ABSTRACT

Title of Dissertation:

A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL

STRATEGIES IN SELECTED NARRATIVES OF ALICE
WALKER
Robert Stephen Mokaya Matunda, Doctor of
Philosophy, December 2009

Dissertation chaired by: Wendell Jackson, Ph.D.

Department of English and Language Arts

The objective of this investigation was to analyze rhetorical

strategies of Alice Walker in four narratives, namely, The Color Purple, In
Search of Our Mothers Gardens, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and Now Is
the Time To Open Your Heart. As such, this study helps to expand the body
of investigation relating linguistics to literature and medium to message.
To address the problem, the writer relied upon the method of discourse
analysis,

specifically

employing

the

linguistic

tools

of

phonology,

morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, as well as a combination

of theoretical frameworks, including Paul H. Grices conversational
implicature, Gill Seidels discourse analysis, Edward Finegans concepts of
language use, George Yules theoretical writings, Edward Saids colonial

discourse theory, and certain feminist reductionist concepts. Even more

specifically, the writer examined Walkers phonological processes; the
patterns of word formation; the syntactic features that Walker employed
to negotiate with her readers, including negation, verb deletion, tense
variation, subordination, voice variation, and co-ordination; her rhetorical
use of ambivalence as a semantic device; and her manipulation of
fronting, code switching, and negation as pragmatic strategies. The study
demonstrated that Alice Walkers rhetorical practices contributed to
realistic presentation of her characters; underscored power differentials
among these characters, and between the characters and her targeted
audience, and even asserted a unity between these characters and
Walker herself; highlighted moments of intensity; uncovered many of her
ambivalent expressions as part of a deliberate artistic plan; and allowed
Walker to advocate for change on various issues like religion, race, and
gender bias. All in all, though we do not frequently imagine that writers
purposefully manipulate the linguistic features of their creative work, it is
clear that Walker is very much concerned with managing many linguistic
elements to achieve her artistic effects, and this fact only reinforces the
impression that Walker is an artist of complexity and depth.

A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL STRATEGIES IN SELECTED

NARRATIVES OF ALICE WALKER
by
Robert Stephen Mokaya Matunda

A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirement for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

December 2009

UMI Number: 3396405

All rights reserved

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A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF RHETORICAL STRATEGIES IN SELECTED

NARRATIVES OF ALICE WALKER
by
Robert Stephen Mokaya Matunda

has been approved

October 2009

DISSERTATION COMMITTEE APPROVAL:

________________________, Chair
Wendell Jackson, Ph.D.

________________________
Anita Pandey, Ph.D.

________________________
Milford Jeremiah, Ph.D.

ii

Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to my late sister, Margaret Nyaboke
Kanji, who passed in 2008 when I was still researching this study; my other
special sister, Grace Bonareri Mayieka, who saw me through my high
school and undergraduate studies; and my parents, Billiah Mongina and
Duke Matunda Osoro, who worked very hard to afford my educational
expenses. Indeed, my father and the above three women have
significantly shaped my life.

iii

Acknowledgement
I thank Dr. Wendell Jackson because his exceptional advice,
supervision, and commitment enabled me to complete this research. As
my dissertation chair I highly commend him for agreeing to read my work,
even after retiring. I recognize the good ideas offered to me by Dr. Anita
Pandey and Dr. Milford Jeremiah, who similarly exhibited unfounded
competencies in linguistics. Equally, I acknowledge the peace and
calmness of my children, Michelle and Michael, and of my wife, Angeline
Motari, during the researching and writing of this work. Last, Morgan State
University deserves my humble appreciation for granting me fellowship for
both my masters and doctorial programs.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement ......................................................................................... iv
List of Figures .................................................................................................... vii
Chapter One:
Introduction ........................................................................1
1.1: Statement of the Problem. .......................................................................1
1.2: Need and / or Timeliness. .........................................................................1
1.3: Delimitation. ................................................................................................3
1.4: Review of the Literature. ...........................................................................5
1.5: Theoretical Frameworks ..........................................................................17
1.6: Chapter Summaries.................................................................................20
Chapter Two:

Phonology, Speech Variance, and

Cultural Identity. ................................................................24
2.1: Introduction ..............................................................................................24
2.2: Methodology ............................................................................................25
2.3: Theoretical Framework ...........................................................................26
2.4: Phonological Processes in The Color Purple ........................................27
2.5: Pronunciations and Contexts ................................................................34
2.6: Speech Variance and Cultural Identity ...............................................36
2.7: Summary ...................................................................................................42
Chapter Three:
Morphology and Power Dichotomy. ..........................44
3.1: Introduction. .............................................................................................44
3.2: Methodology. ...........................................................................................44
3.3: Theoretical Framework. ..........................................................................45
3.4: Analysis of Random Words and Phrases. .............................................51
3.5: Foreign Language and Cultural Alienation. ........................................76
3.6: Four Correspondences between Nettie and Celie. ..........................79
3.7: Lexical Items and Power Differences in the Four Pilot Studies. ...... 108
3.8: Contrast of the Four Pilot Studies. ....................................................... 116
3.9: Summary. ............................................................................................... 117
Chapter Four:
Syntax and Style .......................................................... 118
4.1: Introduction. .......................................................................................... 118
4.2: Methodology. ........................................................................................ 120
4.3: Theoretical Framework. ....................................................................... 121
4.4: Syntactic Styles in The Color Purple. ................................................. 122
4.5: Syntactic Styles in In Search. ............................................................. 131
4.6: Syntactic Styles in Now Is the Time. .................................................. 134
v

4.7: Summary. ............................................................................................... 138

Chapter Five:

Discourse Analysis: Semantics as

a Rhetoric Strategy. ....................................................... 139
5.1: Introduction. .......................................................................................... 139
5.2: Methodology. ........................................................................................ 140
5.3: Theoretical Framework. ....................................................................... 141
5.4: Characters and Conscious Ambivalence in
Possessing ...................................................................... 142
5.5: Themes and Ambivalence in Possessing. ......................................... 165
5.6: Themes in The Color Purple. .............................................................. 186
5.7: Unconscious Ambivalence. ................................................................ 201
5.8: Summary ................................................................................................ 226
Chapter Six:
Discourse Analysis: Walkers Pragmatic Devices. ........ 228
6.1: Introduction. .......................................................................................... 228
6.2: Methodology. ........................................................................................ 229
6.3: Theoretical Framework. ....................................................................... 229
6.4: The Impact of Color on Pragmatics Now Is The Time. .................... 231
6.5: The Effect of Negation on Pragmatics. ............................................. 239
6.6: Revolution and its Impact on Pragmatics. ....................................... 244
6.7: The Impact of Color on Pragmatics in In Search. ........................... 261
6.8: The Effect of Negation on Pragmatics. ............................................. 273
6.9: Walkers Revolution and Its Impact on Pragmatics. ....................... 282
6.9.1: Summary ............................................................................................. 299
Chapter Seven:

Summaries, Conclusions, and

Recommendation....................................................... 300
7.1: Summaries .............................................................................................. 300
7.2: Conclusions....................................................... 301
7.3: Recommendation for Further Studies. ............................................... 303
Appendices. ................................................................................................. 304
Appendix 1: First Pilot Study (The Color Purple 126131) ........................ 304
Appendix 2: Second Pilot Study (The Color Purple 143145) ................ 309
Appendix 3: Third Pilot Study (The Color Purple 21719). ....................... 311
Appendix 4: Fourth Pilot Study (The Color Purple 3). .............................. 313
Appendix 5: Additional Word Formation Patterns. ................................. 314
Works Cited. .................................................................................................. 315

vi

List of Figures

Figures

Pages

Figure 2.1 Orthographic Representations of Words. .................................28

Figure 3.1 Words and Categorization in Pilot Study1.109
Figure 3.2 Words and Categorization in Pilot Study 2............................. 114
Figure 3.3 Words and Categorization in Pilot Study 3.116
Figure 4.1 Syntactic Features in The Color Purple123

vii

Chapter One
Introduction
1.1: Statement of the Problem
This study examines linguistic rhetoric strategies in Alice Walkers
selected narratives with a view to discovering to what extent language
use, by the characters and /or the writer, shapes her literary work. To
assess Walkers linguistic styles, the current study focuses on The Color
Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy, In Search of Our Mothers Gardens,
and Now Is the Time To Open Your Heart. In this investigation the
researcher employs discourse analysis to examine Alice Walkers linguistic
strategies on various levels, including phonology, morphology, syntax,
semantics, and pragmatics.
1.2: Need and/or Timeliness
This study is necessary because it synthesizes linguistics and literature
by demonstrating, as Pandey has clearly identified that medium is
message (Critical Inquiry 38). Therefore, one of the strongest indicators
of the value of linguistics analysis of literary works such as Walkers is
discourse analysis. Discourse analysis of Walkers works demonstrates
rounded characters whose voices we can actually hear. Without a
discourse analysis we are likely not to recognize certain characters
bidialectal repertoire; character development and cultural changes they
undergo; characters linguistic empowerment or participation; and the
1

authors inherent American ideology as evidenced by her representation

of Africa and Africans (discussed in Chapter Five). For instance, Walker
creates some characters, especially males, which are sometimes denied
a voice and females with the ability to exercise speech variant shift or
code switching in varying scenarios. These differences suggest a distinctly
gendered pattern to the characters use of language. This study examines
some of these unique language strategies, which provide a significant
insight into the social values of the speakers or characters studied in
relation to how power roles are consistent with language use. Language
strategies reflect the peoples social values. Consequently, a linguists
conception of how speech expressions function is important because this
knowledge explains diverging views based on peoples social standings
especially when interacting with users of different speech variants, among
other reasons. However, readers should recognize that a speakers or a
writers choice of language use is deliberate to some extent. Of course,
Michael Lynch argues that an artist may distance oneself from his or her
characters, and that issues related to contrived versus uncontrived,
natural language versus constructed findings, and even identity change,
as is possible in cyberspace, are current in the ongoing debate in stylistics
(533).

A focus on Walkers novels will reveal to readers that language is

not only an effective avenue of communication, but also an effective
artistic medium that writers can employ to entertain and educate their
audience. Therefore, a stylistic study of her works will enable readers,
especially those who are not conversant with Black speech expressions, to
better understand and to appreciate novels written in such a language. It
is imperative that linguists and students of literature explore further how
linguistic strategies can help them in studying Literature. Indeed, it is the
linguistic knowledge or awareness, which can assist students to discover
deeper meaning in literary works. From a personal point of view, a style a
writer employs in presenting experiences of people in any text will
determine the number of readers who will buy it. For instance, novels,
which employ obscene expressions, although what people consider
obscene is relative, will not sale well in conservative societies. Often, some
readers enjoy reading novels, which use a variety of styles, and which
have characters that they can identify with based on the characters
experience.
1.3: Delimitation
This study will focus on a random sample of Alice Walkers novels
those written between 1980 and 2004 as opposed to her early works,
because this was the period she wrote many of her most prominent
novels, as well as because, in the view of the researcher, they seem to
3

best depict her as a prolific orator. Furthermore, it is during this period that
she embraced such universal themes as oppression, race, and sexism,
among others. During this period, African-American writers choice of
language to express their experience was equally a significant issue,
especially because many African writers wanted to write in a language
that could facilitate their processes of cultural re-establishment. A study of
how Walkers linguistics plays a crucial role in literature, especially in
creating social consciousness among the people across the world is,
therefore, pertinent. Evidently, there is a repertoire of linguistic strategies
that can be researched in Alice Walkers novels, which literary critics often
assume. However, the current researcher will analyze each selected novel
according to its most prominent linguistic aspect.
Nonetheless, the investigator has preferred to evaluate selected
narratives instead of other literary genres because the novel is a longer
piece of art with adequate material for discussion, and it realistically
presents peoples experiences. Also, dialogue or conversation is central in
reflecting what people value. A focus on fiction is, therefore, important
because it provides adequate character conversations, which will be
useful in assessing linguistic rhetoric strategies in these novels. Besides, the
researcher will be indebted to occasionally draw from Alice Walkers
other works in the process of this research when necessary to support his
views.
4

1.4: Review of the Literature

The Literature for the current study will be divided into two
categories, including linguistic theoretical writings and literary critical
writings. These sub-groups are as follows:
a) Linguistic Theoretical Writings
Linguists have explored various topics to show how human beings
use language to explain concepts. There are several linguistic theorists
whose ideas may be relevant in the current study about rhetoric
strategies. Particularly, Noam Chomsky in Rules and Representations
provides a useful insight that can be helpful in this study because he
distinguishes grammatical and pragmatic competencies, and shows how
the two sometimes can find their place in a theory of performance that
takes into account the structure of memory and our mode of organizing
experience (89). Also, William Labov in his book, Language in the Inner
City: Studies in the Black English Vernacular, has examined the role of
language in the study of African-American literature and in various social
contexts, especially in American Black learning institutions (3). Although
Labovs study, for instance, covers much on African-American Vernacular
language, it does not directly examine Walkers discourse or discourses in
the way writers such as White C. Evelyns Alice Walker: A Life, Rosina LippiGreens English with an Accent, Joan N. Radner and Susan S. Lansers The
Feminist Voice: Strategies of Coding in Folklore and Literature, have done.
5

Labovs studies, as well as other linguists studies, which examine the role
of linguistics in literature, will be relevant in explaining Walkers stylistic
strategies.
Another linguist whose findings inform this study is Norman
Fairclough. In his book, New Labor: New Language?, he compares and
analyses rhetorical strategies between Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, former
American and British Presidents (192). Faircloughs framework provides
readers with a virtual Manual of Spin, complete with comprehensive
glossary. Not just for linguists, New Labor, New Language? is essential for
anyone who wants to decode the meaning behind the words of today's
writers and politicians. Furthermore, his Critical Discourse Analysis and
Language and Power texts, which employ an analytical framework, will
be relevant in this study. Language and Power explains how language
maintains and changes power relations in contemporary society and how
peoples understanding of these processes can enable them to resist and
change injustice (36). Similarly, Edward Finegan in his Language: Its
Structure and Use provides a useful framework on how language
sometimes can lead to categorization of people, which is also an issue
that is central in this investigation (399).
Gill Seidels The Nature of the Right discusses about right wing
discourse and power, and how minority writers often employ such
discourse to resist domination (7). The book has important essays focusing
6

on discourse strategies that minority writers employ in overcoming

domination. Seidels work informs this study on how Alice Walker in her
works breaks away from oppressive ideologies, and how she perceives
mans nature in defining the social order as a means of justifying sociocultural

inequalities,

especially

unfairness

related

to

motherhood,

reproduction, lesbianism, and female autonomy.

Indeed, within the social linguistic framework, Walkers defining
operations of the social order are different from what male literary works
employed in 19th Century Western society. For instance, whereas Seidels
The Nature proposes the reification of the notion of woman versus
humanization of the notion of man, Walker suggests the opposite, which is
the reification of the notion of man versus humanization of the notion of
woman. She also places the notion of woman in an independent
relationship with regard to the notion of man and / or woman (in this case,
as exemplified in her defense and encouragement of lesbianism). Also,
she places the woman on the forefront, and instead of the exclusion of
women, which happens in most patriarchal societies, Walker employs the
linguistic strategy of the exclusion of men. Gill Seidel indicates that
linguistic exchanges are a stake and a site of struggle (8). He, therefore,
reflects that conversations provide important grounds for debate, and
consequently, he distinguishes between majority and minority discourses.

Similarly, Guillaumin treats minority discourse as the discourse

produced by relatively powerless groups, who occupy a different
structural position in society (qtd. in Seidel 9). These powerless groups are
mainly women and members of minority groups and particularly, AfricanAmericans. Both Seidel and Guillaumin recognize that to consciously
adopt the viewpoint of minority discourse means recognizing ones minor
status, and recognizing domination, and it also implies an attempt to
understand the structural reasons for this domination, and the concrete
and symbolic status it confers.
Ernst Bloch concurs with both Seidel and Guillaumin by asserting
that women are oppressed when they are poor and workless, and when
they belong to a particular minority culture, but they are also oppressed,
marginalized, and excluded as women (124). Fixed gender roles, such as
motherhood, are part of a social hierarchy, and a celebration of virility
woven into a mystique of natural identity and destiny is a fundamental
feature of fascism and fascist discourse.
Also, Paul H. Grices theory of conversational implicature, in which
one of its maxims claims that a speaker should make contributions as
informative as is required for the current purposes of the exchange, will be
helpful in interpreting the meanings of Walkers expressions (166). The
researcher will advance his argument that Walker has a unique and
interesting style of choosing words to create meanings, and suggest that
8

a readers examination of particular words, word formations, and their

meaning implications, especially in The Color Purple, is pertinent in better
understanding of Walkers literary texts.
Paul

Werth

in

Conversation

and

Discourse:

Structure

and

Interpretation and H. Sacks in Theory and Analysis both examine why

languages should have theme processes and why they should involve
fronting, and they suggest that thematization and fronting are essential
because language is sensitive to the exigencies of the contexts in which it
is used and theme is the most important syntactic device in terms of
which the speaker or writer renders his or her work understandable (99).
Equally important is the work of Robert-Alain de Beaugrande and
Wolfgang U. Dressler, Introduction to Text Linguistics, which explores the
basic notions of textuality (cohesion, coherence, intention, acceptability,
informality, and intertextuality), including the evolution of text linguistics
that involves rhetoric or stylistics, discourse analysis, and functional
sentence perspective, many of which are central in this research (48).
Judith Baxter in Speaking Out: The Female Voice in Public Contexts
is an insightful text comprising a collection of essays by different authors
and discusses strategies female writers employ in theorizing their voices
not in the texts, but in the public contexts (3). However, Walkers style of
reconstructing female voices in her selected fiction relates well with
Baxters strategies. Similarly, in Don Kulick work, which is co-authored with
9

Deborah Cameron, The Language and Sexuality Reader, they have

explored

gay

language,

identity,

community

sexual

styles,

and

performances and heteronorms that are speaking as heterosexual and

heterosexual linguistic styles (165). Furthermore, Camerons other book,
The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader, reflects on the quest for
womens voices in culture as evidenced in their discourse (215).
Other books on linguistic strategies which will provide relevant
backgrounds for the present study include Rosina Lippi-Greens English
with an Accent, Joan N. Radner and Susan S. Lansers The Feminist Voice:
Strategies of Coding in Folklore and Literature, and Deborah Tannens You
Just Dont Understand: Women and Men in Conversations, and White C.
Evelyns Alice Walker: A Life, among others. In English with an Accent,
which scrutinizes American attitudes toward language and dialect(s),
Rosina Lippi-Green discusses the way in which language is used to
perpetuate social structures and unequal power relations (15).
Also, Joan N. Radner and Susan S. Lanser in The Feminist Voice:
Strategies of Coding in Folklore and Literature propose a theory of coding
and a provisional formal typology of coding strategies in women's folklore
and literature (410). These writers show how within the dominant culture
women's creations and performances often covertly express their ideas
and attitudes, which define their experience. Similarly, Judith Butler in her
Gender Trouble illustrates how language and power impact on the
10

strategies of female displacement. Therefore, she bases her arguments on

a feminist theory that seems to oppose patriarchy, which is definitely
connected to the history of womens oppression that Walker discusses
about in her novels (Butler 40).
There are quite a number of essays that have explored topics
related to this study. Deborah Cameron in her Language and Ideologies
provides a distinction between language ideologies in terms of
representations of language rather than, say, beliefs and attitudes, and
she highlights the reason why academicians prefer not to equate
language ideology with beliefs and attitudes, especially about language
as a way of avoiding the common sense identification of ideology with
false or objectionable beliefs (56). Attitude and belief are commonly
assumed to denote mental constructs, which belong to individuals.
Ideologies, in contrast, are social constructs. They are the ways of
understanding the world that emerge from interaction with particular
(public) representations of it. The study of language ideologies, then,
involves critics examining the texts and practices in which language are
represented in spoken and written forms.
Mary Bucholtzs essay in The Handbook of Language and Gender
discusses about language and gender, and particularly, how language
has increasingly become the study of discourse. She focuses on how
phonological, lexical, and other kinds of linguistic analysis continue to be
11

influential in the interdisciplinary investigation of discourse, always a robust

area of language and gender scholarship, which has become the central
approach of the field (97). Also, Miriam Meyeroff in her Claiming a Place:
Gender, Knowledge, and Authority as Emergent Properties reflects that
knowledge or authority is gendered based on her studies on aspects of
language use and gender ideologies at Vanuatu, in the Southwest
Pacific, and that gendered authority or knowledge underlies the
importance that linguistic strategies, which express empathy, play in the
speech of women, especially as evidenced in the way women use
inclusive pronouns (25).
b) Literary Critical Writings
There are several critical sources that informed this study. For
examples, Barbara Christians Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on
Black Women Writers, a collection of essays focusing on different AfricanAmerican writers views on feminism, the contrary women of Alice Walker,
self-identity, dynamics of difference, and creation of a universal literature
among other issues.
Also, Hommi K. Bhabha in The Location of Culture focuses on how
strategies of representation and empowerment come to be formulated in
the competing claims of communities where, despite shared histories of
deprivation and discrimination, the exchange of values, and meanings
may not be collaborative and dialogical, but may be profoundly
12

antagonistic, conflicting, and even incommensurable (46). Further,

Bhabha shows that the force of such a focus is borne out by the language
of recent social crises sparked off by histories of cultural differences.
Edward Said examines how the discourse of Orientalism has shaped
the literary world. His suggestion that Orientalism is a distribution of
geopolitical awareness into aesthetic, scholarly, economic, sociological,
historical, and philosophical texts; an elaboration of interests, exiting in
power moral power intellectual, and power cultural (distinction of a world
of unequal halves), in fact, informs this study (145).
Similarly, Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman have carried out a
study on the discourse of Orientalism in their work, Colonial Discourse and
Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, while Meta G. Carstarphen and Susan C.
Zavoina in their Sexual Rhetoric: Media Perspectives on Sexuality, Gender,
and Identity have written an important work that reflects on competing
strategies in gay and lesbian world, ritualizing of sexual subordination and
inventing a sexual discourse (106). In the same way, Christine Obbos
African Women provides a connection of women in African and the
Diaspora, while elaborating on strategies or manipulative techniques
(spirit

possession,

hard

work

and

manipulating

motherhood

and

respectability) African women employ in the reconstruction of their voices

in dominantly patriarchal societies (143).

13

Vital to the current study is Evelyn C. Whites commendable

biography of Alice Walker. Whites book, Alice Walker: A Life, strives to go
beyond simply mapping the movements and accomplishments of Walker
as the first black female Pulitzer Prize winner (16). It also shows her
creditable achievements, including the winning of NEA Discovery Award
in Literature, which she used to complete her first novel, The Third Life of
Grange

Copeland,

American

Book

Award,

Radcliffe

Institute,

Guggenheim and Merrill Fellowships, a National Book Award nomination,

numerous honorary doctorates, the publication of more than 30 books of
fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, and participation in the Civil Rights
movement. White thus records the impact on and importance of Walkers
literature in American culture, especially in The Black Womens Health
Book.
There are critical books, which have been published related to
Walkers works, including Bloom Harolds book, Alice Walker. This book is a
collection of essays that reflect on a range of issues from Walkers story
telling styles and language to her treatment of men and women in the
African-American society. In fact, critics who have written articles in
Harolds book focus on character development, content, form, language
structure, and style, and they consequently examine their effectiveness.

