Resistance and Resilience in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

“I can be changed

by what happens

to me. But I refuse

to be reduced by it”

-Maya Angelou

The present paper titled “Resistance and Resilience in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple” is a study on Walker’s Womanism. Alice Walker introduced this term in her short story ‘Coming Apart’. She is a recipient of prestigious Pultizer Prize for her novel ‘The Color Purple’. She is the first black American writer to win this prominent prize. There are seventeen novels, short story collections, twelve non-fiction works and collections of essays and poetry to her credit. Womanism is having its genesis in black feminism. The Black feminism emphasis on gender, race, nation and class whereas womanism focuses on black women, their culture, oppression and determination. Black Feminism emerged as they were excluded from the feminism. The racist attitude was so predominant that the black women were neglected by the white women. It was Sojourner Truth an American abolitionist and activist for African American civil rights delivered a historic speech at Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio (1851) asked “Ain’t I a woman?”. In Nell Irvin Painter words “It was the time when most Americans thought of slaves as male and women as white, Truth embodied a fact that still bears repeating: Among the blacks are women; among the women, there are blacks.” Anna Julia Cooper is considered as “the Mother of Black Feminism” for her contribution, “A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South”. Ida Bell Wells was an American investigative journalist, who exposed lynching of African-Americans in the US. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancements of colored people (NAAC). She was also a teacher, newspaper editor and civil rights and women rights activist. In 2020 Ide B.Wells was honored with a Pulitzer Prize special citation as recognition for her courageous reporting on the violence against African Americans during the era of lynching. The inclusion of intersectionality in feminism displayed concern for black women. It focuses on multiple forms oppression at once and how it affects a person’s life.

The core value of womanism is the unity among females, to celebrate sisterhood. The novel ‘The Color Purple’ serves as a testament to feminism. It makes an attempt to define freedom, individuality and empowerment. It throws light on sexual exploitation, relationships, racial and gender discrimination also. The sexual violence displayed on the women crushes them inside and they resist in silence. Finally their resilience is remarkable. The black women exhibit immense strength in accepting their situation and to face their challenges in an optimistic attitude. They don’t indulge in self-pity or blaming their males. They are thinking genders and strive hard towards their rewarding resolution. It is noteworthy that black women were in dire need of womanism as they were neglected and excluded by the white feminists in the first and second wave feminism. In the third wave feminism they are included with the theory of intersectionality and womanism. Womanism is much more than feminism. It can be termed humanism as it concentrates on the upliftment of both male and female. Though females are oppressed directly by men, womanism creates scope for men to become a human first rather than confirming himself as a man physically. Womanism gives freedom to define one’s sexuality. Alice Walker rightly quotes “Womanist is to feminist as purple to lavender”.

Womanism is not for black women or white women it is pertinent for all the women in the world. Womanism urges need for the unity among women to uplift one another rather than accusing or fighting against the male oppressor. This paper is indeed a reminder in the present scenario of competitive corporate world where women are fighting against each other to inculcate sisterhood and honor womanhood.

Keywords: Resistence, Resilience, Maya Angelou, The color purple