Abstract:In the late 1970s, a new situation appeared in African-American literature. A group of black female writers sprung up. Alice Walker (1944 - ) was one of them. Her novel The Color Purple (1982) attracted public attention with a new literary idea and a unique approach. And she won the highest award in 1983 the Pulitzer Prize. Walker described the changes of the heroine Celie from enslavement to the awakening of mind in a unique perspective. Many American critics have studied the novel from how black women find themselves, the epistolary style and narrative techniques. The study in America can be divided into five categories: the exposition of the hero Celie’s life course, the wake-up of the female consciousness, the probe of Walker’s “Womanist Ideas”, explore of the narrative mode and the use of epistolary style in the “purple”, the resolve of religious consciousness in the novel and the study of the author’s writing position and the national consciousness.

The thesis will study the following: The use of symbolism in The Color Purple, the presentation of double vision and the use of unique narrative language with modern characters in narration and structure. The first chapter is mainly about the introduction of the author and The Color Purple, which reveals the background of the black society. The second chapter describes the unique narrations in The Color Purple, which can be divided into the use of symbolism, the multiple points-of-view and double perspectives, the daily English of black society and the differences between the two sisters’ languages in their letters. From above, we can know more directly and vividly the living situation of black women and the changes of Celie. The last chapter is the conclusion. 

Keywords: Narrative Modernity  Symbolism  Epistolary  Multiple Points-of-View  Unique Narrative Language

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1. About Alice Walker.-1

1.2. The Color Purple- Her Representative Work.-1

1.3. Focus and Significance.-1

Chapter Two Analysis of The Narrative Modernity in The Color Purple-3

2.1. Use of Symbolism-3

2.1.1. Symbolism of The Color Purple.-3

2.1.2. Symbolism of Making Pants and Wearing Pants.-3

2.1.3. Symbolism of Sewing Quilts-4

2.2. Three Narrative Strategies in the Letters-5

2.2.1. Pronominal Shifts and Its Meaning.-5

2.2.2. Use of Multiple Points-of-View-6

2.2.3. Use of Double Perspectives.-7

2.3. Narrative Language-8

2.3.1.Use of the Living Language of U.S. Southern Blacks.-8

2.3.2. Differences between the Two Sisters’ Langusges in Their Letters-9

Chapter Three Conclusion-11

References-12