14

Tuzyline Jita Allan in her Womanist and Feminist Aesthetics: A

Comparative Review provides useful information about Walkers The Color
Purple, especially in the novelists depiction of oral tradition while
comparing this work with other great literary works by Virginia Woolfs Mrs.
Dalloway to modern literary aesthetics eminent in the works of, for
instance, Buchi Emecheta and other African-American writers. Also, John
Cullen Gruesser in his Black on Black shows the writings of Walker,
especially Possessing the Secret of Joy and Warrior Marks, as well as other
writers, including Richard Wright and Lorraine Hansberry, especially about
Africas double consciousness, Ethiopianism, and Africa as the Dark
continent.
Furthermore, Leo Tolstoy argues in his essay, "What is Art?," that the
reason for creating art is to evoke in oneself a feeling one has
experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of
movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, they
transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling (10).
Thus, a thorough study of Walkers novels illustrate that she uses unique
stylistic strategies to counter ideologies which portray some females in
most societies as inferior to males. Also, on womens strategies of
opposition towards male perceptions about them, Gwen Raaberg
examines how cultural debates regarding the possibility of a postmodern
oppositional art tend to be critical of collage. Raaberg shows readers
15

how feminist artists in a variety of media have frequently chosen this

mode. The authors essay, Beyond Fragmentation: Collage as Feminist
Strategy in the Arts, attempts to provide the historical and theoretical
framework needed to understand feminist collage in the present study.
Generally, in Walkers case, critics have not much explored Walkers
language techniques. Therefore, this study is important because critics
have given little attention to Walkers linguistic rhetoric strategies that are
informative concerning the social realities of her characters. Indeed, in this
review no journal articles or critical work has directly dealt with this topic.
Nonetheless, Alice Walkers The Color Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy,
In Search of Our Mothers Gardens and Now Is the Time To Open Your
Heart are novels, which further examines the place of females in
patriarchal societies. They explore experiences of women in various
societies, including their aspirations for gaining independence that is vital
in expression of their opinions and competition for jobs in the public
spheres. Because Walkers themes of female liberation, domination, and
social categorization among others are sensitive issues in most cases,
undoubtedly, the texts under investigation in this study have become
subjects of extensive literary criticism. Undeniably, Alice Walkers linguistic
rhetoric strategies are almost similar to those techniques, which great
writers have employed to ensure fairness towards people in various
societies. However, she portrays her uniqueness in exploring human
16

experiences, which makes her work significant, and, therefore, worth of

further research. Walkers creditable ability to convince her readers to
accept her views that are essential for change depends on her linguistic
rhetoric styles that are the focus for this study.
1.5: Theoretical Frameworks
This study is guided by frameworks of discourse analysis as posited in
the works of Seidel Gill, Edward Finegan, Deborah Tannen, Noam
Chomsky, Norman Fairclough, Michael Kearns and Paul H. Grice. This
study draws from all these theorists because each of them has views,
which are significant to the present study. To start with, Gill examines two
forms of discourse: namely, majority and minority, and postulates that
minority discourses like that of Alice Walker are concerned with
articulating specific oppressions of gender, race, class and their
intermeshing (Brighton 84). These ideas of discourse allowed the writer to
make inferences about Walkers linguistic framework, in which she treats
the notion of man and woman rather differently.
Second, Edward Finnegans theory of discourse shows how speech,
writing, and signs are modes of linguistics communication that represent
how languages are organized and expressed (15). His ideas on language
variation across situations of use and language structure prompted the
writer to examine the linguistic strategies in Walkers novels, including the

17

authors

presentation

of

phonological,

morphological,

syntactic,

semantic, and pragmatic aspects (333).

Third, Deborah Tannen, in You Just Dont Understand: Women and
Men in Conversations (29), notes that in African-American discourse, just
as in all discourses, there are various variables that seem to influence
language. Tannens studies on conversation and gender disparities
influenced the writer to examine Walkers creation of characters with
mutational tendencies, and how the Feminist Theory of Reduction is
employed in resisting the social conventions of 20th Century literary works
concerning the sexes.
Fourth, Noam Chomsky reflects that language is a mirror of the
mind. Therefore, the present studys linguistic rhetoric strategies will inform
readers the effect of environmental factors or contextual influences on a
speakers language acquisition and use (444). Chomskys theory of
language acquisition and use guides this studys concern, which analyzes
linguistic styles Alice Walker employs to explore, for instance, female
mutilation. This is an issue that has been greatly opposed by human rights
organizations world over. Circumcision is not practiced in Walkers own
society, but since it oppresses African women, she feels obligated to
counter it in her work, Possessing the Secret of Joy. The researchers
examination of the style she employs to oppose this oppressive African
custom is one of the main objectives of this study.
18

Fifth, Norman Faircloughs critical discourse approach as envisioned

in Language and Power addresses the function of language in
maintaining and changing power relations in contemporary society, and
examines ways of analyzing language to reveal power differences
among people. Using Faircloughs approach, this chapter will equally
focus on how Walker tackles the process of change head-on in a work
that is both polemical and dramatic.
Sixth, the writings of a theorist such as Michael Kearns, which focus
on relevance, provide the framework within which the work under
investigation is analyzed. Kearn has observed that separating the narrator
from the author is a difficult endeavor for linguistics, as well as literary
critics (78). His perception of expression and literature as one thing is
important for this study because language and literature are closely
connected and an attempt to separate the two is a futile one. Although
a lot of controversy has surrounded this debate over time, some
contemporary rhetoricians and all speech-act theorists have continued to
focus on language in use, especially so in spoken forms. Rarely do they
recognize textual features especially in novels as definitive of genre types,
yet there is a lot of linguistic information readily available in written forms.
Kearns argues that speech-act theory is concerned not only with locution
(what is said), but also with allocution (very roughly, what is meant) and
perlocution (the effect of an utterance on its audience), consistently asks,
19

"What is this language being used for?" (79). The fact that illocutionary
speech acts focus on one sentence long expressions (Searle 25), this study
will argue that abundant illocutionary speeches can be realized in larger
discourse.
Seventh and most important, the researcher is particularly indebted
to Paul H. Grices framework which contends that meaning depends not
just on the speaker (for the sake of this study the speaker could be a
narrator or an author) and the hearer (the reader) (165). Also, Grecian
theory of conversational implicature in which one of its maxims claims a
speaker should make contributions as informative as is required for the
current purposes of the exchange (166), will be helpful in interpreting the
meanings of Walkers expressions. Using Grices theory, this study will
advance an argument that Walker has a unique and interesting style of
choosing words to create meanings, and suggest that an examination of
particular words, word formations, and their meaning implications,
especially in The Color Purple, is pertinent in understanding Walkers
literary texts. Nonetheless, a combination of theories is possible in this
analysis.
1.6: Chapter Summaries
Since many techniques may be evidenced in almost all works
selected for this study, the researcher will apply at least a strategy on
each novel depending on its appropriateness, and examine the
20

relationship among linguistic strategies. In order to solve the problem, the

researcher applied the approach of dividing the body of this study into
five chapters, including the following:
a) Chapter Two: Phonology, Speech Variance, and Cultural Identity

This chapter examines how phonological processes in Alice Walkers

novel, The Color Purple functions as rhetorical styles. Phonological
strategies enable Walker to shows her readers how speech variants of
speakers can help explain the cultural experiences of the authors target
audience, especially African-Americans. This chapter recognizes that
phonology is a wide discipline, because it encompasses a study of
phonemes, phones, and allophones, minimal pairs and sets, and
phonotactic co-articulation effects such as assimilation, elision, weak
syllable deletion, consonant cluster, and aphesis. However, a careful
consideration on how sound systems in written works, such as Walkers
narratives, will identify that there are also significant phonological
processes, particularly phonotactic ones, which are evidenced in this
novel that are important for readers who could want to better understand
such works.
b) Chapter Three: Morphology and Power Dichotomy

This chapter focuses on the novel, The Color Purple. It examines how
Walker manipulates words and word formation to oppose female
oppression, while creating awareness among females concerning their
21

rights. The study attempts to further determine if speech expressions at the

level of words do create power differences between the characters and
the targeted audience. It is difficult to study words in isolation without
focusing on what they mean. Thus, a study of diction will reveal how
Walkers word choice is an essential morphological strategy that depicts
the characters power roles.
c) Chapter Four: Syntax and Style

Chapter four advances by way of focusing on different Syntactic

features in The Color Purple, In Search Of Our Mothers Gardens, and Now
Is the Time To Open Your Heart. This chapter will not focus on generational
rules, but rather it will focus on Syntactic features such as negation, verb
deletion, tense variation, subordination, voice variation, and coordination, among others. In short, this chapter attempts to answer the
question: How does Walker employ Syntactic strategy to negotiate with
her audience?
d) Chapter Five: Discourse Analysis: Semantics as a Rhetoric Strategy

This chapter examines semantic rhetoric strategies in Walkers major

works, including The Color Purple, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and In
Search of Our Mothers Gardens. This chapter specifically looks at the style
Walker employs in showing categorization of individuals or characters,
and her employment of double-ambivalence as processes of advocating
for change.
22

e) Chapter Six: Discourse Analysis: Walkers Pragmatic Devices

This chapter examines how color, revolution, and negation among

others, determine the discourse of pragmatics in Alice Walkers In Search
of Our Mothers Gardens and Now Is the Time To Open Your Heart. This
section of the investigation further advances by an attempt to examine
whether pragmatics determines the above issues under discussion or the
issues themselves determine pragmatics, and how Walkers strategic
representation of reality meets her goals. In a nutshell, this chapter does
not attempt to outline how different Walkers discourse is from any one
particular writer, but it investigates how pragmatics impacts narratives
writing in Walkers selected novels.

23

Chapter Two
Phonology, Speech Variance, and Cultural Identity
2.1: Introduction
This chapter examines how phonological processes in Alice Walkers
novel, The Color Purple, contribute to rhetorical styles, revealing how
speech variants of speakers can help explain the cultural experiences of
her target audience, African-Americans. George Yule defines phonology
as a sub-division of linguistics that is concerned with the abstract set of
sounds in a language that allow us to distinguish meaning in the actual
physical sounds we say and hear (423). Therefore, in English (as
presumably in any language) a minimal pair of let and led has two
meanings based on the pronunciations of the last sounds of two words
namely, [t] and [d]. More broadly, phonology involves the study of
phonemes, phones, and allophones, as well as phonotactic coarticulation effects such as assimilation, elision, weak syllable deletion,
consonant cluster, and aphesis (Finegan 67; Yule 48). Most linguists would
concur that it is valuable to study the phonological processes of spoken
language. However, it is also useful to examine apparent and implied
phonological evidence in written works like those of Alice Walker.
Specifically, the present study isolates (among others) certain
phonological processesnamely, assimilation, substitution, weak syllable
deletion, fronting, and clipping because these are prominent in a fictional
24

work as visual phonological clues. Some variations such as suprasegmental features, in other words, that are readily accessible in spoken
language are entirely inaccessible in language that is written. For
example, in English it is difficult to discern the allophones [p] and [ph] of
the same phoneme /p/. In written forms, it is also difficult to realize some
acoustic features and stress, which are readily identifiable in spoken
language. However, the novel, The Color Purple, especially lends itself to
the present study because, unlike Walkers other books; it employs
significant expressions that are characteristic of African-American speech
variants. Many novels written by Alice Walker after 1990 such as Possessing
the Secret of Joy, By the Light of My Fathers Smile, Warrior Marks, Letters
of Love and Hope, and Now Is The Time To Open Your Heart, do not
exhibit salient African-American variants. Therefore, readers need to
recognize that this study of The Color Purple is not aimed at generating
phonological rules just as Edward Finegan has done, for instance, in his
book, Language: Its Structure and Use, where he examines phonemes
and allophones, phonological rules, and syllable structures, among other
aspects (50).
2.2: Methodology
First, the chapter will examine phonotactic co-articulation effects
such as assimilation, elision, weak syllable deletion, consonant cluster,
velar fronting, palatal fronting, and aphesis, among others. Second,
25

chapter two will proceed to examine the spelling or phonologically

revealing orthography of specific words while analyzing the usefulness of
such words in their contexts. Third and last, the present chapter will
examine how the characters pronunciation contributes to some people
showing prejudice towards some speech participants variant while at the
same time attempting to relate how such expressions are an embodiment
of the users cultural values. In short, it is worthy for readers to note that the
present study applies archival data collection method of research in order
to find out how phonological processes are applicable in literary works,
particularly in Alice Walkers narratives.
2.3: Theoretical Framework
The works of Edward Finegan, Noam Chomsky, Edward Sapir, John
Rckford, and George Yule, who have extensively studied phonological
processes in languages, significantly inform this chapter. For example,
Rickfords suggestion that linguists should widen the scope of linguistic
studies by focusing on written discourses provided the direction for this
study (1). Also, Yuless co-articulation concepts such as assimilation and
elision are distinctive features, especially as they are evidenced in fast
speech, as opposed to slow speech. Therefore, co-articulation provided
the framework for the present study. Of course, examining written
discourse can be an informative enterprise, and some of the evidence in

26

Walkers novels might provide a productive insight in the study of written

literature.
2.4: Phonological Processes in The Color Purple
Menn Ferguson and Stoel Gammon have demonstrated that
children pronounce words quite differently from adult speakers, and that
commonly, these differences are labeled as phonological processes
(215). Indeed, processes such as weak syllable deletion and devoicing, in
which a developing child may say tefone for telephone, or let for led,
respectively, are systematic mistakes made by developing children and
many adults too. However, as children grow sound changes become
eminent,

and

they

start

producing

speech

free

of

mistakes.

Nonetheless, elsewhere depending on the peoples dialect, speech

participants often exhibit phonological processes such as devoicing,
assimilation, elision, and others.
However, this chapter focuses on processes, which are actually not
systematic mistakes as those of developing children, but are part of
phonological markers of an individual or of a speech community.
Although most linguists have studied phonological processes in spoken
speech, a study of written ones can reveal extensive repertoire about
these processes. Given that Alice Walker often writes in the way her
characters speak, without necessarily employing formal expressions, a
study of her characters variants can reveal how phonological processes
27

function as features of style. Alice Walker controls the characters

expressions to clearly depict their own group phonological networking
with an objective of encouraging her audience to accept social change,
especially those that affect women in including domestication and
violence. Figure 2.1 below illustrates some phonological processes in The
Color Purple, in which Walker orthographically represents words that are
socially distinct.
Words

Meet you

Orthographic Phonological Processes at Work

Presentations
Yall
Assimilation (a sound becomes
more like a following sound)
Meetcha
Assimilation

Page
#s
95,17
3
243

Supposed

Sposed

89,10
5

Between

tween,
`tween

Behind

hind, `behind

Elision (omission of a sound

between two words)
[] [] or syncope (loss of
internal unstressed vowel sound
[]
Weak syllable deletion/clipping
(deletion of unstressed syllables)
[be]
Clipping of [be]

Attention

Tention

Clipping of [at]

231,1
72
169

Admiration

Migration

Clipping of [ad]

244

Except

Cept

185

Ask

Ast

Something

Somethin

Consonant cluster reduction

[iks] [s]
Velar replacement with
alveolar stop
[k] [t]
Substitution of
[] [n]

You all

28

24,
243

24, 28

8, 22

Tooth

Toof

Teeth
About

Teef
bout

Around

round

Palatal fronting or consonant

substitution of inter-dental with
labio-dental [] [f]
[] [f]
Aphesis (the loss of unstressed
vowel at word initial) [a]
Aphesis

74,
123

Another

nother

Aphesis

Enough
This

nuff
dis

Poor

pore

Mischievous

mischeevous

Mind

mine

Find

fine

Aphesis or exclusion of [i]

Consonant substitution
[] [d]
Post vocalic /r/ deletion
[r] []
Substitution with vowel
lengthening [I] [i:]
Vocalization or consonant
cluster deletion
[d] []
Consonant cluster deletion

Kind

kine

Consonant cluster deletion

Getting
No
news

gitting
naw
newsy

Vowel raising [ ] [ ]
diphthongization
Syllable insertion

73
9
227

74
70, 73
186,
209
210,
211
171
73
176
171
18

Figure 2.1: Orthographic Representations of Words

Furthermore, Walkers expressions, which are exhibited through her
characters, are complex just as all variants. Speech is not normally
produced slowly. Yule writes that mostly our talk is fast and spontaneous
and it requires our articulators to move from one sound to the next without
stopping, and this process of making one sound almost at the same time
as the next sound is what he calls co-articulation (49). Co-articulation
29

often results in assimilation, elision, weak syllable, and deletion. For

example, in elision a word such as supposed is often pronounced as
sposed with the omission of an unstressed vowel [] in the middle of the
word. Walkers characters exhibit this kind of fast speech production,
therefore, yielding unique expressions that are, for example, assimilated. A
case in point is when in a speakers speech two sound segments occur in
a sequence as in the fast pronunciation of meet and you. We usually
combine the two words, meetyou, or as in Celies expression, meetcha.
When this combination takes place, some aspect of one segment is
assimilated. This kind of pronunciation is regular in Walkers narratives,
especially when producing other syllables such as you all (yall) and sort of
(sorta), because it is quicker and easier to articulate the syllables by
assimilating them (243, 95). Otherwise, when speakers produce these
words in isolation, they are likely to carefully articulate each syllable
without combining the two. This articulation process leads to speech
organs taking more time to produce them. However, the pronunciation of
these words varies depending on context and speaker. For example,
Celie in The Color Purple articulates yall almost all the time, but other
characters use you all such as Eleanor Jane, Sofias White employer. Celie
using direct speech reports Eleanors remark: oh, you all are eating
dinner, she say (173). However, within the context of such use of
expression, Celie shows her hatred towards Eleanor Jane, when she
30

describes her as a skinny little white woman that tries to stick most of
herself through the door, (173). What follows after this expression is a
further description of her behaviors including boo-hooing and problimbzing, which in this context is an obvious derogatory description (173).
Walkers use of yall and you all, therefore, are phonological processes,
which show class dichotomy, because yall in this context represent
unmonitored speech variant characteristic of the less educated as
opposed to you all that often represent speech variants commonly
employed by educated class of people.
Elision is another phonological process evidenced in the speech of
Walkers character, Celie. In the example, meetcha, Celie tends to avoid
the pronunciation of the [t] stop sound in the middle of the word when
produced rapidly. She often omits this sound for efficiency. This process of
not pronouncing a sound segment that might be present in the
deliberately careful pronunciation of a word in isolation is what Yule
describes as elision (49). A semi-vowel such as [] also disappears in fast
articulation of a word such as supposed which Celie pronounces as
sposed. Celies elision in the word sposed is arguably evidence of her
working class status. Elision occurs in everyones normal speech and
should not be taken as a type of laziness in speaking because it shows
language of speakers in its natural use.

31

Weak

syllable

deletion,

at

times

known

as

clipping,

is

phonological process characteristic of Walkers speech participant

variants. This process takes place when unstressed syllables are weaker or
less audible than stressed ones. An unstressed syllable just before a
stressed one is in an especially weak position, and it is very likely that a
speaker can delete such a syllable. Celie often exhibits this phonological
process of deletion especially in the production of words, behind and
between, which she articulates as hind and tween respectively. An
example of such deletion is in the statement, And now it do begin to look
like he got a lot of feeling hind his face (231). The syllable be is deleted
when it is not stressed. However, when Celie does not stress behind, this
word does not exhibit syllable deletion. This stress is evidenced for
example in the expression, She reach for the biscuit and sort of root her
behind deeper into her seat (172). However, it is possible that in the first
example above Celie employs hind as a preposition while in the second
example behind it is a noun. Therefore, she clips be when behind
functions as a preposition, but maintains it when it functions as a noun for
emphasis.
Consonant cluster reduction is another phonological process that is
evidenced in the speech of Walkers characters. This is a process in which
two or more consonants, which appear in a sequence without any vowels
between them, are reduced for easy articulation. Some examples in real
32

conversations are as in truck [tr], stretch [str], and ecstasy [kst]. The
reduction of such consonant clusters will result in the production of words
such as ruch or tuck, stetch, and ectasy. Consonant cluster reduction is
possible in word initial, middle, and final positions of a word. Such a word,
which exhibits consonant cluster reduction, in Alice Walkers The Color
Purple include except [iksept]. Celie pronounces it as Cept [sept]. The
consonant [k] in the cluster [ks] is reduced to [s] (185). At the same time
such a word entirely looses the sounds [ik] from its initial position.
Velar fronting or replacement with an alveolar stop is also common
in Celies pronunciation of the word ask which she articulates as ast. Velar
replacement is the process by which a velar consonant, that is a sound
that is normally made with the middle of the tongue in contact with the
palate towards the back of the mouth, is replaced with consonant
produced at the front of the mouth. When fronting takes place, the
sounds [k] are replaced by [t], [g] are replaced by [d], and [] are
replaced by [n]. In the novel, The Color Purple Celie exhibits velar fronting
when she pronounces the word ask as ast in most contexts. Such fronting
is in the examples: First time he ast me (24) and Harpo ast Mr. ______
(28).
Similarly, palatal fronting occurs when Celie produces the words
tooth and teeth. She regularly pronounces both of them as toof and teef,
therefore, replacing the sounds [] with the fricatives [f] (Color 74, 123).
33

Palatal fronting is a process in which a fricative consonant such as [] as in

shoot is replaced by fricatives that are made further forward on the
palate, towards the froth teeth (Bowen 1).
Also, aphesis is common in Walkers novel, The Color Purple. This is a
process in which there is gradual disappearance of an initial (usually
unstressed) vowel or syllable. For examples, the [I] and [] sounds in the
words enough and about are deleted (171, 70). Celie pronounces them
as nuff and bout, among others.
Last, diphthongization is evidenced in this novel, The Color Purple. It
involves the articulation of the sound [o] especially in the word no to
produce naw [aw] (9). Pronunciation of a word with a glide at the end is
often prolonged. Other words, which are lengthened, include news,
which is often pronounced as newsy. However, this is a case of syllable
insertion at the end of a word (227). Therefore, such phonological
processes function as identity markers for Walkers characters.
2.5: Pronunciations and Contexts
The pronunciation of some words in figure 2.1 above varies
depending on the context of usage. For example, the word dis for this is
not consistently used in all environments. For instance, Celie describes
Sofia after a fight between her and Squeak as: She cant talk. And she
just about the color of a eggplan. . . . Who dis woman in this little

34

teenouncy voice (77). Also, whereas some syllables are joined such as
you all as in yall, in some contexts they are not (173, 95).
Furthermore, the word, a, not as an article, is often used by some
speakers in place of of. For instance, when Squeak, one of the minor
characters in the novel, is crying, he says, You git that bitch out a here
(74). Also, when the word of is coined to other words such as sort to
produce sorta, readers can still understand the expression means sort of.
An example of such word coinage is in the expression Sorta . . . ending
an argument (73, 79). Also, when used as an article, it often replaces an
in its context. For example, when Sofia remarks, she cant talk. And she
just about the color of a eggplant (77), readers can recognize that the
employment of sort of and sorta varies from one speaker to another.
Some characters do use it, and others do not. For instance, whereas Celie
often uses sorta, Sofia does not. Sofia actually employs sort of as in, The
children was all pulling me into the house, so sort of over my shoulder I say,
yes maam, and I thought I heard her drive off (91). Also, Squeak, one of
the characters in the novel, uses sorta in his expression when he is crying.
His usage of sorta might be because of his emotions. Also, since some
characters seem to use sorta expression and others do not, it suggests that
there could be a factor contributing to this variation.

35

Milford Jeremiah, making a similar point, has indicated that the

setting, the person spoken to, the state of the mind (emotional or sober),
and the gender of the participant are essential variables that influence
the way speakers articulate words particularly in Baltimorese (Baltimore
Speech 232). Indeed, as evidence of the state of the mind of a speaker,
the present writer realized that one of his graduate classmates,
occasionally, as a sign of competence, could monitor her language.
However, in one particular instance, when she was angry, she portrayed
features that were characteristic of streetese, the language commonly
used in the street that is characteristic of obscene expressions (Matunda
5). These speech variants suggest that in Baltimore, and doubtless
elsewhere, hostility can be met with a hostile language. In fact, based on
the students use of obscene language, the author not only observed
Baltimorese at play, but also noticed a tendency among some black
speakers to express themselves loudly, vigorously, and emotionally against
any form of injustice. This tendency for some people to resist injustice or
rather to express themselves emphatically is evident in the speech of
Walkers characters in The Color purple, especially Celie and Shug.
2.6: Speech Variance and Cultural Identity
The speakers pronunciation of sounds and words in The Color
Purple is important because their articulation reveals to readers how
Walker attempts to show a realistic picture of her characters as they could
36

actually speak in normal situations. Speech variants of Walkers characters

often inform readers about their cultural values, as well as the values of
the people these characters represent in real life. Therefore, their variants
also function as their central medium of communication, as well as their
cultural identity markers. For instance, their pronunciations of a word such
as ast as ask is different from what another social group such as
Baltimoreans, who often pronounce it as aks (Matunda 70). Therefore,
such a word, which is pronounced differently among speech participants
sharing a language, show the peoples cultural differences based on
particular variant use in different regions. Studies of variations in sound
productions among language speakers have enabled linguists to
differentiate social groups. The words yanglush and englis, are variants of
the same word English that can be realized in different speech variants.
Walker identifies that Olinkans do pronounce English as Yanglush (148).
This variant is group specific, and it helps differentiate Olinkans from other
English speakers. Similarly, readers can realize the pronunciation of English
as englis in some African communities, especially those in which speakers
do not have the consonant [sh]. So, the [sh] sound is often replaced with
[s] sound for easy articulation.
Walker creates characters that pronounce words in the way they
speak with an objective of developing cultural identity. Celie, Sofia, and
Shug, among others are united in this novel because they all share a
37

common culture that is bound with their speech. A variant shared by a

particular social group, may it be in real life or in fiction; helps develop the
groups sense of togetherness.

Undeniably, some educated African-

Americans such as Nettie, when she addresses her sister Celie, often
switches from formal variant to less formal one as sign of closeness to her
people. In addition, people from this and other groups who have
acquired education (the elites), especially above the university level, may
commonly use their variants. For instance, the use of Baltimorese does not
mean that speakers do not know Standard English; in fact, it is at their
discretion to use a language appropriate to their needs (Matunda 4).
Therefore, Netties pronunciation of words depends on where she is and
whom

she

addresses.

