Symbolism In The Color Purple By Alice Walker

Symbolism was a major literary element that is developed throughout The Color Purple. A model or image of God in the novel was a truly disturbing and yet a touching dedication to the female spirit and its search for equality, acceptance and independence. The meanings of names, clothes, quilting, occupations, power, and colors are only a few examples of the symbols used by the author to develop the characters of the story. No matter how hard and long Celies looks, it seems impossible to find love and happiness for herself. The purple color itself symbolized love while religion was often seen as offering a path of transformation-a way that leads through to happiness. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker used the symbolism of the letters to God,

Her father, who was in her words, "wonderful at math but a terrible farmer," earned only $300 a year from sharecropping and dairy farming (Byrd). Her mother supplemented the family income by working as a maid. Living under Jim Crow Laws, Walker 's parents resisted landlords who expected the children of black sharecroppers to work the fields at a young age (Byrd). A white plantation owner said to her black people had “no need for education.” Minnie Lou Walker said, "You might have some black children somewhere, but they don’t live in this house. Don’t you ever come around here again talking about how my children don’t need to learn how to read and write?” Her mother enrolled Alice in first grade at the age of

Walker became interested in the U.S. civil rights movement which was due to the influence of activist Howard Zinn, one of her professors at Spelman College. Continuing the activism that she participated in during her college years, Walker returned to the South where she became involved with voter registration drives, campaigns for welfare rights, and children 's programs in Mississippi. Alice Walker met Martin Luther King Jr. when she was a student at Spelman College in Atlanta in the early 1960s. Walker credits King for her decision to return to the American South as an activist for the Civil Rights Movement. She marched with hundreds of thousands in August in the 1963 March on Washington. As a young adult, she volunteered to register black voters in Georgia and Mississippi.
Walker has written several other novels, including “The Temple of My Familiar” and “Possessing the Secret of Joy”. She has published a number of collections of short stories, poetry, and other published work. Walker expresses the struggles of black people, particularly women, and their lives in a racist, sexist, and violent society. Her writings also focus on the role of women of color in culture and history. Walker is a respected figure in the liberal political community for her support of unconventional and unpopular