Feminine Narrative in Alice Walkers The Color Purple Essay

In the past two centuries, western mainstream cultures have subscribed to the belief that crying is commonly associated with femininity, regardless of one’s gender (Warhol 182). A considerable amount of literature, including Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, has been considered by critics as effectively using â€Å"narrative techniques† to make readers cry (Warhol 183). Emphasizing on these matters, Robyn R. Warhol, the author of â€Å"Narration Produces Gender: Femininity as Affect and Effect in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple†, analyzes the usefulness of the novel’s narration approaches, focusing on the meaning of Nettie’s letters to Celie and especially the fairy-tale unity in Celie’s last letter. Using The Color Purple as illustrated example,†¦show more content†¦Even more meaningful than the established fortune that Celie inherits from her birth-father and promising future of her pant-making business, Celie’s unity with her lover Shug, her sister Nettie, her children and with others whom she treasures, including her husband Albert whom she has forgiven, are the factors that produce â€Å"good cry† (186). The beginning of this letter, where Celie’s address to â€Å"[†¦] God, [†¦] stars, [†¦] trees, [†¦] sky, [†¦] peoples, [†¦] everything† gives Warhol the belief that even the novel’s audience is included in this celebration of happiness (Walker 291). In the end, Warhol crowns this fairy-tale happy ending as the most cry-worthy moment of this novel. This supports her previous argument that â€Å"the ‘good cry’ is much more often evoked by scenes of triumph than by scenes of sadness† (183). In consideration of â€Å"narrative techniques†, Robyn R. Warhol draws attention to the novel’s treatment of â€Å"internal focalization† and defines it as the way of disclosing narrator’s â€Å"pe rceptions (visions, thoughts, feeling, etc.)† through the novel’s narration (183). The Color Purple takes form of an epistolary fiction, where Celie and Nettie take turns being narrator. Factor found to be influencing this form of novel is the representation of the narrator as being suffered by other characters’ oppression. Warhol points out the importance of developing from the readers’ identification with â€Å"suffering characters†Show MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Color Purple 1043 Words   |  5 PagesErin Malkow 4-9-17 WST. In this essay, I am going to analyze the intersectionality of oppression in Alice Walkers novel, The Color Purple. I am going to show how the political categories of race, sexuality and gender play a role throughout. I am also going to discuss Walker’s own term, â€Å"Womanism† and how that plays throughout the story. 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