Walkers

speech

participants

are

fictional

characters, and their use of vernacular expressions does not always imply
that they are illiterate. In fact, a study of the characters sound systems will
reveal to the readers how creative writers can be in using speech variants
of their characters for communication. Richford argues that the study of
people's attitudes towards one variety or another is an interesting sub-field
of linguistics, and the objective of a linguist is to describe the systematic
nature of language as used by the members of particular speech
communities (1). Therefore, instead of linguist prescribing judgments about
how well speech users speak or how they should or should not speak, they
should examine how languages function.
38

Evidently, it is difficult for a linguist to study sound systems of a

language without relating these sounds to the words they form and to the
meanings they create. For example, in this novel Walker employs words
such as wildeyed and Yanglush for wild eyed and English respectively.
Walkers characters produce sounds, which are combined to form unique
words that are intended to communicate essential messages to a reader
who has to actively participate in the process of restoring justice.
Moreover, The Color Purple shows how a writers speech variant and that
of her characters shape her literary work. A study of the characters use of
the pronunciation of words such as yall (you all), nuff (enough), pore
(poor), miration (admiration), youngish (young), meetcha (meet you),
herstory (her story) and others, indeed, provide a significant insight into the
possibility of existing rules that govern sound processes and word
formation in Walkers speech community, as well as those of her
characters.
William Labov has argued that in every situation, what one says
and how one says it depends upon the nature of that situation, the social
role being played at the time, one's status vis--vis that of the person
addressed, and one's attitude towards him (Labov et al 233). Therefore,
speech variant is a pertinent instrument of socialization that exists in
various cultures. Through language, particular social groups transmit
societal knowledge among them and develop an appreciation of their
39

societys structure, as well as those of others. Indeed, languages

strengthen the social connections binding the members of a group while
differentiating the members of one group from those of another.
Particularly, the way speakers of a language articulate specific sounds
and the way they combine sounds to form meaningful words is an
informative endeavor because it enables a reader to understand sound
systems, which are independent of their representation in the fictional
works of Alice Walker. Indeed, Walker breaks away from using the norm,
which is the Standardized or proper use of language and prefers her
characters vernacular expressions, which fully expresses the realities of
her audience. It is through these characters speech expressions that
readers realize what her audience is in the real world and what they
aspire to achieve. Thus, her language functions as a representation of the
characters powers or powerlessness and their aspirations, especially for
moral order in their society.
Similarly, Deborah Cameron, in opposing Standard English as the
right language for literary texts, has argued that, in most cases, putting
language to rights becomes a surrogate for putting the world to rights.
She argues, Pronouncements on the proper use of language at one
level, express the desire to control and impose order on language (449).
In fact, having lived in Baltimore for eight years, the writer has heard
comments that not only demean speakers employing Black variants, but
40

also has recognized that even some non-English speakers are erroneously
assumed to be uneducated. Although it may be true that uneducated
speakers may not easily code-switch to Standard speech, educated ones
do, in fact, possess this skill. In other words, it is false to assume that
Walkers speech participants, who exhibit a strong adherence to a
particular black dialect, always belong to a lower-educational level, and
therefore, they should be regarded as less educated.
In The Color Purple, for instance, Netties ability to code switch from
Standard language to less formal dialect is an elitist behavior, which is,
evidenced elsewhere, even in the courtrooms. For instance, Judges Joe
Brown and Greg Mathis, the television personalities, well-educated and
intelligent personalities, efficiently use African-American speech variants.
In listening to them, one knows that these are individuals who, though
having lived an African-American experience, are nonetheless part of a
larger, less provincial world. What is interesting is that unlike Judge Mathis,
Judge Brown code-switches for dramatic effect so that certain
participants feel that he understands their experience. However, Judge
Brown has to code-switch from non-Standard to Standard English,
especially when he makes his final decisions to render his ruling legally
explicit. Likewise, Judge Mathis recognizes that many non-Standard forms
may be ambiguous. For example, the sentence, He lie, can be
interpreted as he lied, he lies, and he is a liar. What the writer attempts to
41

convey in this example is the idea that some educated Blacks can
comfortably use both their speech variants and Standard English.
Academicians, too, can be said to have mastered the language systems
of

both

language

variants,

and

they

can

use

these

variants

interchangeably with minimal ambiguity. In Walkers novel, The Color

Purple, Nettie is an educated character that exhibits this ability to code
switch for effective communication and solidarity reasons.
Therefore, speech expressions of a group of people cannot be used
as a reliable yardstick for judging someones educational and intellectual
levels. Readers interested in finding out how language contributes to the
enjoyment of literature will soon recognize that language is an instinct that
compels readers to learn, speak, and understand human language.
Steven Pinkers writes that language is so tightly woven into human
experience that it is scarcely possible to imagine life without it (17).
Speakers in African-American speech communities and others have learnt
to identify themselves with a language closer to their heritagelanguage,
which best explains their experience.
2.7: Summary
Chapter two examined certain phonological processes, including
assimilation, substitution, weak syllable deletion, aphesis, and fronting, not
to arrive at rules of how language should be produced, but rather to
provide a better understanding of Walkers phonological practices in The
42

Color Purple. Phonological variations usually demonstrate Walkers ability

to draw realistic characters, especially as evidenced in their speech
because readers encounter the way they produce sounds to form
meaningful words. Walkers effort to record their natural speech enables
her to highlight both her characters group solidarity and cultural values.
In short, Walkers emphasis upon phonological differences creates
rhetorical patterns, which persuade her audience to accept her views
about issues affecting the social lives of her characters.

43

Chapter Three
Morphology and Power Dichotomy
3.1: Introduction
This chapter focuses on morphology, which the researcher
considers a study of words and word formation. However, morphology
entails an investigation about the basic form processes of a language. Of
course, word forms consist of a number of elements, including morphemes
(lexical, free, bound, and functional), morphs, and allomorphs (Yule,
Language 62). Therefore, this chapter examines Walkers lexicon,
especially how she manipulates word forms, to oppose female oppression
and to address cultural power differences. In other words, the study
recognizes that often Walkers lexical items indicate power differences
among the characters, as well as between characters, and the targeted
audience. This rhetorical goal is illustrated by an analysis of words and
phrases chosen at random from the text and by the assessment of four
correspondences between Nettie and Celie (Refer to appendix 5 for
abroad sample of Walkers word formation patterns).
3.2: Methodology
As identified earlier, the investigation employs a combination of
frameworks to analyze Walkers novel. First, the study advances by way of
looking generally on the problem of language use in African texts, which is
equally a problem Walker attempts to solve in her novelnamely, the
44

problem of assuming that African-American variants are inferior. Because

of this attitude many Western and Diaspora writers often do not attach
significant value such a variant has in enhancing social consciousness.
Second, it analyzes specific word use in The Color Purple, while relating
such usages to other African writers novels to illustrate those social issues
Alice Walker attempts to write about how it affects other people in other
countries. Third, it addresses the writers style of coining words and how
these words are relevant. Fourth, the investigation examines how specific
lexicon functions as signals of power structure in Walkers work. This fourth
section

provides

case-by-case

analysis

of

Nettie

and

Celies

epistemology that reflect the role of narration in Walkers novel. Two

aspects that run across the chapter are word choice and how diction
plays a crucial role in delineating social power structures in Walkers novel.
3.3: Theoretical Frameworks
The researcher is particularly indebted to Paul H. Grices framework,
which contends that meaning depends not just on the speaker (for the
sake of this study the speaker could be a narrator or an author) and the
hearer or reader (165). Also, Grecian theory of conversational implicature,
which postulates that speakers should make contributions as informative
as is required for their current purposes of the exchange, will be helpful in
interpreting the meanings of Walkers expressions (166). This study will
advance the researchers argument that Walker has a unique and
45

interesting style of choosing words to create meaning, and suggest that

an examination of particular words, word formations, and their implied
meaning in The Color Purple is pertinent in understanding Walkers literary
texts. A focus on this particular novel is important because it exhibits a
repertoire of words as opposed to her other works such as The Temple of
My familiar and We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For. Indeed, The
Color Purple portrays Walkers creativity in forming words that best reflect
the experiences of her targeted audience.
The writings of a theorist, Michael Kearns, which focuses on
relevance, will provide the framework that the work under investigation
employs. Kearns has observed that separating the narrator from the
author is a difficult endeavor for linguistics, as well as literary critics (78). His
perception of expression and literature as one thing is important for this
study

because

language

contemporary rhetoricians

and
and

literature
all

is

inseparable.

speech-act theorists

Some

focus

on

language in use, but rarely do they recognize textual features, especially

in novels, as definitive of genre types. Kearns argues that speech-act
theory is concerned not only with locution (what is said), but also with
allocution (very roughly, what is meant) and perlocution (the effect of an
utterance on its audience), aspects that consistently enable linguists to
ask "What is this language being used for?" (79). In most cases,
illocutionary speech acts focus on short expressions such as one sentence
46

(Searle 25), but this study will argue that illocutionary speech acts can be
realized in larger discourse other than single sentence expressions.
William Labov has identified that real life narratives follow
consistent patterns shaped according to the speakers dynamic sense of
the context in which he must engage or evade his audiences attention
(The Social Stratification 11). Pratt relying on Labovs narrative elements
such as abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result, and
coda notes that most of rhetorical features of natural narrative have
counterparts in literary fiction, and draws the conclusion that the structure
of literature has a lot in common with the structure of ordinary discourse
than formalism allows us to notice (qtd. in Michael Hancher 1082), and by
so concluding she dilutes the theory of discourse to widen its scope by
arguing that speech acts that involve two or more participants will often
involve two or more sentences (Hancher 1088). Equally, Garvey concurs
with Pratt that illocutionary acts may extend over several sentences as the
participants clarify the nature and rightness of the speech act being
negotiated (75). In narratives, a study on the use of language starts with
how words are displayed, and then proceeds to how these words are
combined to form narrative syntax.
In addition, using a critical discourse approach as envisioned in the
works of Norman Fairclough, especially in Language and Power which
addresses the function of language in maintaining and changing power
47

relations in contemporary society and about ways of analyzing language

to reveal power processes, this chapter will focus on how Walker tackles
the process of change head-on in a work that is both polemical and
dramatic. Indeed, the intention of this study is not to indulge in
controversies related to language and literature, but on how language,
and especially word choice, plays a crucial role in enabling readers to
better understand Walkers novel. Nonetheless, a combination of theories
is possible in this analysis.
There are various implications of the above-discussed frameworks to
the current chapter. For example, diction in The Color Purple may show
how a writers speech variant and that of her characters shape a literary
work. A study of the characters use of words such as yall (you all), nuff
(enough), sassing, pore (poor), miration (admiration), youngish (young),
meetcha (meet you), and herstory (her story) may provide a significant
insight into the rules governing word formations in Walkers speech
community, as well as those of her characters.
Walker opens her novel, Possessing the Secret of Joy, with a
statement that reflects her resistance to female oppression of any form
because it denies them happiness. She writes, Black people are natural,
they possess the secret of joy," proclaims the epigraph to Alice Walker's
first novel (Possessing ii). These are the words of Mirella Ricciardi in his
African Saga, and they are used here with bitter irony. It is ridiculous
48

because African women, who are circumcised, are denied the secret of
joy by those people who either convince or force them to undergo this
ritual to avoid being recognized as outcasts within their social institutions.
In her second novel, The Color Purple, Walker explores birth, copulation
and death, while ridiculing some cultural values that humiliate females in
African society. The novel also identifies the reasons that impelled African
females to survive the suffering and humiliation inflicted upon them.
Thus, The Color Purple is about suffering and breaking of taboos.
Janette Turner Hospital writes, When taboos are broken, predictable
outrage [moral, political, cultural and esthetic] ensues, and the breakers
of taboos are both vilified and deified (2). Probably, Hospital suggests
that new modes of discourse must evolve in societies to dismantle
practices that have previously been held sacred, yet oppressive towards
women. Thus, an investigation on the words Walker employs is imperative
in not only enabling readers to interpret her works, but also recognizing
the need for change.
Also, using a Norman Faircloughs critical discourse approach this
chapter will focus on how Walker tackles the process of change. For
example, the study will interpret a case of naming such as when Mr.
Albert, Celies abusive husband, is frequently referred to Mr. ______ and
the intention of such reference by the author. Fairclough treats such
preference as relevant absence. This study equally agrees with Fairclough
49

in that certain contexts make relevant some preferred action. When that
action is not taken, it is relevantly absent. Its absence is noticeable, and
there is always a basis for inference (166). Mr. ______ is preferred in most of
the novel until the last few pages. He has no identity when he often
abuses Celie and fails to recognize that she needs to be treated fairly.
However, after he starts to recognize Celie at the end of the novel, Celie
addresses him by his name, Mr. Albert.
Kearns suggests a theory of relevance based on the assumption
that

all

parties

in

any

communication

should

ensure

that

the

communication is relevant to the immediate situation. Thus, Kearns seems

to concur with other psycholinguistic critiques such as John Searle, Paul
Grice, and other speech-act philosophers, Sperber and Wilson, that
relevance is an innate and universal function by which humans attempt
to maximize the cognitive effect of an utterance while minimizing the
effort required in processing the utterance (Relevance 49). Once the
receiver of an utterance determines that the utterance includes an
ostensive behavior, the receiver can use the strategy of inference to
determine what additional intention the utterance is conveying. Equally,
Walkers words invite the audience to make crucial inferences to
ascertain their validity and effectiveness. These processes of inference
ultimately contribute to the readers better understanding of Walkers
novel.
50

3.4: Analysis of Random Words and Phrases

Words do embody a speakers meaning and an interpretation of
such meanings relies on what speakers say, what speakers are, and what
they hope their listeners to know at a particular historical moment.
Michelle Z. Rozaldo in her article, The Things We Do with Words: Ilongot
Speech Acts and Speech Act Theory in Philosophy, argues that there is
need to ascertain truth in fiction, and a writers truth can only be
understood by readers if they assess not only propositions to be judged for
truth, but something more: communicative intentions (qtd. in Bilmes 178).
Thus, this study examines, among other issues, how Walkers intentions are
embodied in words with a purpose of better understanding her works
aesthetic value. The way words contribute to the social norms of speakers
will certainly be the focus of this chapter.
a) The Lucky Star and Women Self-Discovery
First of all, the majority of words in the text are written in the way
they are spoken. Celies speech portrays such word usages. For example,
Celie says: Shug Avery is coming to town! She coming with her orkestra.
She going to sing in the Lucky Star out on coalman road (24). Walkers
ability to linguistically vary the form of the word, orchestra as orkestra, is
intentional, and it is meant to reflect on womens power to create a
unique form of orchetra that is characteristic of women songssongs that
embody women experiences often different from mens experiences as
51

portrayed by their orkestra. Thus, Walkers creation of a new form of song

and dance is intended to discourage mens orchestra that often prohibits
women from fully expressing themselves in public spaces. Shug Avery
represents of strong and independent females, who resist male
domination. At these females new orkestra, songs function as their
mediums communication that is essential in encouraging people to
accept social change, especially in troubled patriarchal societies.
Furthermore, Celie remarks that Shug will sing in the Lucky star to
show that she is a lucky woman. Women, who aspire to gain their voices
by speaking in public arenas, where they can explain their bad
experiences with their men in order to avoid domestication, occupy and
control the lucky star road. A character like Shug Avery, a former lover to
Celies abusive husband, aspires to adventure the outside world not only
to favorably compete with other men in a world of unequal human races,
but also to actively participate in liberation process. The word, lucky star,
implies that Shug is lucky herself because she is socially conscious. She
represents her female colleagues, who attend the orkestra, and who are
determined to familiarize themselves with their rights. Indeed, when Shug
and Celie are at the orkestra, Shug plays a crucial role in helping Celie
rediscover herself by constantly advising her to overcome sexual
oppression from Mr. Albert.

52

Females, who aspire to be independent, do realize that effective

social awareness is possible only when they form a social bond, which
Walker clearly depicts through the close associations of female
characters in this novel, such as the one that exists between Celie and
Shug. Both of them not only comfort one another in times of troubles and
frustrations, but also love one another intimately. This close relationship
among characters is common in most African and Diaspora feminist
novels. According to Yvonne Vera, unlike North African Muslim women,
Southern African women become literate quite early and like the North
African sisters, Southern African women who participate in nationalist
struggles with the men, afterwards become disillusioned at their own
apartheid condition whereby they suffer from violence, rape, and other
abuses (67). However, Vera identifies that the 20th Century conditions of
Apartheid, Segregation and exile, which were central in the writings of
South African writers such as Bessie Head, J. Nozipo Maraire, and Peter
Abrahams, are aspects now dismantled to some extent (Africana 8).
Equally, both Vera and Tsitsi Dangaregba, who wrote Nervous Conditions
in 1988, through their writings, identify themselves with other women
suffering from oppression and gender injustices. These are women writers
who expose and oppose prejudice, and who advocate for a more
equitable and humane conception of humanity. These writers, among

53

others, help to establish the ties that bind women in Africa to the Diaspora
by employing oral traditions and other features of cultural heritage.
There is no doubt that modern African women writers are conscious
of their connectedness to women from the African Diaspora, and to other
women

worldwide

despite

history,

language,

or

distance.

New

technological innovations such as webs have enhanced communication

and have provided a universal female experience of oppression. For
example, in Zora Neale Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God Pheoby
Watson has a great relationship with her sister, Janie Crawford, who
after returning from Eatonville where she had spent much of her life with
Tea Cake, her third husband, faces criticism from other village women (2).
Whereas other women gossipers criticize her marriage to Tea cake
because of his young age, which they consider inappropriate because
her naivety allows her to succumb to patriarchal systems of female
oppression, Pheoby Watson and Mrs. Sumpkin volunteer to approach
Jannie and to listen to her story about the whereabouts of Tea Cake who
the villagers think must have been duped by Jannie. In a patriarchal
society, women have various limitations in their relationships with men. The
village women gossipers feel it is unusual for Janie to have married Tea
Cake because of his age, but could not question why men could marry
younger women in age.

54

In short, Walkers treatment of sisterhood is rather different in that it

eventually culminates in lesbianism. Probably, according to her, she
thought that lesbianism portrays a truer relationship among sisters than a
bonding that exists between sisters, who do not actually love each other
intimately. Thus, her treatment of the idea of social bonding among
females is unique. Shug and Celie are intimately in love and they are
independent in the sense that they no longer rely on males. Since each
character owns her own body, she can do whatever she wants with it.
Furthermore, they are not obligated to love or to be loved by any male,
because males oppress by dominating their wives
b) Coalman Road and Treatment of Men
Another compound word that reflects Shugs intentions is coalman
road. Shug Avery informs her audience that the orkestra is destined to
take place in coal road. Adrian Pilkington, for example, persuasively
argues, poetic effects result when a reader weakly access [es] a wide
range of implicatures" ("Literary Reading Process" 122). Whereas Pilkington
is credited in this study for his assertion that implicature is relevant in
understanding any literary work, his use of the term, weak, in the above
excerpt to imply a flexible interpretation of a writers work, it erroneously
portrays literary interpretations as simplistic endeavors.

55

This study of Walkers word forms in The Color Purple presumes that a
strong access to a wide range of implications relies on a readers ability to
understand words in their contexts and appropriate interpretations of such
word implications will definitely ascertain the artists poetic effectiveness.
For example, puny, the play with words is quite effective in this text. Coal is
symbolic of blackness and fire. The road is full of black men and that is
why it is probably called coalman road. By extension the men in this road,
as the author seems to argue, are themselves black, evil, and dirty. In The
Color Purple, Mr. Pa, Nettie and Celies stepfather is portrayed as a rapist.
He targets her own daughter, Celie, who Nettie tries to protect by
sacrificing her morals. Celie dresses seductively to lure her evil stepfathers
lust, and, indeed, accepts to be raped to save her younger sister from
sexual abuse. Celies decision to sacrifice her morality to save her sister is
an act, which is courageous, but quite disturbing to the readers.
Men, as it were in many feminist novels, are denotatively treated as
rapists. In Ann Petrys The Street, Jones rapes Lutie Johnson (54). Also, a
teacher rapes Janies mother in Toni Morisons Their Eyes (19). Gayl Joness
Evas Man is the story of a young woman, Eva Medina Canada, who
because of a long history of sexual abuse, ends up in a mental institution
for murdering her lover and castrating him with her teeth. The mans
instinct to commit sin is symbolic of Walkers fires evidenced in her diction,

56

coal man road. Fires represent ruin and, at the same time, some kind of
reawakening.
Whereas Walkers men characters are destructive, thus fitting well
with fire that ruins, women are constructive in their creation of songs
because they are conscious of the social issues affecting them and they
are ready to face their social challenges as epitomized through coal
road. The females orkestra is thus well located so that the message
reaches its target; the evil males on the road. Having appeared in the
public space, women on coal road address the very men who think
women are supposed to stay at home and do domestic chores. The
audience in coal road is thus men themselves, and they are the ones who
must listen to their womens musicthe music, which shows the ambitions
of women to resist domestication by appearing boldly in the public and
expressing themselves through their own literary creations.
Michael Kearns has indicated that it is sometimes difficult to
separate the creator from his or her creation, and, therefore, separating
an author from the characters she or he creates is a futile attempt
sometimes. He writes:
Expression and literature are so similar that both can be
combined into the single category of use, display, which
demonstrates the leading characteristic of calling attention
to either the text or the text's producer or both. While text
57

and producer do stand as discrete categories, distinguishing

between the two is not always possible, nor is it really
necessarydisplay is still the use. Display . . . is inviting an
audience to notice its purpose to display itself or its maker.
(78)
Thus, Walker as an artist is a representative of Shug Avery who
through art attempts to liberate women from male patriarchs such as Mr.
Albert, his son Harpo, and Pa, Celies abusive stepfather. Shug and Celie
address Albert often as A Mr. ______. This reference by use of a dash
implies maybe that Walker is talking about all men who oppress women
and that such men need not be recognized by using their own names
until they start treating their females fairly. Naming suggests a presence of
self-identity, and when it is absent, it implies a lost identity. Mr. Albert loses
his identity because he fails to recognize women rights. Because of his
shortcomings, Walker ensures that he simply appears as a nonentity to
readers. Jack Bilmes in The Concept of Preference in Conversation
Analysis remarks:
As conversation analysts have recognized (and this is one of
their major achievements), what an utterance comes to
mean is a product of interactional work. An utterance does
not necessarily mean what it might mean or what it seems to
mean at the moment when it is uttered. Its meaning is
58

defined in part by what follows. A silence might seem to

mean, at the moment of its occurrence, that the speaker is
for some reason unwilling to produce a preferred response,
but if the speaker then goes on to produce such a response,
the meaning of the pause may be reassessed. The fact that
the response is preceded by a pause may also lead to
reassessment of the response (e.g., as insincere), but this is not
invariably the case. The recipient bases reassessments on his
or her notions of the reasons that the speaker may have for
showing reluctance. The confusion of reluctance and
preference has come about, it appears, because of the
ordinary language meaning of preference. That which one is
reluctant to do is that which one prefers not to do. (174)
Walkers employment of a dash to represent Mr. Albert is a case of
preference, and readers discover her intentions of unwillingly not using his
real name only after he starts gaining some consciousness towards the
end of the novel even though his awareness is not salient.
It is Celie, the wife, who contributes to his change. Celie states in the
text that Mr. ______ going to hear her (24). Shugs staging of the orkestra
depicts her prowess and deviance, at the same time. Her posture and
dressing

defy

societal

expectations,

and

generally

her

physical

appearance expresses her strength: Shug Avery standing upside a piano,

59

elbow crook, hand on her hip. She wearing a hat like Indian chiefs. Her
mouth open showing all her teef and dont nothing seem to be troubling
her. Come one, come all. The queen honeybee is back in town (24).
Nonetheless, this previous excerpt reveals to readers Walkers ability in
choosing assertive words. Also, she does not need to give explanations for
what some of her words represent. For instance, her usage of upside a
piano, Indian chief, open mouth and the Queen Honeybee are quite
revealing to the reader.
c) Chieftaincy and Singing as Troupes of Women Liberation
Also, the expression, upside a piano up, shows Shugs readiness to
act. The piano is her weapon that she uses to convey her message, and
as a pianist she is, at the same time, a player who excites her audience
while ridiculing it about its social evils. Her perfectionism as a pianist is
symbolic of her sexual perfection as a lesbian, and, indeed, Celie remarks
that Shug acts manly (72).
In many African and Asian traditional societies, women could not
take up chieftaincy positions nor could they dress like chiefs. Karen
Leonard identifies that women in India traditionally were members of the
stratified society characterized by the ideology and practice of
inequality (95). Specifically, in rural Masure, Konkani coast of Western
India, Anjali Bangwe realized, Patriarchal biases against women ensured
an unfair distribution of resources on a gender basis within [the]
60

household (202). The Hindu traditional ideology of the caste system

specified privileges and sanctions according to innate attributes, which
differed by sex, and although womens progress is fairly attained through
economic development in India and South East Asia, patriarchal traditions
continue to be a stumbling block to womens quest for meaningful
empowerment (Edward 81). Therefore, Walkers character, Shug, defies
societal

expectations

about her, especially being obedient and

submissive. When Walker creates a character of Shug, which is dressed

like an Indian Chief and not as a chieftess, she shows how female
subjugation works in this society. Also, Walkers representation of Shug as
an Indian chief is intended to address roles for women and men in society,
especially how women are treated as unequal to men by being denied
such administrative roles. In patriarchal societies assigning specific roles to
women and men was a traditional way of enhancing subjugation and
assigning class status to individuals.
Marx and Engels wrote as far back as 1848, and argued that
womens oppression did not arise from the ideas in mens heads, but from
the development of private property and with it there emerged a society
based on classes. For them, the fight for womens liberation was
inseparable from the fight to end all class society (Harman 79). Shugs
open mouth shows her readiness to speak aloud in protest of such
patriarchal mechanisms of domination. She defies mens expectations
61

that women are not supposed to make public appearances and give
public speeches. Indeed, Walker uses her female characters to resist
oppression both in the Western World and the Third World. For instance,
traditional African societies have held customs that largely allow women
subjugation such as the Olinka tribe in Liberia. Olinka tribe is a spectrum of
many African tribes in Africa, as well as in Asia. In many African societies, it
was unheard of for a woman to open her mouth before the council of
elders because men thought giving a chance to women to address men
was undermining the powers of men. Obviously, institutions that
suppressed the voice of females were oppressive, and Walkers effort to
liberate females through literature is definitely a remarkable one.
Walker tries to encourage her female characters to recognize the
power of the word in liberating themselves. Tashi, the voiceless African
woman, opposes circumcision, which this novel portrays as oppressive
and humiliating. Also, Sofia resists subjugation of any form when she is
married to Harpo, who like his father, Mr. Albert, is domineering and
oppressive. She is very assertive in her expressions towards patriarchy.
Indeed, she resolves: I rather be out in the fields or fooling with the
animals (63) instead of succumbing to Harpos beatings. In fact,
sometimes she is angered because of such violence to an extent that she
retaliates by beating Harpo, who as Sofia describes, All he think about
since us married is how to make me mind. He dont want a wife, he want
62

a dog (67). Although Celie initially portrays signs of submission to women

oppression, especially when she advises Harpo to beat Sofia just like his
husband used to beat her, she gains her voice later in the novel.
Especially, when Celie discovers that Albert is hiding her letters, she resists
and admonishes Alberts act: Until you do right to me, everything you
touch will crumble . . . the jail you plan for me is the one in which you will
rot

(187).

