest, all of which make Sofia not strong any more but very weak and looks like a dying person. Several months later, Sofia is released f

54、rom the prison on the condition that she agrees to be the maid of the mayor. In the mayors family, Sofia loses her freedom that she is not allowed to go out to see her children. Millie doesnt know how to drive so that she asks Sofia to teach her, and one day, she tries to drive Sofia home and promis

55、es Sofia that she can go with her children for one day, however, Millie cant manage the car so she forces Sofia drives her home, which ruins Sofias first visit to home, which makes Sofia just stay with her children for five minutes. Sofia is really brave enough to challenge the whites authority but

56、her resistance brings her nothing but a mass of bruises. From what Sofia suffers, it is obvious that black people especially black women are facing the racial oppression and the black people who challenge the social superiority of the white people are doomed to be failure , other than that, they wil

57、l also cost a bitter price. Sofia is really a poor victim of racial oppression, so are the other black women. Chapter Three Black Womens Awakening and ResistanceIn American, women especially the black women are oppressed by the black men and the white people for a very long time and under the double

58、 oppression, they are considered to be worthless and their basic rights are deprived, and they cant realize their value but just rely on men, which aggravate their oppressed situation. After being oppressed for a long time, some of the black women begin to awaken and try their best to fight against the double oppression to gain their dignity and independence. 3.1 Black Womens Awakening In the American society, as a result of racial prejudice and sexual discrimination, black women have been oppressed both physically and mentally. However, many black women succeed in realizing their self-indep