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Analysis of the Color Purple

Alice Walker’s depiction of a southern black woman in the novel The Color Purple was the most powerful I’ve ever read in my life. One reason this was so was because Walker applied a variety of literary devices to the story, giving it more of an impact. She used symbolism, applied her tone as an author, and used a specific dialect for her characters, all in letter form. It’s important to the author to use these devices in their novels, especially if they are trying to convey a certain message or issue to their readers. A particularly weighty one at that. If it had not been for the vivid vernacular placed upon her southern-born characters or the use of written letter form as an alternative to the form frequently utilized in novels, this story wouldn’t have left such a mark or rather, a stamp, on my soul.

The appearance of symbolism in The Color Purple is not as glaring to the readers’ eye as one may think. Though you don’t read the actual words of the title until towards the end of the book, Alice Walker didn’t just pluck the name of her award-winning novel out of thin air. On page 291, Celie is showing Shug her completely purple and red room. She even shows her a little purple frog perched o

. . .

You must be aware, as a reader, of her intellect to be able to pick up on Celie’s writing maturation.

As was most prominent, the book had a distinctive dialect, seeming almost badly written to untested readers. With no symbolism, one cannot understand the title, or it may not have been named The Color Purple in the first place. An absence of tone would leave the story naked of a purpose or attitude. When he took his father’s advice, Harpo got nothing but a black eye and a split lip. I am not sure of the exact significance of the actual color purple in this context, but the use of any color at all at this point in the story symbolizes a character growth in Celie. Through a good chunk of the book she is living a drab and colorless life, exhibiting no emotions of her own. His father said he should make her “mind”, as in “teach her the woman’s role” by slapping her around. Walker does a terrific job of showing her audience what it’s like to be not only a person like Celie, but a black woman. n the mantlepiece, carved for her by her husband Albert. The downside is, views from just one person tend to be a little biased.

Alice Walker’s main literary device in The Color Purple was the written letter form. In fact, Walker used just the right kind of vernacular to draw a picture of her characters’ lives just vivid enough so that we as readers could experience what was happening and what they were thinking. Without even hearing Sofia admit to her self-protective violence, you can deduce that she had hit her husband because of her previous displays of a rebellious and determined temperament.

Approximate Word count = 1316
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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