Female

voice

thus

gains

relevance

in

overcoming

objectification in patriarchal societies.

Having gained her voice towards the end of the novel, Celie stops
addressing her frustrations to God, a confidant with whom she initially
shares her innermost secrets, especially her shame and fear of being
sexually molested by her stepfather (Hudson-Weems 203). In this novel, The
Color Purple, it is evident that Shug and Sofia are strong women who
vigilantly oppose any form of suppression. Further, Hudson-Weed has
identified that the strengths and sense of selfhood exemplified by both
Sofia and Shug have a productive impact on Celie because they help her
regain personhood and start retaliating against domestication (204). First
of all, she acts assertively by advising Sofia to ensure that Harpo stops
calling her using a demeaning name, and instead to make him call Sofia
by her real name. Marry Agnes also expresses the power of self-naming for
self-respect and public identification. She acknowledges, When I was
Mary Agnes I could sing in public (183). Thus, all these examples show
63

how the powers of reference expressions, specifically the powers of

naming lexicon, play significant roles in advocating for change.
d) The Queen-Bee and Womens Power
Most African-American feminist writers have shaped their literary
canon by drawing from the Queen Bee symbol, which this study
associates with powerful female protagonists. Many feminist writers, both
in Africa and in the Diaspora, have created strong women characters
that fight to overcome subjugations of any form. For examples, in Zora
Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God, Jody Starks strictly denies his
wife, Janie Crawford, the chance to give a speech before the public,
because she is a woman. She realizes that her marriage with Starks is
unfulfilling and decides to marry Tea Cake, who listens to her, takes her
out for picnics and treats her as an equal. In most African traditional
societies, one reason though why women could not be allowed to speak
before men was because women were considered not to keep a secret.
Rose Ure Mezu in her Women in Chains identifies that prejudice towards
women has prevailed since creation:
Even in the Bible which is an acknowledged source of rich
and varied literaturemyth, biography, poetry, short satires,
letters, prophecythere is abundant literature of unhappy
passions and abandonment: Leah, Jacobs first wife and
Michal, king Davids first wife, are famous [examples] of
64

unloved

victims

of

polygamy

and

each

lived

in

abandonment. . . . The myth of the great fall of the first man,

Adam, had and perhaps, will forever blight the character of
Eve, the alleged seductress responsible for mans fall from
grace. Furthermore, the teachings of the earliest Christian
theologians were all aimed at suppressing lust, incarnated in
the figure of woman. Generally, Woman was regarded as the
agent of the devil in her sensuousness and seductiveness. (8)
In many traditional societies, women were supposed to listen and
not to be heard. Such silencing of females by males was even worse in
that even in situations that called for laughter and humor; women could
not be allowed to express their feelings except when they were alone. In
some African communities such as Kisii in Kenya, where the author of this
study comes from, women who laughed in public, especially before men
were construed as having weak morals and, therefore, vulnerable to
adultery. These women, who men branded as morally weak, were often
not respected, and many did not get married because of such
prejudiced feelings. Also, in Nigeria, West Africa, Chinua Achebe illustrates
such silencing when Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart admonishes his second
wife, Ojiugo, who interrupts him in his speech during the festival week (57).
Also, in The Anthills of the Savannah, Achebe shows that women form the
oldest if not the biggest single group of oppressed people in the world
65

and they were denied participation in the actual running of mens affairs
in the public domain (98). Equally, Juliet Okonkwo, the writer of The
Talented Woman in African Literature complains that women in most
traditional African societies were at the background, participating only as
wives, daughters, mothers or mistresses, and they cooked mounds of foofoo, carried pots of water, carried market baskets, fetched kola, beaten,
scolded, and stayed behind the huts of their compounds (36). Many male
writers, therefore, worked according to the Levistrausian theory of two
worlds, where, as Juliet Okonkwo further identifies, the physiological
differences between men and women dictate complete, distinct, social
roles for the sexes (36).
Women faced many challenges in the traditional African societies;
however, they played vital roles, which were not recognized by men. In
Things Fall Apart, the great oracle, Agbala, the goddess of the hills and
the caves, and Ani, the earth goddess, play an important role in the Igbo
society. For Example, Ani defines the productivity of every crop based on
the peoples compliance with the dictates of the earth (4). Mezu further
illustrates that there were women who played a vital role in the
administrative system although their male counterparts less recognized
them. Women were arbitrators of land cases, witchcraft and diviners of
war (Africana 14). Also, in Nigeria, in 1929, the Aba riots against
women tax by the imperialist depicted the strength and solidarity of
66

women to fight against exploitation and subjugation. Women in the

traditional society also participated in the social struggles and political
movements.
In Central Africa, Maria Rosa Cutrufelli writes that Anna Zingha, the
Queen of Matamba, the finest political brain in central Africa, fought in
Angola before everybody else, she fought against the Portuguese in the
17th Century (170). In Zambia Heistler noted: Both individually and
collectively through their own brigades, women had a role, even a violent
one, in disrupting the rural system (qtd. in Cutrufelli 170). Even after
colonialism women movements mushroomed in many African countries to
encourage for equal rights. Thus, African women played a spiritual
role that ensured them significant freedom from male domination while it
highlighted female cultural, economic and religious achievements.
However, their roles in the political, social and economic systems were
often unrecognized by their men.
Therefore, Walkers queen-of-honeybee symbol functions as a
reconstruction strategy of enabling African women to have a voice.
Walkers strong woman in The Color Purple is Shug, who as the queen and
leader encourages other women to participate in the fight for their
independence. Walker argues that if men had titles such as kings and
appeared in the public to execute their roles, women too needed an
equal title; that of queens. Walkers heroine, Shug, is like the beehive
67

queen, which is a sexually dominant and mature reproductive female

and mother of all bees. Her mission in the orkestra is to reproduce active
bees whose role include going out to collect nectar and build a secure
home of their own where they can be independent.
Indeed, both Celie and Shug develop a strong bond that enables
them address their frustrations. Shug and Celie are partners because each
wants some kind of solace. For instance, Celie complains about her
marriage with Mr. ______ because she thinks it has a shortcoming. She
remarks, Us try, I say. He try to play with the button but feel like his fingers
dry. Us dont git nowhere much (95). Celie finds solace in her new
relationship with Shug. The symbol of the bees and their leader, the queen
bee, is ultimately representative of the busy, co-operative, and fierce life
of the kind of sisterhood that Walker envisages among women artists, who
advocate for female freedom universally. Probably, this is a universal or
collective call for female sisterhood because in Possessing the Secret of
Joy Walkers objective is to assist African females to overcome male
patriarchy and to negate traditional customs, which systematically
oppress them, especially female clitoridectomy. Readers should recognize
that Walkers objective in creating social consciousness is similar to other
feminist and gynandrist writers except that her sense of sisterhood, which is
represented through lesbianism, is a subjective perception, which actually
shows the inevitability of societal change.
68

e) The Queen Honey Bee and African Feminist Protagonists

Walkers attempt to create female conscious, both in Africa and in
America, was not an isolated case. Women African writers themselves
and sympathetic male writers (gynandrists) had to do something about
womens oppressive situation. Mezu writes that over time there emerged
slowly a body of writing committing women a voice and a chance to
assume charge of their destiny (Africana 27). The first female feminist
novel emerged in the middle of the sixties when a Nigerian, Flora Nwapa,
and Ghanaian, Ama Ata Aidoo, both registered female presence in the
literary world. Nwapas Efuru introduced, for the first time, a female
protagonist who strongly grappled with the tensions and conflicts that
shaped and affected her, and Buchi Emecheta also registered her
presence in her texts The Joys of Motherhood and Second Class Citizen,
which both discussed the themes of female oppression (Mezu 28).
In East Africa, Ngugi Wa Thiongos heroines, Wanja in Petals of Blood
and Wariinga in Devil in The Cross respectively are more than
revolutionary figures, because they are themselves victims of love
relationships. They get pregnant by older men who abandon them. Wanja
kills her baby, but Wariinga decides to keep hers (131). Wanjas decision
to commit her babys suicide as a solution to her problems, radical though
it seems, is not a solution Ngugi espouses, or advocates for in this novel.
The kinds of women needed are those who prove themselves resilient
69

enough to be independent. Similarly, Margaret Reid's "Conflict or

Compromise: The Changing Roles of Women in the Writings of Rebekah
Njau and Grace Ogot" reasserts that women's passivity is apparent and,
suicide, if considered a troupe of rebellion and self-expression, still remains
a poor substitute for a transcending, and self-individuating reality
(Africana: Intro ii). Other African Writers who have encouraged for
female and male equality in African societies include Peter Abrahams of
South Africa, Sembene Ousmane of Senegal, and Grace Ogot of Kenya,
In South Africa, Peter Abrahams, the writer of Mine Boy depicts Leah
as a strong and courageous woman leader of a protest movement
intended to oppose exploitation and poor working conditions in the
Whitemens

mines.

Whereas

many

of Abrahams

characters

are

disillusioned and turn to drinking alcohol and prostitution to forget their

problems, women such as Leah and Maisy encourage their men to fight
on despite being exploited and discriminated by the Whitemen (35). In
this novel Leah is portrayed as a tough woman who sells liquor illegally
despite policing and often avoids the police brutality. She also
accommodates Xuma, who is new and hopeless in the city and
introduces him to the people, who help him start a new life of survival.
In Central Africa, Ousmane Sembene, especially in his Gods Bits of
Wood has positively portrayed women image. In his novel, for instance,
Ousmane examines the Senegaleses working class houses to show the
70

peoples hopelessness. The Narrator demonstrates that in Thies, the center

of the strike, houses are dilapidated because workers are underpaid and
denied privileges enjoyed by the French workers. African workers struggle
to survive in these oppressive environments. The persona describes that,
In Thies . . . constantly hungry, naked children, with sunken chests and
swollen bellies, argued with the vultures . . . the outhouses were plugged
with rugs and cardboard, but they were houses (49). In Thies, people live
in unhealthy environments. After the colonialist cuts off food and water
supply to disorient them and compel them to go back to work, they share
whatever food they have in order to survive. Also, when the working class
starts a protest against the imperial employers in order to have fair wages
and working conditions, women play a central role in ensuring change by
participating in the protest. Particularly, Maumona, the blind woman,
shows her strength when she encourages the women on the march to
keep on singing when she realizes that they are getting disillusioned.
Through their music, they gather courage to fight on. Furthermore,
Sembene implicates that independence or the economic revolution that
comes after the strike is not a one mans effort, but a collective
responsibility in which men, women and children all take part in effecting
change. During the march of the women from Thies to Dakar, the men
take up the roles of the women, because they only give moral support.
The smith joins the march, but he is at the periphery. When Awa breaks
71

down, the smith carries her on his back. Yacine remarks, Bah! For once
he had a woman on his back, they have us on our backs every night!
(303). Also, Sembene has advocated through cinematography for
women liberation. In Sembenes film, Faat Kine, he shows the efforts his
heroine makes to gain her own financial stability without necessary relying
on men, who attempt to exploit her sexually.
Also, Grace Ogot of Kenyas The River and the Source is a
creditable novel, which examines the struggles of an African girl to learn in
a society, which does not recognize the relevance of female education.
Nyabera is a strong and ambitious girl, who becomes a medical doctor in
a society that does not believe in the education of women (145).
Generally, Walker portrays Shug as a utopian character, who
competes with men in the public spaces to overcome patriarchy. Bell
Hooks concludes that African and Diaspora women writers yearn or aspire
to liberate oppressed women universally, and that developing a utopian
impulse to resist injustice is a necessarily strategy. Bell Hooks concept of
yearning is one example of utopian desires articulated in feminist theory:
[D]epths of longing, . . . a displacement for the longed for
liberationthe freedom to control ones destiny found in folks
across race, class, gender, and sexual practice. . . . The shared
space and feeling of yearning opens up the possibility of

72

common ground where all these differences might meet and

engage one another. (Hooks 1213)
Having discussed the implication of the Queen Honey bee in detail,
it is worthy to focus on the mailbox as a naming lexicon.
f) The Mailbox as a Naming Lexicon
Mr. Albert guards the mailbox to confiscate Celies letters,
especially from her sister, Nettie. Albert hides Celies letters because he
feels guilty that he had attempted to rape Nettie and she had run away.
He fears these letters could reveal his immorality to Celie and others (100).
He is the mailbox opener, and Shug wonders whether Nettie is with some
other funny stamps (men) wherever she resides. Shug doubts: she
wouldnt be someplace with funny stamps, you dont reckon (101). The
choice of the lexicon funny stamps to supposedly refer to unfaithful men
basically is a linguistically gender biased notion. Letters have to be
stamped for them to be delivered by the service providers. Thus, stamps
do

accompany

letters

(women)

wherever

they

go

and

this

accompaniment is what Walker discourages. Letters need their own

freedom, but stamps seem to curtail their freedom.

73

Furthermore, Albert has the key to the mailbox, and he is the only
one to open it. Celie often complains that she does not receive her mails.
She remarks, Now I say. Every day when Mr. ______ come from the
mailbox I hope for news. But nothing come. She [Nettie] dead I say (100
1). The key that penetrates through the mailbox keyhole and opens the
mailbox is symbolic of the penis. According to Lacans theory of
phallocentrism, the phallus signifies the basic structure of society, including
power, status, and economic dominion (97). Thus, the male phallus
becomes the center for power, which they use to dominate females.
When Albert denies Celie access to the mailbox, he is, in extension,
limiting her power to access what is rightfully hers. Walker ensures that
there is change in power ownership because her heroine, Shug, outwits
Albert and ensures that Celie receives her sisters letters. Therefore, Shug
becomes the new mailbox opener. Alberts access to the mailbox may be
seen as a subconscious intention to rape Nettie because he had wanted
to rape her and she had run away. Probably, he feels that the only way to
satisfy his instincts left to him is by opening her mails.
Mr. Albert represents evil men who oppress females and he can be
equated to Charles Dickenss Fagin in Oliver Twist. The treatment of Mr.
Albert as Mr. ______ is similar to Dickenss prejudiced treatment of Fagin as
a Jew. Dickens seldom uses Fagins name, referring to him usually as "the
Jew." Mitchell Morse has argued that naming and its variant references of
74

Fagin depict him as simply an evil character (785). Equally, Mr. Albert
features in most of Celies conversations, but Celie often does not address
him by his name until the end of the novel. Celie starts to address him by
his real name after he undergoes change and he starts to recognize his
mistakes in mistreating Celie. Otherwise, in much of the text, he is a
nonentity. Walker calls Albert a Mr. ______ 216 times, and on pages 49 to
51 he is old Mr. ______ 8 times making it a total of 224. On page 103 he is
still referred to with a dash, simply Albert ______. The audience is kept in
suspense until pages 228229 when Celie mentions his name through
reported speech only once. Therefore, readers recognize Mr. ______
through Walkers processes of reference, and the persona directly
addresses him as Mr. Albert only once. After Alberts name is implied in the
novel, we recognize his only one time positive characteristic in this novel.
Particularly, Celie appreciates his understanding ability when she explains
to him why Olinkans sold African-Americans to America (232). It is her story
that challenges Albert to undergo self-search in order to understand his
life history, as well as that of all people of color in the Diaspora as victims
of slave descents and bearers of the problems of racism, classicism, and
sexism. Mr. Alberts humane side is evidenced when Celie reports, Mr.
______ look at me real thoughtful. He not such a bad looking man, you
know, when you come right down to it. And now it do begin to look he
got a lot of feeling hind his face (231). Similarly, Grady is Shugs boyfriend
75

who is a flat character in this novel, and who is unstable. He too is

unfaithful, but sometimes Shug financially supports him. In short, Walker
creates men characters, who struggle to rediscover themselves and
attempt to overcome their problems, especially in their relations. The
reconciliation of characters at the end of the novel informs the readers
that although men try to dominate their women and they are
dependants, they still have room for change because they are equally
important figures in society.
3.5: Foreign Language and Cultural Alienation
Speech variants sometimes illustrate cultural power differences.
Walker, as well as many African writers, has attempted to employ variants
characteristic of African vernacular expressions to avoid using the
imperialists languages which enhances cultural alienation. Although
critics have observed that the colonial masters language(s) were aimed
at alienating the colonized peoples minds, to other critics of language
use in African literary texts, this view does not mean that African writers
should actually discard languages of colonization in totality.
Ngugi Wa Thiongo, a prominent Kenyan writer of novels and other
works, including The Petals of Blood, The Devil on the Cross, and
Decolonizing the Mind among others, has been radical in his usage of
Kikuyu, his vernacular language as opposed to English. He believes English
language plays a big role in the alienation of Africans. He started his
76

writing with English when he wrote, Weep Not Child and later translated
this novel and many of his other works including Maatigari using Kikuyu
vernacular language. His decision to write in his original variant was
because he thought the best way to explore the experiences of his
people is by using a language they best understood, but later he
suggested that there should be a complete overhaul in the language and
literature syllabuses of African educational institutions (Decolonizing 97).
He realized that for him as a writer to reach a wider audience he needed
to write in English, which he envisaged as a combination of Kikuyu
expressions, Kenyan English and Standard English. Thus, he seemed to
agree with Chinua Achebe, his mentors perception that it is important to
gymnastically prey on our languages to add life and vigor to English and
other foreign languages to be more assertive of our rights (8). Further,
Achebe reasserted that there was need to write African novels using local
languages which have local traditional myths, legends, folklores and
dances, because these features define the values of the targeted
people. He remarked, I feel that the English language will be able to
carry the weight of my experience. But it will have to be a new English . . .
altered to suit new African surroundings (Decolonizing 8).

77

Hence, when Sembene uses a new French language with African

narrative devices, forms of greetings (peace be with you), folk songs, and
images of the drum, it reflects that it is through language that culture is
realized. Particularly, the drum expresses the African soul. Camara Laye
adds about the drum when he says that it is the rhythmthe love of it and
the gift of itthat enables us to play the tom toms instinctively, without
ever being taught . . . which makes us all born musicians and born
dancers (Killam 162). Sembene identifies that all languages are rich, and
therefore, African languages can equally be used to reflect the African
experience. It is wrong for the ruling regimes not to support indigenous
languages, because they fail to recognize that their own languages can
sustain culture (qtd. in Gadjigo et al 62). Frederick Case argues that,
Ousmane Sembenes use of language, which he has forced to its
semantic limits by producing a new polyseny that is primarily Wolof is; his
acknowledgement of the primacy of indigenous culture and Islam as the
motivating forces of the modes of thought of a people (12). Thus,
Ousmane Sembene having recognized the importance of uplifting his
race towards better living Standards, he ensured that his language
remained accessible to them.
Like Achebe and other African writers who have attempted to use
language that is characteristic of African myths, legends, folk tales,
dances, music and other oral traditions, Walker and other African78

American women writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, who wrote Their Eyes
Were Watching God, and Toni Morison, who wrote Beloved, among other
novels, have equally made meaningful contribution by including aspects
of African America orature in their works. Similarly, Fairclough challenges
the so-called Standard language by indicating that they are meant to
ensure the existence of power structures in society. He argues, By coming
to be associated with the most salient and powerful institutions_ Literature,
Government and administration, law, religion, and education_ Standard
English began to emerge as the language of political and cultural power,
and as the language of the politically and culturally powerful (47).
Walker, indeed, employs features that are characteristic of African
oral traditions. For instance, Celie expresses herself using her AfricanAmerican variant and when Nettie, one of the central characters in the
novel, code switches and mixes variants, it shows Walkers creativity and
her style of trying to reach a wider audience. Her flexibility in language
use further reveals how English and other imperialist languages have been
used to dominate the colonized, thus functioning as tools of social
stratification.
3.6: Four Correspondences between Nettie and Celie
On the other hand, lexical items in Alice Walkers epistemology
narratives sometimes reflect the narrators cultural and linguistic bias.
According to McGuire, "a general rhetorical theory of narrative raises
79

questions of how narrative as a form has potentials to inform and

persuade that differs from other language forms" (221). Further, McGuire
discusses the sociology and grammar of narrative and he concludes, "A
dialectical relationship exists between narratives and attitudes or beliefs"
(234).

Indeed,

Netties

expressions,

especially

about

Africa,

are

prejudiced, and an analysis of the letters she writes to her sister, Celie,
when Nettie arrives in Africa, might provide evidence about the narrators
prejudice. Nettie exhibits this bias from the time she and her missionary
friends, Corrine and Samuel, arrive in Africa. The first letter Nettie writes to
her sister, Celie, portrays her negative perception of Africa. Often Nettie
compares her new African experience with American experiences, and
most of her words reflect biased remarks about Africans and anything
African. Morse J. Mitchell in Prejudice and Literature comments:
Overt hostility or habitual condescension or discourtesy,
arising from prejudice conscious or unconscious, is easy
enough to understand, and (on the level of manners) easy
enough to deal with; but sometimes, because of social myths
that are never articulated but are nevertheless accepted as
if they were facts of natureif only because they are not
articulatedthe most courteous, most liberal, most humane
and gentle people injure others without intending to and
without knowing it. (780)
80

Because Nettie is the voice through which Walker examines African ways
of life, it is necessary that we analyze her discourse to better understand
Walkers intention in using specific expressions. This studys consideration of
Nettie and Celies letters provides meaningful exchanges between two
speakers, which will be quite revealing how many people who are not
familiar with Africa often treat it as an uncivilized continent. Therefore,
each letter the researcher selects from the The Color Purple for the current
analysis will be analyzed on a pilot study basis and numbered numerically
for easy reference as follows:
a) Pilot Study I: The Analysis (The Color Purple 126131)
The epistemology style provides a linguistic framework, which this
study employs to examine conversations between two female characters
(Refer to appendix 1). Robin Lakoff agrees with Deborah Tannen that
women and men have different speech styles, which they define as
"rapport-talk" and "report-talk," respectively (243). Although there is no
male character actively participating in this novel, Nettie and Celies
letters illustrate what males conversations in real life might entail, because
sometimes Celie reports Mr. Alberts speech expressions in The Color
Purple. Generally, gender distinctions are built into language and our acts
of communications demonstrate how we think about women and men.
Similarly, Tannen has suggested that adult conversations for women are
negotiations for closeness in which people try to seek, give, confirm,
81

support, and reach consensus" (Talking from 9 to 5 Women and Men

25). Also, this study agrees with Lakoff and Tannen in that an analysis of
letters written by Walkers characters might inform readers on how women
negotiate persuasively and sympathetically for recognition of their rights
and for redefinition of women identity by carefully choosing their words.
For example, Nettie describes Africa as a dark continent, which is
envisaged with jungles, in her very first letter after settling in Africa. She
explains that once in Africa:
We left right away for Olinka, some four days march through
the bush. Jungle to you or maybe not. Do you know what a
jungle is? Well. Trees and trees and then more trees on. . . .
And big. They are so big they look like they were built. And
vines. And ferns. And little animals. Frogs. Snakes too. (127)
The author employs story-telling technique, a feature common in
African oral narration, to explain her new experience about Africa. The
repetitive nature of ideas is also common in the fairy tales to create
emphasis. In this excerpt Walker stresses that even though Africa is a
continent in the jungle, it is full of life because of its thriving trees, animals,
and snakes. Therefore, she, at the same time, refutes many Western
writers ideologies about Africa as a Dark Continent and, therefore,
uncivilized. Obviously, Africa is a continent full of life where animals and
human beings co-exist in the jungles. Once in Olinka, the new missionaries
82

discover that the people are petrified with the sexes. Nettie reports: Then
someone said, that the new missionaries would be black and two of them,
women was exactly what he had dreamed and just last night, too (129).
The arrival of the missionaries spells a wave of change amongst Olinka
people, especially concerning their views about the place of the female.
They start to realize that women too can play roles they assume that are
meant for men such as being missionaries. The mens fear is so serious that
one Olinkan man is very disturbed with the likelihood of change until he
subconscious starts dreaming of women entering into the public space,
because the possibility of a woman and especially a black woman being
a missionary is something unexpected in this society.
Also, Netties description in the sitting arrangement of children,
women, and men clearly illustrates gender power differences. Nettie
writes:
By now there was a lot of commotions [excitements after the
missionaries arrive in Olinka] little heads began to pop up
from behind mothers skirts and over the young one. And we
were sort of swept along the villages, about 300 of them, to a
place without walls but with a leaf roof [grass-thatched
house] where we all sat down on the ground, men in front
women and children behind. Then there was loud whispering

83

among some very old men . . . did black missionaries drink

palm wine? (129)
From the citation above, the position of men is always in the front. Women
and children sit together not only because they have to take care of the
children, but possibly because they are treated as children. Such sitting
arrangement clearly shows that women have to follow their leaders, who
are more powerful. Therefore, such social stratification shows readers that
men in this society believe that like children who have not fully matured,
women never mature beyond the level of children and in this society they
always have to be treated like children. Often, in social gatherings
women in such communities have to naturally position themselves with
their children. Fairclough writes, Power in discourse has to do with
powerful participants controlling and constraining the contributions of nopowerful participants (39). Thus, sitting arrangement is a social factor that
contributes to women subjugation. In Olinka society, women and children,
in most cases take their positions in the background, and they are often
unrecognized. In many patriarchal societies, men try to maintain order by
disciplining women and children. The following excerpt explains how men
nurture traditional feelings that it is their duty to discipline both their
children and wives: Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr. ______ say,
Cause she my wife. Plus, she stubborn. All women good forhe dont
finishhe beat me like he beat the children (30).
84

Furthermore, the villager who narrates a story about the chiefs

greed also shows how power dichotomy exists in this society. The order in
which he mentions the names in the story is evidence of how men treat
women in this society as inferior: Then cold rocks, shaped like millet balls,
fell from the sky, striking everyone, men and women and children alike,
giving them fevers (130). The village narrator mentions men, and then
women followed by children. Thus, power relations work in this same order.
Walker seems to criticize such social categorization by depicting a society
that lives in fear, doubt, and surprise.
There are various expressive values of words in pilot study one that
reveal the backwardness of Olinkans as opposed to the missionaries
visiting their society. For example, words and phrases such as petrified,
commotion, sort of swept, and loud whispering create a dull mood
among the Olinkans described, and they help to show the reader that it is
not only Nettie who is uneasy with the way Olinkans live, but also Walker
as the author. Also, the arrival of the missionaries accompanied by an
African-American, who the Olinkans think is a missionary too, surprised
Olinkans. Because they believe missionaries are supposed to be Whites, it
is unusual for them to meet An African-American as a missionary.
Probably, Olinkans have been influenced by a white supremacist
mentality that only White people can travel to Africa and that it is only
them who understand the Bible better. Olinkans are, therefore, fearful and
85

skeptical of the reality that An African-American woman can be a

missionary.
Surprise further characterizes Netties discourse, especially when she
describes the peoples hospitality to strangers in their society. The Olinkans
are said to welcome and to appreciate their visitors. For example, on
arrival in this society, the missionaries are offered palm wine, which is a
gesture of the peoples sense of communism, generosity, and respect.
However, cultural incompatibility is discussed by Nettie and other
missionaries a mid fear and skepticism. The missionaries are offered palm
wine, but they drink it unwillingly. Nettie, in particular, is unease with the
drink because Olinkans give it to her without asking her if she wants it,
which she finds impolite. The other two missionaries, Corrine and Samuel,
exchange their feelings in the form of gestures: Corrine looked at Samuel
and Samuel looked at Corrine. But me and the children were already
drinking it, because someone had already put the little brown clay glasses
in our hands, and we were too nervous not to start sipping (129). The
repetition of the word looked in the above expression shows the
missionaries surprise in the kind of meals Olinkans eat and the way they
eat it. Nettie says, We had our first meal, a chicken and groundnut
(peanut) stew which we ate with our fingers. . . . But mostly we listened to
songs and watched dances that raised lots of dust (129). The Olinkans
eat with fingers and not with spoons or chop sticks as Westerners do, and
86

their vigorous styles of dance are habits, which the new missionaries find
uncouth. Deborah Tannen in her work, That Is Not What I Meant! How
Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships, writes that cultural
differences

in

habitual

use

of

intonation

and

other

means

of

expressiveness such as loudness, facial expression, and gesturing account

in part for cross-cultural stereotyping, which is simply the extension to a
whole group of the kinds of impressions that are regularly formed about
individuals (54). Furthermore, the choices of words to describe the
Olinkans ways of life may be seen as prejudiced.
Readers should recognize that the characters portray this prejudice,
and sometimes this is not Walkers bias. Nonetheless, it is very difficult to
differentiate the writer from her characters. Morse argues:
But prejudice tends to disable a writer as writer, because it is
in its very nature and inevitable expression vulgar. It is vulgar
because it is not personal. Nobody decides, personally,
individually, alone, that he dislikes or distrusts or despises a
whole race or sex or religion or nation. That is an attitude he
picks up from the community or group he lives in. It has
nothing to do with personal experience. (780)
Probably, Walker intends to show that although outsiders often treat
Olinkans with a lot of bias, they have a unique culture with stable political,
economic, and social systems. The authors familiarity with the Olinkans
87

eating, dancing, and sheltering styles do reveal to readers these

communitys unique lifestyles. For examples, in many traditional African
societies, offering strangers a meal of chicken demonstrates Africans
respect to visitors,

sheltering in

Leaf canopy demonstrates

their

naturalness, eating with fingers demonstrates Africans custom vis--vis

technology, and finally, singing and dancing demonstrate the peoples
mediums of communication and spirituality. However, new comers to this
society often fear and hesitate when they are confronted with the Olinkan
ways. Both Corine and Samuel, the white missionary couple, fear to adapt
or to be acculturalized to barbaric African customs.
Indeed, Walkers highlight of the norms of the Olinkans is clear in her
characters vocabulary. Words such as greedy, consumerism, fear, they
think, they never, which describe Olinkans are all derogatory. These words
do create a puzzling impact on some readers. Differences between
discourse types in the expressive values of words are again ideologically
motivated and significant. Fairclough suggests:
The expressive value of words has always been a central
concern for those interested in persuasive language . . . it is
not so much the mobilization of expressive persuasive ends
that is of interest . . . these expressive values can be referred
to ideologically contrastive classification schemes. (99)

88

Therefore, Walkers use of words with expressive values is one of her ways
of showing how some people in the Western world and their prejudices
have enabled social stratification in society. Nonetheless, Nettie explains
African presumed barbaric tendencies, especially when she narrates
about the Olinkan chiefs greedy attitude. Readers learn from Nettie
greed and corruption did not start with the imperialist, because even in
the traditional Olinkan society, chiefs were greedy and exploitative. For
example, one of the villagers in Olinka narrates a story about a greedy
chief, who amassed large junks of lands thus sideling the other villagers
and even his own wives:
But, once a long time ago, one man in the village wanted
more than his share of land to plant . . . even his wives were
absent by this. . . . But eventually, the greedy chief took as
much of this land that even the elders were disturbed. So he
simply bought them offwith axes and clothing and cooking
pots that he got from the coast traders. (129300)
Walker illustrates that peoples desire for materialism is due to their greed
that impels them to own more wealth by exploiting others. Walker uses
story-telling technique with a timeless opening formula, once a long time
ago, to show readers that greed is archaic and that it is eminent even in
the contemporary society and, therefore, people should avoid selfishness.

89

Indeed, in many societies story telling was meant to educate people and
to maintain ethics.
People in Olinka society guard their wealth because of greed. Thus,
it is common for leaders to betray their people by trading them with other
powers to enrich themselves. Similarly, it was because of greed that the
imperialists enslaved people of color so that they could provide cheap
labor for them because the imperialists wanted to be wealth too. It was
these same selfish instincts that led African chiefs to trade their own
people with the imperialists in return for simple and cheap gifts and / or
items. In The Color Purple Nettie complains about the selfish motives of
African chiefs, who traded in slaves: I read where the Africans sold us
because they loved money more than their own sisters and brothers. How
we came to America in ships. How we were made to work (111).
Therefore, Walker demonstrates that failure of humanity in leadership starts
with the love for the self in capitalist countries. Also, Walker blames
Africans for their own predicaments because she feels that they failed to
be responsible for their own lives.
Furthermore, the choices of the words in the phrase, once a long
time ago in the narrative, show that greed is a vice that started in a
timeless period. Words such as wanted more than, wives absent [upset],
simply bought, and disturbed elders all inform readers that the Olinkans
are unease with people, who are corrupt and evil. Greed is often
90

punished in Olinka as in many societies of the world, but in Olinka their

system of punishment is often through natural calamities that face the
greedy people and these misfortunes render them helpless. For Example,
as one of the villagers narrates, there seems to be a dual relationship
between nature and humankind. The chiefs selfishness is followed by a
calamity that terrorizes him, as well as other community members:
But then there came a great storm during the rainy season
that destroyed all the roofs on all the huts in the village, and
the people discovered to their dismay that there was no
longer any roofleaf to be found. . . . For six months the
heavens and the winds abused the people of Olinka. Rain
came down in pears, stabbing away the mud of their walls. . .
. Then cold rocks, shaped like millet balls, fell from the sky,
striking everyone, men and women and children alike, giving
them fevers. The children fell ill first, then their parents. Soon
the village began to die. By the end of the rainy season, half
the village was gone. . . . The chief was forced . . . to walk
away from the village forever. His wives were given to other
men. (130)
After the chief walks away, nature responds positively because the crops
begin to grow. Nonetheless, there is careful selection of words in this
excerpt to describe the dilapidated village. The great storm, the winds,
91

and the cold rocks are nouns that show the intensity of the problem
Olinkans face when nature is provoked. The villagers are disillusioned as
exemplified in the speakers words, including destroyed, dismayed,
abused, stabbed, and struck. All these words are in themselves
onomatopoeic and, therefore, Walkers style of writing is very poetic.
Furthermore, the word giving presupposes the trading of the chiefs
wives as mere objects to other men. Since women are considered
properties among which the chief had acquired and, therefore, if he has
to lose his land, he must also lose his wives. Walker opposes female
objectification through her criticism of the chiefs wives, who Nettie
considers lazy. According to Nettie, they are lazy not because they have
no energies to work, but because they are simply voiceless and reluctant
to resist oppression. Nettie explains:
The greedy chiefs wives are disappointed of his treatment or
grabbing of the peoples land, but they are lazy women and
no one paid any attention to them . . . so unhappy and work
so hard . . . even though they are unhappy and work like
donkeys they still think it is an honor to be the chiefs wife.
(133)
Accepting domestication by women therefore is a vice that should be
stopped. In the traditional Olinkan society, women work hard to feed their
children and husbands. Chiefs are respected and the more wives and
92

children one has the more respect he deserves from the people in the
community. Thus, even if the chiefs wives are mistreated, they cannot
abandon him because their social status will change. Women, who often
separate or divorce their husbands in many African societies, are
considered rude and many men avoid them. Nettie believes these
women, who bear the burden of mistreatment, are lazy and that they
need to resist such oppression. Therefore, Nettie considers Olinkan women
as lazy people, a behavior she does not exhibit herself. Sally McConellGinet explains that such labels often identify social, political, and
attitudinal groupings into which people quite self-consciously do or do not
enter (qtd. in Holmes 70). Netties disgust with the womens passivity is
evidenced in her usage of the words, they still think. The lexicon indicates
the womens sense of uneasiness, uncertainty, powerlessness, and
naivety. Furthermore, there are other phrases, which clearly show Netties
frustrations and her obvious categorization of these lazy women.
According to Nettie, they seem to have no clear identity and refer to
them five times within this letter generally as women. Her expression is
repetitive emphasizing the womens passivity and similarity: Nettie says,
Then one or two women touched my and Corrines dresses . . . Then one
of the women asked a question. . . . Then another woman had a question.
. . . Then someone said, . . . . Then another said (1289). The adverbial
then shows the continuous excitement of the village women to meet
93

the new missionaries. Excitement thus shows their weakness, because

Olinka women probably feel the missionaries are superior to them.
Furthermore, when Nettie often uses labels to describe them, she
distances herself from their category. As the narrator and a female
character, she portrays her prowess over the women she meets in Africa.
Her social life is not reciprocal to Olinka women, because she belongs to
a higher social hierarchy by virtue of her knowledge and traveling
experience. There is frequent reference of the Olinka women as lazy and
powerless in The Color Purple. Bilmes explains: Another problem [in
discourse analysis] has to do with the relationship between preference
and frequency counts (172). Similarly, in many discourses, Heritage and
Watson suggest that confirmations of word formulations are massively
preferred (143). These writers perceptions on preferences in discourse
demonstrate that the occurrences of a choice of a particular alternative
(confirmation) indicate (or is) a preference and that what remains to be
done is for a linguist to ascertain how frequently that choice occurs in any
piece of art.
However, Walkers process of labeling Olinkan women is meant to
challenge them so that they can start fighting for their liberation.
Furthermore, although Olinkan women are described as subjugated and
objectified by their men, these women are at times inquisitive about their
oppressive situation, and they probably consider the new missionaries as
94

their saviors. In most African societies, women and men outcasts were the
very first people to be converted by the missionaries, because they could
be accommodated by the Whitemans religion as opposed to their own.
For example, in Things Fall Apart, the outcast women, who were barren
and the unmarried, as well as lazy men, such as Enock and Okokwos
sons, were the first ones to join the Whitemans religion. Nonetheless, in The
Color Purple readers learn that Olinka women have never visited many
places prior to the arrival of the missionaries: Twenty miles through the
jungle is a very long trip. The men might hunt up to ten miles around the
village, but the women stayed close to their huts and fields (128).
Probably, with the realization that an African-American woman can be a
missionary too and travel to Africa, the Olinka women might aspire to
explore new opportunities. Although Nettie credibly encourages African
women to fight for their freedom, she fails to understand that people in
the traditional society pretty much adhere to norms, and respect by
women for their men is a norm, because disrespect for husbands
contributes in the occurrence of divorces and separations. Therefore,
such women are partly not to blame for their subjugation because norms
play a big role in female domestication.
The missionaries described in this letter have a culture different from
the Olinka peoples culture. The narrator, Nettie, is sometimes biased in
her description of Olinkans and their country. Her lexicon such as little and
95

thought, which she uses often when she is talking of Olinkan experience,
show her prejudice. The intensifier little is often used in various contexts to
demean Olinkans and thought and its variant, think, especially when she
occasionally says the women think and they [Olinkans] naturally thought
demonstrates how she recognizes the village women as less informed and
unsure of whom they are.
b) Pilot Study 2: The Analysis (The Color Purple 143145)
Nettie writes her other letter to Celie after they have fully settled in
Olinka (Refer to appendix 2). In this letter, she informs her sister that after
the missionaries settle in Olinka, they are able to own a church, school,
and house. Unfortunately, the White imperialists destroy these structures,
as well as those of Olinkans to construct a road that connects the Olinkan
Coast to the countryside for easy transportation of goods to the Imperialist
states. At first, Olinkans do not know the Whitemans objective in building
the tarmac road, and as Nettie writes, they [Olinkans] naturally thought
the road being built was for them (143). The modality word thought
suggests the peoples lack of certainty, and therefore, Nettie treats
Africans as a monolithic or homogenous group, which is insensitive
basically because of their hospitality. Furthermore, Africans get excited to
see a bicycle in their land, which none actually owns. Nettie describes, of
course no one in Olinka owns a bicycle . . . , and all the men in Olinka
covet it (143). The bicycle becomes a symbol of materialism and the
96

desire for the imperialist to acquire wealth. However, Netties choice of

words do illustrate that whereas Olinkans are outwitted and exploited
because they are powerless and misinformed, ignorance contributes to
their exploitation by the Imperialists.
Lexical items such as think as in they think they are the center of
the universe and thought as in so they naturally thought the road was
for them, both show how Africans are misinformed. Their lack of
knowledge in this letter may be attributed to their constant engagement
in subconscious dialogue without necessary acting to protect themselves.
When Olinkans later realize that the white man has cheated them, they
start fighting with their bare hands. Nettie says, But the road builders were
literally up in arms. They had guns, Celie, with orders to shoot! (144). The
intensity of her frustrations increases, especially when she realizes that the
road builders destroy her own church, school, and house too. She writes, I
meant to write you in time for Easter, but it was not a good time for me
and I did not want to burden you with any distressing news (143). Nettie
blames Olinkans because had it not been for the passivity of Olinkans,
their properties, as well as those of the missionaries could not have been
grounded.
Netties blame is often directed towards the Olinkans than to the
imperialists. For example, when she uses expressions of destruction, she
avoids mentioning the agent, who is the imperialist. She says, Every hut
97

that lay in the proposed roadpath was leveled and also in Everything of
the forest was being destroyed, and the land was forced to lie flat (144).
Who leveled the road path or who forced the land to lie flat? The
avoidance of the urgency, the problem causer, in the above sentences
has an experiential value. Although from a shared presupposition pool
between the narrator and the reader, it may be clear that Netties agent
in this expression is the imperialist, she intentionally does not mention the
agent of the action because she wants to lay the blame on Olinkans.
Doubtless, the avoidance of the agent in the above examples is not
meant to avoid redundancy. Commenting on a narrators avoidance of
agent in discourse, Fairclough in his essay, Critical Discourse Analysis in
Practice: Description, cautions that in all such cases as these examples
above illustrate, one should be sensitive to possible ideologically
motivated obfuscation of agency, casualty, and responsibility (103). In
this letter Nettie, therefore, produces a discourse that is characteristic of
her frustrations, and most of her expressions are biased towards Olinkans,
who she believes should have protected themselves from exploitation by
the imperialists had they been a little vigilant.
Other examples of the narrators bias include her remarks that
Africans, especially Olinkans love nothing better than a celebration, they
think incomplete means finished, they really dont know how to fight, and
they try to speak English. Nettie remarks:
98

He [the White Engineer] spoke in English, which our chief tried

to speak also. It must have been a pathetic exchange. Our
chief never learned English beyond an occasional odd
phrase he picked up from Joseph, who pronounces English as
Yanglush. (144)
The inability of two Africans, the chief and Joseph, to speak English is a
critical blame assignment inference, which portrays Olinkan language as
less powerful than English.
As well, there are various words in her letter that represent ruin, such
as helplessness, destroyed, leveled, gutted, lay flat, stunned and
disturbing news. Fairclough further suggests that there is power behind
discourse and the idea behind such discourse is that the whole social
order of discourse is put together as a hidden effect of power and that
when people Standardize language such a language can be used to
enhance political and cultural power (47). Walker thus candidly examines
how language, and specifically word choice, plays a role in the
subjugation

of

those

speakers

whose

speech

variants

are

not

Standardized. For instance, Joseph and the chiefs struggles to learn

English, which is an asset in their communication process with the
imperialist is not only a move to adapt to the Western ways of speaking,
but also away of attempting to gain power equivalent to the native
English speakers.
99

According to Nettie, her language places her in a more

advantaged position than that of the African women she meets. For
example, she is very ironical about the chiefs attempt to imitate the
imperialists language. Her narration of the chiefs failure to speak in
Standard English is, in extension, her way of showing her power. Fairclough
suggests:
Those who hold power at a particular moment have to
constantly reassert their power, and those who do not hold
power are always liable to make a bid for power. This is true
whether one is talking at the level of the particular situation,
or in terms of a social institution, or in terms of a whole society:
power at all these levels is won, exercised, sustained, lost in
the course of social struggle. (57)
In spite of all these frustrations, which Nettie faces in Africa, she ends her
letter with a strong transitional word that introduces her sense of optimism,
as well as the optimism of Olinkan community as a whole: [But] the
children are fine. The boys now accept Olivia and Tashi in class and
mothers are sending their daughters to school. The men dont like it, but
the women have their ways, and they love their children, even their girls
(145). Sally Mcconell-Ginet in her essay Whats in a Name: Social
Labeling and Gender Practices argues that labeling can enter into
100

gender practice, and he considers the English semantic categories of

lexicon such as but to signal the speakers rejection of the label (69). Thus,
when Walker writes that but the women have their ways, they love their
children, even their girls, she might be rejecting that these women
actually do not love girls, as much as they love boys. In Olinka, as in many
African societies, a baby son is more recognized than a baby daughter.
Nonetheless, Susan U. Phillips in The power of Gender and Ideologies in
Discourse concurs with Walker that African women have their ways of
opposing domination and oppression in Africa, just as other women in
many societies over the world. She writes:
As interest in ideological diversity within societies emerged in
the 1980s, a second important theme in addition to that just
discussed was the idea that there is more than one gender
ideology within a given society . . . specific ideologies were
not

attributed

to

particular

social

domains

or

social

categories. . . . And when the view that some gender

ideologies are dominant over others was expressed, the
dominant and the subordinate were likewise not necessarily
conceptualized as socially contextualized, or were only partly
conceptualized this way. (qtd. in Holmes 263)
Therefore, Phillips suggests that womens ideological resistances to mens
domination started with the feminist academic writing of the 1980s.
101

However, ideologies of women rsistance in Africa actually started even

before the age of formal education. Christine Obbo writes that in the
traditional African society, women wanted their power, but they used
manipulative techniques to resist male domination. Thus, as Nettie truly
asserts, these women have their ways of resistance although they lack
formal education. For example, Obbo identifies that women played a
prominent role in spirit possession activities and women who became
mediums of spirit possession commanded respect and attention, as well
as gained power and wealth (144). Examples of how women related to
their social environment by means of spirit possession can be found in
many parts of Africa. Among the Lango of Uganda, East Africa, spirit
possession was a symbolic expression of hostility between the sexes and
an attempt to resolve the status quo ambiguity that resulted when
women went to live with the husbands people as required by the
customary rules of residence (Obbo145). Also, among the Akamba of
Kenya, similar deceitful tactics were employed. Under the influence of
spirit possession women would demand things from their husbands,
originally Maasai spears and red cloth, but with the coming of the cities,
they started to be possessed by spirits that demanded European goods
such as shoes, head-kerchiefs, and others (Lindblom 230).
Also, her choice of the word children, in the above variant
introduces her other thematic concerns, which prevail in most of her
102

works, the place of women in society, especially the girl child, who is
discriminated against by men in most societies such as Olinka. Written
literature such as Walkers is thus a medium through which women express
their feelings, and it is especially a useful tool for the voiceless women in
patriarchal societies to use in reestablishing their vital rights.
c) Pilot Study 3: The Analysis (The Color Purple 21719)
Celies first letter, which opens this novel, is addressed to God (Refer
to appendix 3). God is Celies confidant, who helps her escape from
patriarchal injustice and abuse. Apart from Celie sharing her experiences
with her sister, Nettie, and her friend, Shug, she also expresses her
frustrations to God through her letters. Epistemology is one of Celies
mediums of displaying her emotion, especially when her stepfather,
Alphoso, sexually abuses her. Her first letter opens with a statement
showing that by the time she was raped she was fourteen years. Celie is a
teenager and at the age of 14 years she is nave, and when Fonso rapes
her, many readers sympathize with her.
Her preference of the verbs have been to am in the expression, I
am / I have always been a good girl, suggests further that she has been
moral until she is abused and spoiled by her stepfather (3). By implication
she is not a good girl any longer because she Alfonso has contributed to
her impurity. By inference, her narrative expressions also illustrates that
Alfonso is a rapist because he constantly pulls little Lucious arm. The word,
103

little, presupposes Lucious naivety by virtue of her age, and probably

shows that she is less powerful because of her emancipated body. Celie is
emotionally moved when Lucious narrates her oppressive experience, as
well as the experience of Alphonsos wife, who he also often mistreats.
Heritage and Watson asserts that denials such as I am and acceptance of
I have is a matter of preference which Grices conversational implicature
could not explain:
An

analysis

in

terms

of

preference

begins

with

the

observation that denial is the preferred response to an

accusation. If a denial is not produced, it will be noticeably
absent. If one cannot make a categorical denial, then
apparently a mitigated denial ("We believe we are innocent")
is preferred. In the absence of any denial, we are left to draw
the inference that they do not believe themselves innocent.
Thus, preference seems to explain what (Grice's formulation
of) conversational implicature cannot. (177)
Also, Celies speech is characteristic of omissions and deletion
especially of conjunctions and prepositions such as and as well as of
respectively. For example, she says, Cant you see Im already half dead,
an all of these children and Then he grab hold [of] my titties. Celies
disgust with Fonsos behavior is reflected in her assertively indicating, But I
dont never git used to it (3). Celies strong denial of such oppression
104

prevails at the end of the novel, and more especially after being
reawakened by her stepfathers girlfriend and later her intimate lover,
Shug.
Celies employment of obscene words to narrate her rape ordeal is
evidence of how oppression against women can be countered with an
oppressive language. Her choices of obscene words are her styles of
protesting against language perfectionism, which to a great extent has
been prescribed to women writers by majority male writers. As it were in
feminism, Walker decides to confront perfectionism and allows her
characters to use obscene words, which show how feminist expressions
are gendered. All her female characters in most novels tend to use
obscene expressions and thus this becomes a unique style of feminist
approach towards resistance. Cameron writes, Ideas of how women and
men use language, and how they ought ideally to use it, have been a
recurring theme in discourse about language produced by many
societies in many historical periods (448). Women, in particular, have been
prime targets for using non-verbal hygiene ideological discourse, which
sets out actively to intervene in language use with the aim of making it
conform to some idealized presentations. Whereas social linguists post
that in fictional conversations this does not hold because female
characters tend to use an obscene language to resist injustice, often it is

105

this obscene expression that depicts the embitterment that emanates

from humiliated subjects.
d) Pilot Study 4: The Analysis (The Color Purple 3)
Celies response to her sister, Nettie, is often addressed to God in
most cases (Refer to appendix 4). God functions as an intermediary
because Mr. Albert has always ensured that there is no communication
between her and Nettie. Also, she finds that God is her confident because
she is ashamed of discussing her sexual molestation by her stepfather, and
at the same time, she is scared to reveal such secrets to her mother
because her stepfather cautions her not to. It is through her letters that
readers learn her ordeal and sympathize with her experiences. Her
experience is similar to most women in her society, whom she recognizes
as part of her own by her frequent reference to them with the collective
pronoun, us.
When Celie writes, she describes the people she lives with using their
names: Shug, Albert, Henrietta, Harpo, Mary Agnes, Suzie Q, Samuel,
Odessa, Jack, and Grady. She also often identifies these characters to a
category well defined as us. In her last letter to her sister, she uses us
sixteen times in the same page to refer to her family, which eventually has
united. The lexical items employed are more assertive than Netties
because her people are more vigilant than the people Nettie meets in
Africa, and who she often refers to as they. Therefore, when Nettie is in
106

Africa, she uses they to generally refer to all Africans and hardly does she
include herself in the category of Africans. The pronoun, they, is exclusive
of Nettie, Corrine, and Samuel, while the pronoun, we, reflects Netties
relationship with the missionaries, who she travels with to Africa. Therefore,
we and they are pronouns of dichotomy of power since they help
distinguish Africans from Nettie, Corrine, and Samuel. Also, Celies use of
the pronoun us, especially defines her familys identity and distinguishes it
from other people. Thus, such pronouns in English may have relational
values of sorts and often depending on the context of use they express a
speakers authority to speak for others (Fairclough 106).
Also, Nettie employs Standard English, whereas Celie uses Black
variant. Nonetheless, Celies discourse is equally assertive. Lexical items
such as gitting up, pointing up, and looking up are used in different
contexts in this letter eight times, all which show the readiness of the
characters to act, something which lacks in the Africans Nettie meets.
Kearns retaliates:
The act of defining by pointing and saying is flexible and not
susceptible of precise description. There has to be an
ostensive behavior, and this behavior probably must include
a verbal signal, as well as a body language signal or a
contextual event that has the effect of focusing the hearer's
attention in a particular way. . . . However, nothing can
107

guarantee a felicitous act of definition. If the hearer belongs

to a culture in which the act of pointing and saying
something means "eat this" rather than "add this to your
repertoire of verbal signs," the act will fail. (76)
Kearns illustrates that relevance and preference are aspects that must be
shared between speaker and listener otherwise it can be difficult for
listeners to make inferences speech exchanges.
3.7: Lexical Items and Power Differences in the Four Pilot Studies
Lexicons, which describe the Olinka environment, equally depict
the speakers bias. African boats are compared to Western ships to show
how power dominance among countries depends on material wealth.
After analyzing the four pilot studies, the researcher realized that the first
three studies explored experiences of the narrator in Africa and America.
The fourth one examines Celies experience in America and hardly
discusses any African experience. An analysis of the four pilot studies may
provide a meaningful rhetoric strategy, which Walker employs to discuss
African and American experiences. This section of the study will
categorize such lexicon, which the speaker uses after the analyses of the
pilot studies, and compare them to find out how Walker, for instance,
chooses her diction especially to describe people and places, and how
cultural differences contribute to linguistic bias:

108

Pilot Analysis One

35
30

Frequency

25
20

Little
Think
We/Us
They/Them

15
10
5

r
th
e
O

Am

er
ic

an
s

s
lin
ka
n
O

a
er
ic
Am

Af
ri

ca

People & Places

Figure 3.1 Words and Categorization in Pilot Study 1

From the figure 3.1 above, this study reflects that the narrator uses
the pronouns we and us most frequently. The story is told through two
narrators, Nettie and Celie. When they use we and us, these pronouns
often refer to either themselves or their immediate American colleagues.
When Nettie employs we in Africa, it constitutes of her missionary friends,
including Corrine, Samuel, Adam, and Olivia. Her usage of we also stands
for Americans. Celie, on the other hand, rarely uses we. Her common
pronoun in her expressions is us, and it is even evidenced in her closing

109

remarks when she employs the pronoun us nine times within five close
sentences after she reunites with her family members. She remarks:
Then us both start to moan and cry. Us totter toward one
nother like us use to do when us was babies. Then us feel so
weak when us touch, us knock each other down. But what us
care? Us sit and lay there on the porch inside each others
arms. (243)
In the above citation, the pronoun, us, categorizes Celies AfricanAmerican family as unique and different from Netties missionary family,
which she frequently refers to the reader using we. Both of these family
groups are different from the Olinka family, which is, defined with the
pronouns they and them.
Also, little expressions in this letter are employed more when they
refer to Africa than when they refer to America. Therefore, intensifiers such
as little are lexical items that illustrate power differences within
geographical regions. For example, belittling expressions such as little
round huts, little animals, and little brown clay glasses show the speakers
attitude towards Africa as a continent incomparable to America (129).
This studys suggestion that little shows regional power differences does
not hold in some cases when the same word refers to Olinkan and
Americans because the persona employs more little words to talk about
Americans than about Olinkans. Actually, Walkers characters employ the
110

word little less frequently when referring to Olinkans than to Americans.

However, it should be recognized that when they use little to refer to
Americans, it does not belittle them, but it is often used as an intensifier.
This variation may account for the higher number of the use of little by
Americans as opposed to Africans. The word Little thus functions as an
equally demeaning word for Olinkans, who are often described as having
little heads, paying little attention, and needing a little piece extra meat.
The speakers use of think also takes the same trend as in little.
American narrators use think more than Olinkans. When the American
narrators use think, the verb often suggests that they have the control of
power. Their powers are evidenced in the words they use to describe
Olinkans. Particularly, Netties expressions such as they [Olinkans]
naturally thought all missionaries were white and they think they have
always lived on the exact spot where their village now stands (128) are in
stern contrast with her expressions describing herself such as I thought I
would never get the kinks out of my hips from being carried in a hammock
the whole way and Coming out of little round huts with something that I
thought was straw on top of them. Thus, when Nettie employs thought
and its variant think, she clearly demonstrates how different Olinkans are
from herself and the missionaries based on their thinking abilities. Also,
even when she uses thought to refer to her, such expressions only show
her surprise or doubt on the Olinkans reasoning inabilities.
111

Also, the data in figure 3.1 above shows that the speakers, who
inform us about themselves as opposed to Africans, tend to refer to
themselves more frequent than to Olinkans they meet in Africa. This
difference in word reference may suggest that speakers in a novel, such
as The Color Purple, actually talk more about themselves than they do
about others. In power relations, the most powerful individuals seem to be
domineering in most issues and this kind of dominance could be similar to
characters in fiction. Further research may explain whether people
actually talk more about themselves in non-fictional and fictional
discourses to ascertain the argument that such discourses can indicate
power difference in relations.
An interpretation of data in pilot study two shows a different way in
which Nettie employs think and thought. Whereas many of the words in
the first letter show how reasoning abilities make Africans and Americans
different, in the second letter Netties employment of such expressions
clearly shows the personas prejudice towards Africans. Examples of such
variants of biasness include Africans are very much like white people
back home, in that they think they are the center of the universe and that
everything that is done is done for them, They really dont know how to
fight, and rarely think of it since the old days of tribal wars, and He [the
Olinkan chief] thought the people who told him about the English rubber
company were mistaken (1434). Nettie compares Africans to Americans
112

to demonstrate their self-centeredness and how it affects their lifestyles.

This same selfishness is explored in the rest of the novel, especially when
Nettie questions their reasoning behind selling their own brothers and
sisters into slavery. Nonetheless, such expressions only show her surprise or
doubt on the Olinkan reasoning inabilities.
Other than such words as think to show biasness, Netties story is a
story that has distressing news about how bad Africa can be. Some of her
disturbing observations about Africans include her remarks that Africans
love nothing better than celebrations, fight using spears, are overly
trustworthy

even

to

their

exploiters,

and

engage

in

pathetic

conversational exchanges using picked up words from the road builders.

In fact, one of the pathetic traits of Africans is imitation of Western values,
which is evidenced in The Color Purple when the Olinkan chief
pronounces English as Yanglush (144). The lexicon that demonstrated
power differentials in were analyzed as follows:

113

Pilot Analysis Two

14
12

Frequency

10

Little

Think
We/Us

They/Them

4
2
0

People & Places

Figure 3.2: Words and Categorization in Pilot Study 2

In the third pilot study, there was no occurrence of the usage of
some words under focus. For instance, Celies letter does not employ little
and think to refer to America and Olinkans in Africans. It is worth noting
that power contrast is evidenced in Netties letter prior to returning to
America. She compares African perception of God as a roofleaf or Christ
figure, while her people are not tied to what God looks like, which makes
Netties people free. She writes, most people [in Africa] think he [God]
has to look like something or someonea roofleaf or Christbut we
114

dont (218). In the novel, the only context Nettie uses they and them to
refer to Americans is when she narrates about the change of experience
of Olivia and Adam after moving back to America. They had gone to
Africa as children, but they are now grown. After African acculturation,
Nettie is skeptical if the children will adapt to American ways. She writes:
Corrine had firm notions of what the children [Adam and
Olivia] should be taught and saw to it that every good book .
. . became part of their library. They know many things and I
think will not find American society such a shock, except for
the hatred of black people. But I worry about their very
African independence of opinion and outspokenness, also
extreme self-centeredness. . . . After, all Olinka know we can
leave, they must stay. (218)
Netties one time reference to the children, who have possibly
adapted the African ways of life, shows her skepticism and bias towards
some African values that make Corrine vigilant on the kind of education
her children learn in Africa. Thus, the pronoun, they, is a dichotomy
pronoun of power that categorizes Africans as ignorant, uncertain, and
self-centered. Their naivety is best represented through Olivia and Adam
who have grown up in Africa and probably adapted African ways.

115

Pilot Analysis Three

20
18
16
Frequency

14
Little

12

Think

10

We/Us

They/Them

6
4
2

th
er
O

ns
er
ic
a
Am

an
s
lin
k
O

er
ic
a
Am

Af
ric
a

People & Places

Figure 3.3: Words and Categorization in Pilot Study 3

3.8: Contrast of the Four Pilot Studies
Thus, an examination of Netties words reveals that she treats
Olinkans as a monolithic or homogeneous group with similar shortcomings.
Africans subconscious dialogues as exemplified in their regular thinking
are bad inferences that show their inability to speak, to reason, and to
make judgments. In contrast, expressions by American characters show
their power to reason, to speak fluently, and to make judgments. The data
in all the four charts demonstrates that pronouns we and us are specific
116

for American characters, while they and them are for Africans. It is also
important to note American characters think more than Olinkans
according to the data on the charts. However, a close examination of the
usage of the word think in particular contexts reveals that whereas
Olinkans are said to think of various issues with uncertainty, inability, and
ignorance, American characters such as Nettie, Corrine, and Samuel think
of issues with certainty, capability, and wisdom.
Generally, Walkers diction plays a crucial role in categorization of
people according to their experience, region, and power. In fact, most
words she forms reflect how character expressions show power
dichotomy, especially between the targeted audience and the speakers
(Refer to appendix 5 for additional word formation patterns).
3.9: Summary
Chapter Three focused on morphology, which the researcher
considered a study of words and word formation. The study demonstrated
that often Walkers words and phrases indicate power differences among
the characters, as well as between characters, and the targeted
audience, and that word choice, in particular, is a morphological
rhetorical strategy.

117

Chapter Four
Syntax and Style
4.1: Introduction
Edward Finegan defines syntax as the study of sentences and their
structures, and suggests that languages have ways of making statements
(both affirmative and negative), of asking questions, and of issuing
directives (117). Also, George Yule notes that syntax involves more than a
focus on sentences and relationships among them, because it includes a
study of how sentences are generated, especially how morphemes and
words are organized to form sentences (88). Finegan and Yules definitions
show that syntax is a broad discipline. However, this study focuses, not on
generational rules, but rather on syntactic features such as negation, verb
deletion, tense variation, subordination, voice variation, and coordination. In short, this chapter attempts to answer the question: How
does Walker employ syntactic strategies to achieve her ends?
In the view of the present researcher, a focus on these syntactic
stylistic features will better reveal Alice Walkers exceptional ability in
creating expressions that are relevant in persuading her readers to
accept her opinions. Sometimes readers need to understand the writers
sentence structures for effective communication to take place. Also, the
knowledge of Walkers Syntactic strategies will enable readers to better
118

appreciate her literary works, especially in her novel, The Color Purple,
which employs African-American speech variant, as well as in her works,
which are written in a more formal variant such as In Search of Our
Mothers Gardens and Now Is the Time.
Furthermore, linguists need to understand how speech variants of
other speakers of a language function in order to avoid making biased
comments about languages that are different from their own. For
example, when a speaker says Is there a class in here?, this may not
indicate that one is necessarily being rude. In fact, such a question
demonstrates a persons unique conversational style that defines his or her
speech variant, which can either be the same or different from the
speech of other people using the same language. Deborah Tannen
advances the same view that variants of speakers often influence some
outsiders or non-users to be prejudiced towards other people, especially
those with whom they do not share a language. In her book, That is Not
What I Meant! How Conversational Style Makes or Breaks Relationships,
Tannen suggests that cultural differences in habitual use of intonation and
other means of expressiveness such as loudness, facial expression, and
gesturing account in part for cross-cultural stereotyping, which is simply
the extension to a whole group of the kinds of impressions that are
regularly formed about individuals (54). Often, when authors employ a
particular speech, some outsiders find such works difficult to read
119

because these pieces of syntactic evidence are different from their

syntactic structures in their own languages. A linguist such as Noam
Chomsky treats all languages as equal, because he believes that they all
have grammatical rules and that they can enable speakers to
communicate competently (Rules 92). It is, therefore, imperative that
linguists inquire why Walkers characters express themselves using unique
syntactic structures, given that different speakers using the same variants
may not employ exactly the same structures all the time. A lack of
understanding of Alice Walkers sentence structures makes some outsider
readers to take more time to understand meanings than those who are
conversant with her styles. In fact, some readers are impatient to read
works written in different speech variants from their own, and they
become easily frustrated.
4.2: Methodology
Chapter four advances by way of focusing on different syntactic
features in The Color Purple, In Search Of Our Mothers Gardens, and Now
Is the Time To Open Your Heart. Walker does not employ similar syntactic
strategies in all the three books above. Therefore, the present study
focuses on specific syntactic styles that are prominent in each work. Also,
it is important for the researcher to note that this study employs an
archival data collection method.

120

4.3: Theoretical Framework

Paul Grices theory of conversational implicature informed this
studys suggestion that Walkers styles are crucial syntactic features in that
they enable readers to clearly understand the reality of her targeted
audience, especially her sentence structures help inform readers about
what she feels about her audience. Grice suggests that conversational
styles play a big role in enhancing social relations among speakers, and
that concept of the social goals we serve when we talk is called
politeness by linguists and anthropologistsnot the pinky-in-the-air idea of
politeness, but a deeper sense of trying to take into account the effect of
what we say on other people (qtd. in Tannen 35). He also codifies the
rules by which conversation would be constructed if information were its
only point as: 1) say as much as necessary and no more, 2) tell the truth, 3)
be relevant, and 4) be clear (36).
On the other hand, Deborah Tannen suggests that in conversational
discourse, when questions are asked they can be nosy, overbearing, or
hinting at something else, and that questions can be used and
understood to show interest or imposition, discover, or socialize (57).
Likewise, statements, declaratives, and exclamations in Walkers books
under focus play the same role just as Tannen as identified. For instances,
the use of signal devices such as clipped phrases, including Sign in? or
Whats up? can be used to discover or socialize and they are stated fast
121

to avoid wasting time. Hence, Tannen appears to reflect that when asking
questions, there is need for speakers to modify them in order to meet their
objectives, and that the questions should be appropriate in a shared
social environment. Also, Lakoff agrees with Tannen that women and men
have different speech styles, which she defines as "rapport-talk" and
"report-talk," respectively, and that gender distinctions are built into
language and each person's life is a series of conversations, and simply by
understanding and using the words of our language, we all absorb and
pass on different, asymmetrical assumptions about men and women
(243). Walkers characters, especially Celie and Nettie, indeed exhibit
characteristics imminent in their class and educational statuses. Each of
these characters reveals to readers the role speech expressions play in
informing them about the characters social consciousness. Therefore,
Walkers choices of sentences for these characters show her ability to
express her characters ideas in a way that is convincing and effective to
readers.
4.4: Syntactic Styles in The Color Purple
Walkers syntactic styles are definitive of a rich African-American
language with specific sets of rules governing its system. There are many
syntactic styles in The Color Purple, including the use of double negation,
verb deletion, tense variation, and subordination, among others. Figure

122

4.1 below illustrates some syntactic stylistic features that are common in
Walkers The Color Purple:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

1.
2.

3.
4.
5.

Sentences with Double Negation

But I dont never git used to it.
He act like he cant stand me no more.
But she aint no stranger to hard work.
She aint never write.
He say, whore, you aint got no place.
Mr. ______ dont say nothing.
Verb Deletion
She happy, cause he good to her now.
I keep hoping he fine somebody to
marry.
My mama dead.
She too old to be living here at home.
You too dumb to keep going to school,
Pa say.
He twelve.
Patting Harpo back not even like patting
a dog.
Tense Variation
Last spring after little Lucious come I
heard them fussing.
He got only three children though. He
seen Nettie in church and now every
Sunday evening here come Mr. ______.
Mr. ______ come that evening.
One of my little brothers come. I think it
was Lucious.
The children be out in the room peeking
through the cracks.

Page # s
3
5
9
18
28
29

3
5
4
10
11
13
29

3
6

9
12
22

Figure 4.1: Syntactic Styles in The Color Purple

First, in Standard English variant, an expression, with two negation
words in the same sentence, may convey a positive idea, especially in
123

stylistic expressions. For example, in the TV Show, The Simpsons, Homer

Simpson says in one episode, "I'm not not licking toads. He, therefore,
humorously

suggests

that

he

had,

indeed,

been

licking

toads.

Comparatively, in the speech of the characters in this novel, this negation

rule may or may not be applicable. When it does not apply, for instance,
in a sentence like I dont bleed no more, it implies that the speaker does
not bleed as opposed to the speaker bleeds. However, when Walkers
characters use double negation words to imply a positive meaning, the
expressions are often emphatic as opposed to comic as in Homer
Simpsons sentence above. An example is when Celie says that she
[Nettie] aint no stranger to hard work (9) which emphasis that Nettie is, in
fact, very hardworking. An expression such as She is hardworking, which
expresses a similar thought, will not have the same meaning as Celies
sentence above. Therefore, such negation can easily be ambiguous and
a reader will better understand its meaning if he or she interprets negation
expression according to its context. On the same note, George Yule
argues that structural ambiguity is possible when there are two distinct
underlying interpretations that have to be represented differently in deep
structure, and that grammar often is capable of showing the structural
distinction between these underlying representations (88). In fact, readers
often derive humor from the characters style of negation. Nonetheless, it
is worthy for readers to note that double negation applies to both
124

Standard and non-Standard speech forms, but it differs in its functionality

depending on their contexts.
Second, readers have to consider context and the mood
surrounding particular expressions to understand their meanings. For
instance, in the novel, The Color Purple, there is a sad mood, especially in
many of Celies sentences, and this creates little chance for humorous
expressions from the characters. Celie describes that Mr. Albert, her
husband, beats her the way he beats the children. Readers sympathize
with Celie when she compares herself to a piece of wood, which is
insensitive to pain. She demonstrates by such reference that her husband
treats her as an object. Under this context, sentences that Celie employs
often change from the indicative tense to the subjunctive mood. A
sentence such as The children be out in the room peeking through the
cracks (22), has the BE verb, which is equivalent to are. However, since it
is used in an environment that is oppressive and when speech participants
are emotional, it functions not as an indicative tense form, but as a
substitution form of the present subjunctive mood.
Third, verb deletion is an important feature evidenced in Walkers
novel. Nettie describes Mr. ______ as a rapist, and her statements express
her concern about his abhorrent behaviors. There are many cases of verb
deletions in the sentences she uses. For instance, in each of the following
sentences, there are verb deletions:
125

1. I keep hoping he [will] fine somebody to marry.

2. What [does] it say?
3. I see him looking at my little sister. She [is] scared. (209)
Whereas in Standard English a sentence such as The boy saw a ball can
be divided into constituents NP, The boy, and VP, saw a ball, in which
case a sentence has to have a subject and a verb for it to convey
meaning to the listener, in African-American variant this is not always the
case. For example, Celies expressions, above, omit the verbs will, does,
and is, but they all have meaning because even though the verbs are
physically absent, they are implied and, therefore, present.
Fourth, tense variation is another syntactic rhetoric style in Walkers
novel. For example, Celie, the heroine, who is also Alfonsos wife, remarks,
Last spring after little Lucious come I heard them fussing (3). Last spring,
which is an opening adverbial phrase in the subordinate clause, indicates
a speakers special way of referring to time in the past. Having used an
opening expression to show that she is talking about the past event, she is
not compelled to use the past tense, came. Nonetheless, a reader will still
understand that the action expressed in the expression is in the past.
Fifth, in subordination the speaker often employs an adverbial
phrase, which functions as a subordinate clause. For example, when Celie
remarks uses an adverbial phrase of time such as A week go by, he pulling
on her arm again (3), the reader understands this phrase as having an
126

implied thought as in After one week had passed, which is a dependent

clause. Therefore, in Celies variant what linguists can consider an
adverbial phrase might function at the same time as an elliptical
dependent clause.
Sixth, Fonsos wife expresses herself in incomplete expressions. Cleft
expressions with implied meanings show limited female voice. An example
is, Cant you see Im already half dead, an all these children. And She
say it too soon, Fonso, I aint well (3). Furthermore, in the latter incomplete
statement, there is direct quotation, but the expression uses commas
instead

of

the

conventional

quotation

marks.

Such

punctuation

differences in cleft sentences reveal to the reader how emotions play a

role in the kind of sentences a speaker employs.
Seventh, voice variation is an equally important aspect in this work.
Readers are confronted with two forms of voices; Celie and Netties
voices. Therefore, the story has two narrators who both tell their stories
from the third person point of view and who both reside in different
continents. Nettie lives in Africa, and her sister, Celie, lives in America. In
the letters Nettie sends to Celie, she expresses herself in a more formal
voice than Celie. For example, whereas Nettie rarely employs obscene
sentence expressions in her discourse, Celie is at ease in using them; many
of the expressions are sexist.

127

Evidently, culture, gender, and education may be other variables

that impact on the discourse of this novel. The competence of a
language user to construct formal sentences is similar to a speakers
competence to articulate a specific sound in a language. Often,
education and class of a character in Walkers novel determines the kind
of expressions someone makes. On a similar note, William Labov has
shown that a study on the evidence of mapping the linguistic Atlas on the
use of the post-vocalic /r/ sound in New York City is subjective because it
reflects the bias of the informants in carrying out such a study since it
shows different social levels of representatives based on their formal
education, age, and health (The Social 224). Walker, in particular, portrays
her ability to write within the dictates of her class. In Walkers collection of
essays, In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, for instance, she carefully
monitors her language. Since she is the writer and narrator, often readers
realize that many expressions she employs reflect on her educational
level, as well as the educational levels of her characters. Especially, when
she employs an S-word expression in sentences, this word is often in
quotations as opposed to when her uneducated character, Celie, in The
Color Purple does. The sentence with the S-word expression in In Search is
in quotes as in:

128

The women of Cuba, fighting the combined oppression of

African and Spanish macho, know that their revolution will be
shit if they are the ones to do the laundry, dishes, and floors
after working all day, side by side in the factory and field with
their men. (389)
Another expression that is punctuated in this work, In Search, which shows
Walkers consistent monitoring strategy of speech, is:
Typical of the scholarly type of revolutionary was the young
man from Harvard Law School who, while consuming
quantities of cheese and wine at our house, referred to my
husband, repeatedly, as the honky and even suggested he
would start the revolution in our living room, by killing him.
(226)
In the sentence above, the expression, honky, which derogatively refers to
a Caucasian person, is in quotes to show that this is not Walkers speech
preference. In fact, whereas in spoken language we often monitor
language by replacing some abusive expressions with appropriate and
ethical ones, in written discourse monitoring takes place by way of
punctuating such expressions into double quotes. Equally, such speech
monitoring is also evident in the novel, Now Is the Time, especially when
Kate narrates a story to Armando, the lead medicine man, who
accompanies her to the river to search for Yage. Kate uses an obscene
129

expression when she describes the desire for White mistresses to have sex
with slaves, whom they admired because of their strong white teeth, but
this apology comes immediately after Kate excuses herself for using such
a sentence. She writes: And these perfect teeth were praised by the
mistress, who, not being brave enough to try to fuck him (excuse me),
could and did rave about his big, strong white teeth (91). The apology in
brackets, excuse me, follows immediately after Kate uses the F-word in this
sentence. The above examples demonstrate that monitoring of sentence
structures to explain ideas show how education and choice contribute to
a writers discourse.
Last, rhetoric questions in The Color Purple enable Walker to
negotiate with her audience so that they can accept her views. Once in
Africa, Nettie is surprised to understand that Africa too has her civilization.
Netties rhetorical questions, which are addressed to Celie, are very
informative, because they all address the prejudice of the Western World
towards uncivilized nations. Netties rhetorical questions include Did
you know there were great cities in Africa, greater than even Atlanta,
thousands of years ago? . . . That the Ethiopia we read about in the bible
meant all of Africa? (111). W.E.B Du Bois in his collection of essays book,
The Souls of Black Folk, suggests that Darwinism theory of civilization
categorized the Negro as the seventh son and last one in the order of
human civilization (3). Similarly, when Alice Walker raises such questions
130

through Nettie, indeed, she is trying to dispute Western peoples prejudice

towards Africa and their consequent need to justify slavery and
colonialism. In fact, Tannen has suggested that adult conversations for
women are negotiations for closeness in which people try to seek and
give confirmation and support, and to reach consensus (Tannen 25).
Indeed, in Walkers novel, The Color Purple, such negotiation takes place
in the form of rhetorical questions. Similarly, in the novel, In Search of, Alice
Walker revisits Ntozake Shanges recognition of the theme of gay to show
how both writers have attempted to negotiate for fairness through
rhetoric. Walker writes, We have been a people. What are we now? And
for how long? (322). All the four womens conversations are closely
connected to their shared American experiences, and a focus on how
particular expressions imply meanings, assert views, and criticize values is
important in enhancing social change. Therefore, a study of Walkers
syntactic

rhetoric

strategies

informs

readers

the

importance

of

understanding language conventions in her literary work, which are

essential individual, as well as group identity markers.
4.5: Syntactic Styles in In Search
Although the book, In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, employs
formal language, African-American speech variants are core to some
sections of the novel. Features of this variant are evidenced in Walkers
sentences and they inform readers that Walkers and her characters
131

expressions are intended to reach a wider African-American audience,

and by so doing, Walker presents a realistic picture of her characters.
Particularly, In Search has sentences that show BE verb use that does not
agree with its subject, as in they thought black people never knew what
they was talking about or what they was doing, (30) and double
negation such as, you cant make no mark onem at all (306). However,
in both examples, Walker employs such sentence structures in contexts
during which she experiences intense emotional feelings and attempts to
comment about experiences specific to people of color as opposed to
other audience. Otherwise, most sentence expressions in this novel are
formal. When Walker comments on African-American experience, she
shifts to less formal expressions and this shift calls for a readers attention.
Although there are few African-American expressions in the novel, they,
nonetheless, highlight Walkers central concerns, including majority
discrimination of the minority groups and their cultural alienation of
African-Americans during slavery.
Therefore, mixing of formal sentence expressions with less formal
ones is a strategy Walker employs in order to reach all readers. A similar
study carried out by the present researcher has shown that some
Baltimoreans construct sentences that do not comply with the traditional
Standard English expectation of subject and verb agreement (Matunda
31). For instance, the following are some of the sentences identified:
132

i.

She love the boyfriend.

ii. I did not know you was in the house.

iii. She say she is coming to release you for lunch.
iv. We was fighting.
These examples are similar to a sentence that is in Walkers novel such as
they thought black people never knew what they was talking about or
what they was doing, (30). Walkers characters, just as Baltimoreans,
however, do understand one another with such sentence constructions,
which do not bother them much. Whereas some Baltimore speakers
construct sentences like the above, it is not frequent to find sentence
constructions with a plural subject and a singular verb, where the [s]
morpheme is involved. For instance, it is rare to find speakers say: They
loves the parents. These speakers, therefore, typically drop the [s]
morpheme to indicate singular verbs such as loves, talks, dances, and
walks. In their sentence constructions, they omit the s singular suffix at the
end of verbs.
If African-American expressions were the same, we could expect
this tendency of dropping the plural morph [s] or [es] from sentences. In
the novel under focus, actually constructing sentences, which are in
plural, takes place under normal circumstances such as yes, it do (105).
However, Rosalee, one of the characters in this collection of essays, does
not exhibit this plural process probably because of her emotions of
133

sympathy to Zora. For example, as in I feels sorry for you. If one of these
snakes got ahold of you out here by yourself Id feel real bad (105).
Walkers sudden change of variant from formal to less informal, especially
when she writes about emotional events shows that the kind of sentences
she employs are often related to their emotions. This demonstrates that
the brain processes language based on the speakers emotions. Sara Mills
has also demonstrated that female sentences are gendered so that they
express female experience without necessary using male sentences that
are often insufficient for women writers (qtd. in The Feminist Critique 66).
Also, Virginia Woolf defines the female sentence as of a more elastic
fibre than the old, capable of stretching to the extreme, of suspending
the frailiest particles, of developing the vaguest shapes (Contemporary
2045). In the same vain, Judith Butler has demonstrated that female
voice is an emotional voice that is intended to express the natural shape
of female thought (40). This natural sentence maintains the interest of a
reader from the start of the book to the end. Therefore, many expressions,
which female speakers in the novel construct under emotional influence,
often inform readers about the nature of issues a writer examines.
4.6: Syntactic Styles in Now Is the Time
Furthermore, although Now Is the Time employs formal language,
Walker ensures that many of her sentence structures are characteristic of
oral tradition. Especially, Walker employs a story within the story technique
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to explain the role of the frozen anaconda, a snake, which bites a man
who provokes it (9). The story of the snake informs African-American
readers about the need to fight for their freedom by defrosting the snake
to expose its humiliating nature. There are other stories told in the novel,
Now Is the Time, which exhibit features of African oral tradition.
Therefore, in Walkers novel readers are confronted with sentences
that are repetitive, especially the repetition of co-coordinators in
sentences to create emphasis and, sometimes, to make additions.
Likewise, Walker coordinates sentences often with and, which in oral story
telling is a key expression showing progression. Examples of sentences
employing co-ordination include:
1. Easy enough for him to dismiss the brown and black and yellow
and poor white people all over the globe who worried
constantly where their next meal was coming from (4).
2. They were white and blue, and playful, like cartoon figures (159).
3. And so real a number of them swooned.
4. And she pointed to the long dirt road.
5. And what do you think he saw.
6. And he stood there a good five or ten minutes.
7. And he was after all a Christian
8. And it said: please Mr. Man (8).
9. And he had said: Arent they vibrant?
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10. And she had replied: yes, they are (27).

Sentences one and two employ the coordinator and. This
coordinator is repeated without using a comma to avoid monotony.
Walker chooses to avoid comma use in mentioning the items in a series to
create emphasis. The repetition of the co-coordinating expression shows a
progressive attitude in Kayes Buddhist teacher or dharma. Dharma is an
excellent Buddhist teacher, who leads a comfortable life, but feels that
minority people, who are brown, black, yellow, and poor whites, equally
need a comfortable life. On one hand, and is employed not just as a
coordinator, but also as a progressive indicator of oppression of people
by virtue of their skin color. On the other hand, and suggests a progressive
desire in the speaker to advocate for social change, including the
acceptance of people of all colors as deserving respect for their rights.
Sentences three through eight are expressions Walker employs in
telling a story about a man and a snake. The story illustrates the
untrustworthiness of people who are the power bearers and who often
betray the less powerful ones in America, especially during the Civil Rights
Movement.
Also, the co-coordinator, and, in sentences nine and ten show the
continuous nature of female subjugation by males. This kind of
domestication is evidenced in the character of Kates husband, who
often buys Kate a serving dish, which is a symbol of domestication, as her
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birthday gift. Kates husband encourages his son to extend the same
hand

of

appreciation

to

his

wife

when

he

marries.

Therefore,

domestication is passed down from generation to generation. Walkers

employment of such sentence structures thus shows her discouragement
of people who oppress others because of their sex differences.
Indeed, apart from the above examples, elsewhere in the novel
expressions which employ the co-coordinator, and, at their initial position
introduce events that are perturbing to readers, but Walker uses these
expressions technically to signal possibilities of social injustice. More
examples include a sentence the persona uses to describe the fear of
living in a world inhabited with people, who hate each other, such as
And by now the human smells of fear and suffering made humans angry
(78), and another, which the narrator employs to criticize the obsessive
nature exemplified in the way people value materialism in a capitalist
society, such as And to keep the land company, we learned that the
land and waters loved: to be cared for, to be interacted with, to be sung
to (135). Walkers coordination is an effective syntactic rhetorical
strategy that often introduces readers to events in the novel, which are
often surprising to readers and which deserve the readers attention. In
this way, Walkers syntactic styles are unique because they effectively
and informatively enable her to represent a realistic picture of her
characters.
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4.7: Summary
Chapter Four illustrates that there are various syntactic ways by
which Alice Walker negotiates with her readers. Syntactic features such as
negation, verb deletion, tense variation, subordination, voice variation,
and co-ordination are in different ways central to Walkers works, The
Color Purple, In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, and Now Is the Time To
Open Our Hearts. Particularly, this chapter revealed that syntactic
features are very much influenced by the emotions of a speech
participant, the education level, and the class of the participants. In short,
Walker employs specific syntactic patterns to achieve three rhetorical
ends: to depict her characters realistically, to emphasis moments of
intensity in their interactions, and to assert subtle cultural unity between
her characters and herself as author-creator.

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Chapter Five
Discourse Analysis: Semantics as a Rhetoric Strategy
5.1: Introduction
Ambivalence is a semantic strategy that Alice Walker employs in
her novels, Possessing the Secret of Joy and The Color Purple, to discuss
pertinent issues affecting Black people, especially in Africa and the
Diaspora. Writers often make conflicting or ambivalent remarks in their
works. Often, literary scholars view such remarks as unintentional and,
therefore, construe them as signs of a writers weakness in his or her
rendition of ideas. However, a keen study of Walkers novels, Possessing
and The Color Purple, reveals that many of her ambivalent expressions
are, to a large extent, intentional and function as essential rhetorical
strategies. Nonetheless, Walker sometimes slips over to unconscious or
rather

non-intentional

ambivalence.

These

two

dimensions

of

ambivalences contribute to Walkers unique semantic style of exploring

social issues.
The ability of a writer to employ such strategies enhances the
creative object, for Emmanuel Kant explains that the power of genius to
create beautiful art in terms of its capacity to produce aesthetical ideas,
which he describes as a representation of the imagination associated with
a given concept, can be conceived only as a function of language,
which is a privileged medium of aesthetic values (160). An investigation
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into the processes and mechanisms by which a certain degree of unity is

attained in Walkers stories will provide a productive insight into both the
aesthetic beauty and effective communication of Walkers novels under
focus. The present writer examines the meaning of words and larger
expressions as employed by the author in this novel and upon specific
characters and themes as they relate to the experiences of Walkers
targeted audience. This study particularly identifies that Walker employs
two polarities of ambivalence as her semantic strategy and suggests that
a readers understanding of both will lead to a deeper understanding of
how Walker presents Africans, especially African women, in this novel.
5.2: Methodology
The present study treats ambivalence as consisting of two polarities,
including intentional / conscious and unintentional / unconscious. Readers
have to deal with the two polarities of ambivalence to understand
Walkers semantic strategy. The study starts with an examination of how
Alice Walker employs these two polarities of ambivalence as styles,
especially the ambivalence exhibited through her characters and themes
in Possessing The Secret of Joy and then in The Color Purple. This study will
be followed by a joint examination of unconscious ambivalence in both
novels.

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5.3: Theoretical Framework

The present study is informed by the Orient Theory, an ideology first
introduced by Edward Said in 1978 which changed the way scholars
wrote about the mirror image or the Other of the West. Initially, European
scholarship was conceived to have produced powerful representation of
the Orient, for as Michael Dodson identifies by Europeans knowing the
Orient, they enabled themselves by appropriating the Orient, speaking for
it, and ruling over it (2). Scholars who adopted Orientalism often criticized
the European colonial discourses, which negatively portrayed the East. In
fact, Edward Said and a scholar, such as Michael Dodson, who adapted
the Orientalism theory, both envisaged the possibility of encouraging
writers to be human in their representation of the institutions governing the
people in the East. Walkers examination of how the West views the East,
indeed, borrows from this theory. Dodson has further suggested that India,
for example, used the Sanskrit text as a principal medium through which
the nature of the subcontinents civilization heritage was understood,
while linguistic knowledge became a required mark of Orientalist
expertise (18). In Africa, many writers capitalized on colonial and postcolonial discourses to re-establish their civilizations which Western scholarly
discourses greatly sidelined. Equally, an investigation in the way Alice
Walker ambivalently discusses how the West understands herself as
opposed to the East and how language, religion, and culture are
141

instrumental in re-defining African civilization is central to this study.

Therefore, the present research examines ambivalence in Walkers
Possessing and The Color Purple in relation to its intricate connection to
Orientalism discourse, which shows how the West dominates the East.
5.4: Characters and Conscious Ambivalence in Possessing
a) Tsungas, MLizza, and Tashi
Walkers sarcastic treatment of African women circumcisers, who
she calls tsungas, is ambivalent because she portrays them as oppressive
to the women they circumcise. Although Walker knows she is fighting for
the freedom of all women, she does not spare women oppressors in her
novels. She intentionally allows these women to die, and their deaths are
highly celebrated by other women. MLizza describes her Olinka tribes
continuous oppressiveness instigated by tsungas as such:
Since the people of Olinka became a people there has
always been a tsunga. It was hereditary, like the priests . . .
Although everyone knew they had a mother, because she
had in their same way given birth to them, a father was not to
be had in the same way. . . . And so, the mothers brother
was your father. The house always belonged, in those days, to
the woman. . . . Anyway, from the time of memory, always, in
my family, women were tsungas. . . . And the women, even
today, after giving birth, they come back to the tsunga to be
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resewn, tighter than before . . . the men like it tighter. Dont

think the women never receive pleasure, either. (1903, 215)
There is no better English equivalent for this term, tsunga, simply because
female circumcision is a rite of passage in specific African communities.
Walkers use of the term explains her grasp of some Olinka cultural values,
which she considers instrumental in domesticating females. Therefore,
Walker does not perceive circumcision as a rite or ritual because if she
does she could be validating its significance yet it is an oppressive
practice. Furthermore, it is evident that Walker ridicules the African
tsungas because she considers them oppressive to their own sisters who
are tortured through circumcision from generation to generation. Walker,
at all costs, could want to portray circumcision negatively.
When MLizza tells the oppressive nature of the tsungas, she reveals
their evil nature, and by so doing, she actively discourages them from
circumcising women. In fact, in Kiswahili language the word MLizza is
equivalent to a lexicon, Maliza, which means to finish. MLizza exposes the
inhumanity of the tsungas to the public, and this ridicule weakens the
powers they have which enable them to continue oppressing women by
circumcising them. Walker appropriately names this character based on
the role she plays in advancing her goal of encouraging for humanity
among the evil tsungas. Walker definitely knows the significance that
African people attached to the tsungas, and by criticizing their practice
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of circumcision; she intentionally avoids attaching any relevance to some

African values, which she deems oppressive. Her approach in discrediting
such African customs, therefore, is deliberately ambivalent.
In fact, a readers understanding of how African informal education
was imparted in the initiates during circumcision seasons in the African
traditional society is essential in the effective interpretation of Walkers
semantic

strategy

of

ambivalence.

Walker

avoids

exploring

the

significance African attached to particular customs such as sexuality and

circumcision, and instead capitalizes on the oppressive nature of these
issues to the African people, especially women. Her avoidance to discuss
their importance often contributes to ambivalent expressions both by her
characters and herself. However, this conscious tendency to stay clear of
the significant while concentrating on meeting her objectives shows her
ability to creatively employ ambivalence as a rhetoric style in writing her
novel. However, Noam Chomsky insists, the validity of results cannot be
attested only by the scholastically consistent internal structure of a
procedure. Results need to be tested. They must be tested against the
knowledge or competence of a native speaker (22). Chomsky reflects
that linguistic studies entail a speakers knowledge of language. The
readers linguistic knowledge enables them to avoid misinterpretations of
literary texts, including not only an understanding of the difference of
morphemic expressions such as dance and dazzling, but also syntactic
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variants such as How does an American look like? and Black people
are natural, they possess the secret of joy, which is why they can survive
the suffering and humiliation inflicted in upon them (Possessing 239).
Therefore, a readers knowledge of both the linguistic conventions
employed and the cultural awareness of the people the author targets
are relevant in the understanding of a novel. A writers ability to catch the
attention of readers and convince them to accept his or her points of
view depends on the clarity of the conventional representations of the
characters speeches in a text including their words, phrases, sentences,
and paragraphs. Also, readers who understand the style a writer employs
and who have enough knowledge of diverse cultures will better decipher
an authors intended meanings.
Readers can understand Walkers novel better if they analyze her
characters ambivalence based on the knowledge they have about
African experience. For example, the character of Tashi is intentionally
created to counter African norms, which oppress women like her in Africa,
including circumcision and domestication. Often, after she meets the
American characters, Adam and Olivia, she socializes with them and
gains some awareness about her rights. She makes ambivalent remarks
while attempting to redefine her identity, but readers need to understand
that her ambivalence is intentional, and they are meant to achieve
women liberation. Tashis desire for self-discovery is not only for those in
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the Diaspora, but also those in Africa too. Tashi is an African character,
which is alienated from her roots because of the effect of colonialism and
she is disconnected from her values. Tashi finds it disturbing to describe to
Raye, the African-American she meets after arriving in America from
Africa, the various forms of circumcision in her traditional society. Her story
disturbs her because for moral reasons society prohibits any discussion of
such initiation rites to strangers and even the time for discussions about
initiation rites in her Olinkan tribe, as is in most African tribes, is well defined
by the practitioners. Thus, any sharing of initiation rites and stories related
to such rites with strangers and at the wrong time, especially if such stories
are told when it is a session for circumcision, is considered by society
members as abominable. People are forbidden by society norms from
telling stories about initiation rite, for example, because these stories often
carried clan secrets, which needed to be guarded for security reasons. An
example of how such initiation rites were held secretive by society
members is evident in the following revelation by a Western researcher in
Kenya who despite living among the practitioners from the Teso tribe did
not know initiation had started until one morning when he heard the
initiates sing songs as they went to the ceremony itself:
The initiation ceremonies generally take from October
through December. They are important as they signify a
child's acceptance in the tribe and his or her place in the
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adult community within the tribe. The boys to be circumcised

generally

go

through

ceremony

before

they

are

circumcised. This can last from one to several days

depending on the tribe. Personally, I was awakened early
one morning by boys running through the village singing
songs. Later, I learned that this was part of their circumcision
rituals. . . . During the circumcision the boys are encouraged
not to cry out or flinch to show that they are truly men. Some
tribes would have their tribesmen holding spears toward the
boy being circumcised as a threat not to flinch or cry out. The
boy would also be told that if he did show signs of pain he
would be killed. They felt that if a boy showed pain then he
would not make a good warrior. (Daigle 1)
Furthermore, a discussion of private body parts in public and in
private places was discouraged for one reason or another in most African
communities just as in Olinka community. For example, when Raye had
requested Tashi to explain to her about how circumcision was carried out
by her people in Olinka, she sounded skeptical in her expressions and
retorted:
A sign escaped me as I thought of explaining. . . . Female
initiation into womanhood. Oh? She [Raye] said. But she
looked as if she did not understand. Circumcision, I
147

whispered. . . . I was reminded of a quality in AfricanAmerican women that I did not like at all. A bluntness. A
going to the heart of the matter even if it gave everyone
concerned a heart attack . . . had slavery given them this.
(Possessing 99)
Tashi, an Olinka African woman, tells a story depicting the awfulness and
oppressiveness of circumcision. Raye, the African-American woman
character, functions as the mentor to Tashi and often encourages her to
speak aloud in protest of circumcision, and she advices Tashi with some
bluntness that Tashi finds conflicting with her own cultural values, including
her believe not to discuss private body parts and some community
secretive rites with strangers. Walker intentionally presents before her
readers a mentor for Tashi who will guide her to understand her rights.
Before her mentor, who articulately expresses her views with a lot of
freedom, Tashi shows her fear in explaining her circumcision experience.
For the first time, she portrays a sense of freedom to say what she feels
because she is with her mentor. However, she is a little uncomfortable with
Rayes openness, which she finds unusual.
Walker intentionally allows the African woman, Tashi, a mentor
because she needs someone to encourage her to gain her voice. By
implication Tashi is inferior to her counterpart, Raye, and this is definitely a
form of categorization, but Walker beliefs that many African women need
148

a hand to fight for their independence. Walker does not mind advancing
such a view of categorization since she knows the end product is
significant than the means of achieving it. She consciously envisages an
ambivalent way of allowing a woman such as Tashi to achieve her
freedom, and it is this ambivalence created by her avoidance tactic that
makes Walkers semantic style unique.
Also, while the persona, who happens to be the author, describes
MLizzas hut, a traditional African woman that the American missionaries
meet in Africa, a potter by profession, a witch doctor, midwife, initiator,
and a flat character in Possessing the Secret of Joy, Walker presents
before her readers events surrounding MLizzas life using poetic
expressions, and in most cases events are presented in picturesque form.
MLizza is an old Olinka woman, who Tashi describes as an evil character
because she oppresses women by circumcising them. MLizza initiates
Dura, Tashis sister, but she bleeds until she dies. This unfortunate death of
her sister angers Tashi, and she hates MLizza. Unlike in King Solomons
Mines where Ridder Huggards Gagools, the old African witchdoctor,
whose powers are rendered useless before the Whiteman by simply not
being recognized by the missionary adventurers, MLizzas powers are
presented before the readers as enhancing evil. In the African traditional
society MLizza is a spiritual character carrying special duties of divination.
However, Walker disempowers MLizza by intentionally denying her these
149

respected duties she carries out in society. In fact, Walker portrays her as a
scavenger. Walker writes, She is the cock which eats up the young girls
cut bodies (63).
Furthermore, Walkers picturesque images about traditional African
women that she examines through the characters of MLizza and Olivia,
who interrogate other African women potters in the novel to discover
what society associates with women, shows the role many women play in
the traditional African society as child bearers, sexual commodities, and
artists. However, as artists these women use their creative ability in art to
educate the children they bear. Walker enables her characters express
their artistic talent in liberating themselves instead. Although Walker
recognizes that women play crucial roles in society for example in
disseminating knowledge through story telling (175), her concern in this
novel is not about how women have actively participated in the political
and social systems of society, but how they have been continuously
oppressed by their men. In Walkers novels various symbols of art show her
concern with women domestication and womens participation in
overcoming domestication. She does not indulge in examining what is
commonly treated as significant, but she deals with want she thinks is
insignificant and encourages her readers to avoid it and do what they
think allows them freedom.

150

MLizza plays an important role in impacting change which is

beneficial to women in particular. MLizzas photographs in her room
which have images of people exploring their reproductive organs is very
informative. MLizza is an artist herself who seems to derive solace from her
pictures on the wall in her room. It is evident that she is lesbian and
appreciates it through her art forms on the wall. She does not actually
speak, but readers learn a lot about her through the personas description
of her room, which has surprising artifacts. Thus, Walker presents a
character that has no voice in the traditional world, but who has the
intellect to use her art skills to express her desires and aspirations in order to
be liberated from patriarchal chains. Indeed, MLizzas shelter informs a
reader of her perceptions towards sexism, subjugation, reproduction, and
imagination. Olivia describes MLizzas hut as such:
Another photograph shows a figure with her hand around the
penis of the figure next to her. She is also smiling. Another
show a figure with her finger in another womans vagina. She
too is smiling. So is the other woman. So, indeed, are they all.
Other photographs show women figures dancing, interacting
with animals, nestled cozily underneath sheltering trees, and
giving birth. . . . We think children were given these
idols[dolls] to play with, as a teaching tool . . . some age . . .
quite the scope of present imagination. And that when
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women were subjugated, these images were sent literary

underground. . . . Some of the stone and clay figures are in
museums and private collections. The most famous one is of a
man and a woman copulating . . . many of the figures were
destroyed. Especially, those that show both a womans
vagina and her contented face. (176)
This except employs a poetic language with rhyming expressions such as
she is also smiling and she too is smiling, Also, the variants so is the other
woman and so, indeed are they all rhyme with the repetition of the word
so at the start of each line. All these poetic expressions represent a range
of ideas, specifically from heterosexuality to homosexuality that is Walkers
concerns in her works. It is interesting for readers to discover Walkers
ability in examining such controversial thematic concerns using the
picturesque style of her character. Samuel Weber in his Ambivalence,
the Humanities and the Study of Literature explains that language plays a
central role in literary studies because it creates aesthetic beauty only if
expressions are effectively employed by the writer (24). Also, Webber
agrees with Samuel Kants explanation in The Third Critique that using
examples drawn primarily from the domain of visual perception can
account for the author, as well as the readers involvement in the
aesthetic judgment of taste. The most striking example of this tendency
occurs when Kant explains the power of "genius" to create beautiful art in
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terms of its capacity to produce "aesthetical ideas," which he describes

"as a representation of the imagination associated with a given concept
(and) bound up with such a multiplicity of partial representations in its free
employment marking a definite concept (160). Such ideas presented
through visuals, Kant observes, can only be conceived as a function of
language. Although language in this case does not function as an
instrument of denomination, rather, it is poetic language that Kant
describes as the privileged medium of aesthetic ideas, even though he
has previously associated poetry with an imaginative activity whose
freedom is scarcely compatible with the universality required of all
judgments, including aesthetic judgments of taste (qtd. in Webber 24).
Poetic expressions may be convenient and interesting to readers when
they read novels because such expressions largely contribute to the
aesthetic value of the text.
A close examination of the excerpt above, which uses artifice to
convey MLizzas message to readers reveals Walkers appreciation of
people who exercise their sexuality. Indeed, MLizza and her images of the
people on the wall show that they are all contented with their sexuality
because the persona writes that they are smiling and happy. Walker,
indeed, uses poetic language, which ultimately gives her and her readers
opportunity to interpret her except and her visual image in their own way
of understanding. Thus, readers can interpret the symbolic implications of
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the figures Walker creates in MLizzas room and make their own
judgments concerning the issues the author explores in her text. Indeed,
the feelings of the author, as well as the readers might vary because of
cultural differences, as well as individual differences in experiences.
Walker knows that MLizzas actions maybe troubling to some people who
do not approve of homosexuality and often who recognize these
illustrations of homosexuality as insignificant. Walkers intention in her
novels is often to make the insignificant look significant.
MLizzas picturesque language which is often poetic in its use of
economic words thus becomes a point of conflict because there is no
one right way to interpret the concepts represented in the figures Walker
creates on MLizzas wall. Poetic expressions about a sensitive thematic
concern such as homosexuality can be ambivalent based on reader
responses, which are influenced by cultural values. Alice Walker has the
freedom to use language in whatever way she wants to attract the
attention of the reader. However, as a writer she has to conform to
societys accepted ethical norms. Walkers use of language to an African
reader is obscene especially in her description of MLizzas wall portraits in
her hut. The writer seems to reflect that cultural norms, which are mainly
instituted by men, tend to prohibit free expression in African societies,
especially among women with the aim of silencing them. Walkers use of

154

obscene language to describe Mlizzas hut, and using it blatantly,

therefore, is a conscious feminist strategy to overcome female oppression.
e) Torabes Youngest Wife
Torabes wife is another character in the novel through which
readers can realize Walkers ambivalent examination of domestication.
Her husband, Torabe, is an African character in the novel, Possessing, that
has a history of mistreating his wives. When they run away from him, he
tracks them back and continues subjugating them. In Possessing Walker
uses a runaway slave technique similar to Toni Morisons in which, Sethe, a
slave escapee drowns her daughter, Beloved, rather than being
recaptured into slavery as a technique of opposing female circumcision
and enslavement. Similarly, using the slave narrative motif, Walker narrates
a story about a similar tragedy that involves Torabe, an Olinkan husband,
who has many wives and mistreats them until the youngest wife drowns
herself:
Torabe had many wives . . . at last he married a young
woman who ran away from him, and could not be brought
back. Hed been notorious for tracking and bringing back his
runaway wives before. This one drowned herself, in the water
. . . rather than return. (117)
Walker clearly shows that the youngest wife runs away to resist her
husbands brutality, and at the same time when Torabes oppressed wife
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drowns herself to avoid her husbands mistreatments, this act shows her
radical resistance to institutions of not only polygamy, but also its
subjugation and abuse that are characteristic of most marriages of this
sort. Both Torabes runaway wife and Sethe, the Whitemans runaway
slave, are victims of brutality and enslavement. Sethe drowns her
daughter, Beloved, to protect her from returning to slavery, and Torabes
wife drowns herself to avoid returning to her brutal husbands home. Thus,
Walker disobeys the African customs that restricted individuals from
publicly telling stories about African enslavement and encourages
helpless women such as Torabes wives to forge a way of liberating
themselves. Torabes escape from an abusive wife by drowning herself
however, suicidal is in itself a strategy of liberation.
It is quite ambivalent to drown oneself to avoid oppression and
enslavement because a reader may question the act of drowning as a
morally unviable means of resisting subjugation. Committing a vice to
avoid a similar vice is what Bradd Shore in his Human Ambivalence and
Moral Values considers the dilemma of ethics and suggests, Ethical
discourse, thus, is not just the enunciation of moral values; it often involves
a rhetorical struggle to legitimate one course of action and depreciate
an alternative, even though both possibilities exist as ethical alternatives
(171). Thus, suicide, like that committed by Torabes wife in Possessing as
well as in Beloved, is an ambivalent virtue which gains its moral power
156

from an act which is ambivalent in itself. Indeed, Torabes wife acts in

accordance with the dictates of the feminist culture and ideology that
provides a reader with the possibility of making choices in order to liberate
the self. Suicide thus becomes a heroic myth and strategy that provides a
temporary/shadowy solution to what may be ultimately an irresolvable
predicament. For instance, readers might question if there is, indeed, an
easy moral that can be learned from Torabes wife drowning herself and
Sethe drowning her daughter to save them from oppression.
Nonetheless,

readers

should

recognize

that

Walkers

moral

ambivalence works well when exploring a sensitive theme, especially

those of female subjugation and sexuality because such contradictions
reawaken people to recognize their own realities and challenges they
face in order for them to make viable moral judgments about issues
directly affecting them. Furthermore, it is worth noting that what is moral in
one culture may be immoral to another. Therefore, morality is relative
because different cultures have varying beliefs, which give rise to different
discourses that define culture specific ethics and ways of sustaining them.
f)

Adam and Olivia

Alice Walker creates the characters of Adam and his sister, Olivia,

both African-American missionaries in Africa, with the objective of

ridiculing the Western flawed ideologies of Africa as an uncivilized
continent. Olivias description of Tashi who is an imaginary Olinka tribe
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representing all Africans, who they first meet in Africa, shows how she
views Africa as a dark continent characteristic of barbaric customs.
Olivias opinions about Africa are symbolic of many people from the
Western world. Some of Africas uncouth cultural practices that Walker
discourages and which have been a bone of contention in the
contemporary world are the circumcision and subjugation of women,
among others. Often, Walkers presentation of these characters and their
understanding of Africa are ambivalent to some readers. However,
Walker creates her characters and gives them words, which sometimes
portray her creative consciousness. Therefore, many of her characters
ambivalent expressions are deliberate.
Indeed, Walkers presentations of her characters in Possessing,
including Adam and Olivia, who are both African-Americans, do reveal to
readers her objective in exploring black peoples reality both in Africa and
in the Diaspora. Particularly, Adam and Olivia having been brought up in
the West have unknowingly adapted Western ideologies about Africa as
a continent inhabited with uncivilized people. Walker contrasts these
two characters beliefs with that of Tashi. For example, Adam and Olivia,
the African-American missionaries, are outgoing, inquisitive, and free in
their expressions of love. In contrast, Tashi is a reserved and conservative
character. For example, Tashi is strongly attached to her cultural roots.

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Particularly, it is quite disturbing to an African listening to Olivias

stories about Africa. Her physical description of the people she meets and
her comparison of her new African experience with stories she used to
hear from her great African-American grandfather about Africa show not
only her sense of surprise, but also her eminent misconceptions about the
Africans she meets. For instance, once they settle in Africa she remarks:
Tashi was standing behind Catherine, her mother, a small,
swaybacked woman with an obdurate expression on her
dark, lined face, and at first there was only Tashis handa
small dark hand and arm, like that of a monkey. . . . I
remembered looking up at my father and thinking what a
miracle

it

was

that

wed

somehowthrough

jungle,

grassland, across rivers and whole countries of animals

arrived in the village of the Olinka that hed spoken so much
about. (67)
Indeed, whereas readers can recognize that stories passed down to
Olivia by her father were those that extolled the beauty and the rich
environment of Africa, it is evident from her comparison of Tashi to a
monkey that she lacks a clear understanding of Africa and her people.
Olivia has been brought up in two worlds; worlds in which she recognizes
herself as an African and an American at the same time. She has
unconsciously assimilated the prejudiced Western feelings about Africa as
159

a dark continent. However, at the same time she knows from stories told
by her grandfather that Africa is a continent full of life; natural as
exemplified

through

the

regions

indigenous

forests,

evergreen

environment, rivers, and wild animals that they encounter once they arrive
in the continent. Thus, her life and identity are dogged by double
consciousness, which W.E.B Du Bois has clearly explained how it affects
people of color especially in his The souls of Black Folk (15). It is surprising
that Olivia being an African-American can call Tashi, the African girl she
meets once in Africa, a monkey. She exhibits Darwinism prejudicial
tendencies that treated Africans and other people of color as inferior to
Whites by virtue of their mental capacities, which Darwinian theorists
erroneously linked to evolving animals such as monkeys.
Furthermore, Du Bois has argued that double consciousness is a veil
that makes people of color invisible. He recognizes color line as a
twentieth Century problem that he himself tried to overcome by living
beyond and above it. He writes:
I remember well when the shadow swept across me . . . the
exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my
card,refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned
upon me with a suddenness that I was different from others;
or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out
from their world by a vast veil . . . I held all beyond it in
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common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky

and great wandering shadows. (2)
Similarly, Walker by creating characters of Adam and Olivia, who are
biased towards Africans, she reflects that double awareness and
Otherness, which Du Bois symbol of the veil and his hierarchy of social
stratification which categorizes the Negro as the seventh son symbolize,
are multi-dimensional and they cut across cultures (Souls 3). For example,
after Olivia visits Africa for the first time, she is reminded of her fathers
stories about the backwardness of the African continentstories probably
narrated with mixed feelings, which she struggles to understand from a
new African context. It is important for readers to note that Walkers
intention

is

to

present

character

that

natures

the

prejudice

characteristic of the Western prejudice, and she lets this same character
transform or as Du Bois suggests, attain self-conscious manhood
[womanhood], to merge [her] double self into a better and truer self (3).
Therefore, Olivia gains her self-conscious by listening to the fairy tales that
her grandfather used to narrate to her and by visiting Africa where she
experiences African culture.
Furthermore, through the stories narrated by Adam and Olivia
about their African experience, Walker redefines black identity and
reasserts that black culture, like all others, is poignant with systematic
social conventions such as Orature, which was a prominent tool of
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dissimilation of informal knowledge in the traditional African society.

Indeed, during the era for slavery and colonization in most nations, the
imperialists distorted systems of politics, economics, education and
governance. Edward Said further explains:
The 19th Century colonial scramble for Africa was by no
means limited to Africa, of course. The centuries old
designated a geographical space to the east of
Europe and Asia as oriental. There was a long and slow
process of appropriation by which Europe and or the
European awareness of the orient, transformed itself
from being textual and contemplative into being
administrative,

economic

and

even

military.

The

fundamental change was a spatial and geographical

one. (68)
Furthermore, colonialism and slavery subjected Africans to cultural
alienation. Walker, especially in her works, Possessing, attempts to reestablish this lost culture by using stories characteristic of African
conventions, including the use of oral traditions, proverbs, sayings, and
folklores, among others. Whereas these art forms have been extensively
employed in African literature, they have not been widely used by
Western writers in their literary works, because many Western scholars do
not want to acknowledge their significant role in disseminating knowledge
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especially in the traditional African societies. Therefore, Walkers styles are

unique, and they represent the unique African culture, which was much
distorted by the imperialists. Particularly, through oral narration Walker
presents to her readers stories about characters such as Adam, Olivia,
and Tashi, who revisit their cultural roots with the objective of rediscovering
their identity.
The task of the writer as a teacher, therefore, is to effectively
employ cultural conventions in exploring the experiences of the target
audience, and it is through these conventions that the audience interprets
the meaning in a text to better understand their experiences. Employing a
structural approach, Paul Bove argues, Any piece of art may have
meaning only in terms of a system of conventions which the reader has
assimilated. In itself, a text "has" no meaning; it is only an order of words,
which someone can read according to the conventions of poetry (1167).
In short, the participants of any culture consider their experiences natural
even though outsiders will question some of the customs, which are
oppressive. Tashi, for instance, is not as much disturbed about her culture
as Adam and Olivia because they are outsiders and they find the new
culture shocking. Often, the outsider artist creates particular systems of
discourses, which define and try to sustain specific customs in every
society. Bove explains that a culture is defined by and defines itself by
these systems of discourse no matter if they be consciously or
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unconsciously apprehended and defended (270). Some writers make

novels naturalized by exploring immediate experiences of the readers and
these readerss understanding of them depends on their ability to interpret
novels according to the modes of discourses made available in the
particular culture. Bove further argues that "Naturalization" emphasizes the
fact that the strange or deviant is brought within a discursive order and
thus made to seem natural (137). How does Walker create naturalism in
her narratives? Walker does this through her employment of oral traditions
such as dress, rites, proverbs, allegory, vernacular vocabulary, dialogue,
and storytelling techniques, which are evidenced especially in the novels
under focus.
Specifically, in Possessing each character takes turns in telling his or
her story. Therefore, readers listen to Olivia, Adam and Tashi narrate their
life experiences in their African conventional style. Their stories reveal the
conflicting views of Africans by the people from the West, and the
ambivalence eminent in these stories contributes to the aesthetic beauty
of Walkers novel. Walkers creation of characters which nurture biasness
towards Africans is, therefore, intentional, and this conscious strategy of
presenting characters with mixed feelings of who they are and what the
Western world thinks about them is effective in enabling people of color
re-define themselves. Walker superimposes two characters from America

164

with one from Africa, and in so doing she effectively reveals two diverse
cultures.
5.5: Themes and Ambivalence in Possessing
a) Orientalism and Marginalization
The Theme of the Orient in Walkers Possessing the Secret of Joy is
examined amid a lot of ambivalence. Intentionally, Walker creates this
theme, which her characters discuss with mixed feelings. The characters
attitudes towards Africa, for example, shows how Walker recognizes that
group categorization is an essential means powerful groups employ to
control the less powerful ones. Indeed, Walker allows her American
characters, who often are privileged as opposed to the Africans they
meet, to express their prejudicial views about African cultural values.
Walkers intentional treatment of Adam and Olivia as having racial
feelings in order to effectively function as the Western Other is in itself a
creative way of approaching sensitive social issues. The ambivalence in
employing such a strategy is that whereas the characters of Adam and
Olivia in reality are not racially biased, in Walkers fiction they are actually
portrayed as victims of racism. However, as the novel develops Walker
allows these characters to reform. In Possessing the Secret of Joy Walker
has the opportunity to have her African-American characters, Olivia and
Adam, travel to Africa and, of course, revisit their ancestors past, its
darkness and its beauty. This characters journey to Africa allows these
165

individuals to learn African peoples culture and reassess their views about
Africa, which they have learned in the Western world. Once in Africa,
Walkers characters soon discover the inaccuracy of most Western
peoples perception about Africa as a dark continent. Therefore,
Walkers ambivalence is effective in that she tends to avoid blame from
many real racially prejudiced Whites by replacing them in her discourse
with African-American characters.
Although Walkers characters often slip over and express their
biasness towards Africa, it is Walkers intention to re-establish African
identity and clarify African beliefs to the Western world. Her endeavor is
pertinent because it helps shape the image of Africa, the Other, in
Western literary studies. Walker thus is a writer and teacher playing an
important role in educating her audience. Achebe argues, The writer
cannot expect to be excused from the task of re-education and
regeneration that must be done. In fact, he or she should march right in
front as the sensitive point of the community (MYOCD 45). What Walker
contributes to African cultural re-establishment is similar to Achebe, who
as an educationist, attempts to reconstruct the pristine civilization of
Africa, which he recognizes that it has organized juridical, agricultural,
and socio-structural systems.
In Possessing missionaries are confronted with many cultural
aspects, which they find shocking in Africa. Therefore, Walkers characters
166

that travel to Africa with an intention of converting Africans to accept

their religion are reluctant in appreciating African culture. Their initial
inflexibility to recognize African values angers their convert and confident,
Tashi, whom Adam marries and relocates to America with the intention of
civilizing her. Although Tashi is in love with the missionaries she meets, she
is aware that the Western world exploits and alienates Africans. This
Western prejudice impels Tashi to react angrily towards Adam and Olivia:
All I care about now is the struggle for our people. I said. You
are a foreigner. Any day you like, you and your family can
ship yourselves back home. Who are you and your people
never to accept us as we are? Never to imitate any of our
ways? It is always we who have to change. . . you dont even
know what youve lost! And the nerve of you, to bring us a
God someone else chose for you! (The Color Purple1819)
In the above excerpt, the lexicons you represents the Occident and
us the Orient. Both these two lexicons are thus demarcating terms that
differentiate Africans from African-Americans. Having been provoked with
Tashi, Olivia realizes the role many people in the West actually play in
exploiting those in developing and underdeveloped nations. Olivia agrees
with Tashis anger motivated remarks about the unfairness of the West
towards the East and recognizes that many blacks are poor and
oppressed in Africa because they have been made vulnerable to
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exploitation by the imperialists who use education, language, and religion

to alienate them. Ngugi Wa Thiongo in his Decolonizing the Mind criticizes
missionary education and the role of English in colonizing the Africans
mind. English language in African literary texts plays the role of subjugating
Africans spiritually, because English does not play its double function as a
language of communication and as a carrier of communication, and that
religion particularly, humbles Africans and makes them loving towards
their friends while the very people that give them a God exploits them
(13). Mezu recommends Achebe who equally envisages the role of English
language in African cultural degeneration, and recommends African
writers to take advantage of English language and design a new form of
language with traditions of African cultural nationalism, black aesthetics,
and colonialist criticism (The Man and his People 18). Furthermore, as
Achebe writes in MYOCD, his objective in writing traditionbased novels
was:
To help my society regain belief in itself and put away the
complexities of the years of denigration and self-abasement .
. . for no thinking African [Black] can escape the wound on
his soul. . . . I would be quite satisfied if my novels (especially
the ones I set in the past) did no more than teach my readers
that their pastwith all its imperfectionswas not one long

168

night of savagery from which the first European acting on

Gods behalf delivered us. ( MYOCD 45)
Many of the expressions of Adam, Olivia and Tashi in this novel are
manifestations of how society categorizes people according to their
civilizations. The differences between these cultures do shape her novels
under focus. Especially, Walkers novels show her vast knowledge about
the Western writers views on Africa as the Dark Continent and the
anthropologists ideologies of revolution, which basically justified the
imperialists domination of Africa. Alice Walker identifies that people of
color were colonized, enslaved, and conceived as distinctly different from
whites and, therefore, they are categorically defined as the Other, or
the Orient. During colonialism and slavery, supremacist ideologies
encouraged separateness of races in many nations. More powerful races
with stable economies, political systems, and social infrastructures started
writing about their experiences, as well as the experiences of less powerful
ones. The main objective for these writings was to assert, justify, and
institutionalize

their

supposedly

superior

educational

and

religious

philosophies in the colonized and enslaved peoples regions.

Group distinction or race marginalization led to the rise of theories
such as colonialism and Orientalism that characterized many texts in
especially Africa, Asia, Europe and America. Edward Said candidly
describes his understanding of Orientalism as:
169

Orientalism is not a mere political subject matter or field that is

reflected passively by culture, scholarship or institutions; nor is
it a large and diffuse collection of texts about the orient; it is
representative and expressive of some nefarious western
imperialist plot to hold down the oriental world. It is rather the
distribution of geopolitical awareness into aesthetic, scholarly
economic, sociological, historical and philosophical texts; it is
an elaboration not only of a basic geographical distinction
(the world is made up of two unequal halves, orient and
occident) but also of a whole series of interests which by such
means

as

scholarly

discovery,

and

philosophical

and

psychological analysis, it not only creates but also maintains a

certain will to control, manipulate, and incorporate what is
manifestly different or novel world; it is, above all, a discourse
existing in an uneven exchange with various kinds of power,
shaped to a degree by the exchange with power political,
power intellectual, power cultural (as with orthodoxies and
canons of taste, text values), power moral (as with ideas
about what we do and what they cannot do or
understand as we do. (Patrick Williams and Laura Chrisman
138)

170

Similarly, humanitarianism and regionalism are aspects that greatly

reveal the ambivalence surrounding Walkers novels. However, as stated
early in this study, readers should realize that whereas Walkers characters
make ambivalent statements about Africa as perceived through the eyes
of Adam and Olivia, most of her characters observations are intentional
and informative. Some of her objectives in making such intentional
ambivalent statements, especially about Africa, are, first, to advocate for
the freedom of women who are oppressed especially in this patriarchal
society and, second, to re-establish the lost African peoples identities.
Furthermore, Chandra Mohanty explains that Western feminist scholarship
cannot avoid the challenge of situating itself and examining its role in a
global economic and political framework. He suggests, To do any less
would be to ignore the complex interconnections between first and third
world economies and the profound effect of this on the lives of women in
all countries (66). Walker employs intentional ambivalence to overcome
Western prejudicial tendencies including marginalization and domination.
This style of narration of her novel, Possessing, is one aspect among others
that makes her novel distinct.
b) Re-establishing African Identity
Walkers

writing

exemplifies

great

transformation

because

characters that were so naive about Africa in the first novel, The Color
Purple, are often developed and or have the capability of perceiving
171

realities in a more mature way in Walkers second novel, Possessing. There

is some kind of self-awareness, because there is a renewed consciousness
especially in Tashi, the protagonist of the novel, who in a new light reflects
on the reality in Africa that she is faced with:
I saw the children, potbellied and with dying eyes . . . I saw
the old people laid out in the shade of the rocks, barely
moving on their piles of rags. I saw the women making stew. .
. . We had been stripped of everything but our black skins.
Here and there a defiant cheek bore the mark of our
withered tribe. These marks gave me courage. I wanted such
a mark for myself . . . my people had once been whole,
pregnant with life. (Possessing 19)
The women Tashi describes in this excerpt are oppressed by doing hard
labor as symbolized in their cheeks, which bear marks of humiliation.
Tashis wish to also have such scars on her cheek is an attempt to connect
with her roots. Imperialists have exploited and oppressed Tashi and her
people and their withered cheek marks are images symbolic of poverty,
exploitation and alienation. The infiltration of missionaries into Africa
opened up avenues for African exploitation and alienation. Tashi and
Adam are black missionaries who do not have a clear understanding of
their cultural roots until they actually visit Africa and realize the diverse
differences that exist between the East and the West. Having been raised
172

in America, they have double consciousness, because they have been

educated in America and believe that Africa is a dark continent that
needs to be improved to march their Western Standards of life. Thus, these
conflicting views

about Africa

confuse

Walkers

characters,

and

sometimes Walker herself, about what is really acceptable and what

values are unacceptable to an African. Walkers characters, Adam and
Olivia in Possessing and Nettie in The Color Purple have divided feelings
about African and Western values. They do not know whether to accept
African values that they do not agree with or not. Often, they find some
African values untenable and categorically challenge them.
Readers will understand that Walker is justified in ridiculing Africans
practice of circumcision, but they will disagree with her treatment of love.
Adam, for instance, challenges the Africans belief that making love in the
field is taboo. Walker creates this character to show her readers that
Africans lack freedom in expressing their love as opposed to Americans.
He remarks:
In Olinka society the strongest taboo was against making love
in the fields. Love-making in the fields jeopardized the crops
the crops could not grow. So strong was the taboo that no
one in living memory had broken it and yet, we did . . . and
the fields produced their harvests as before. (The Color Purple
21)
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Adam and Olivias understandings of sexuality are clearly different from

Tashis. Kissing in the public is taboo to Tashi, but it is not necessary so to
Adam and Olivia. A social issue such as lovemaking is culture specific.
Walkers examination of sexuality in Africa and her American characters
judgment of African values as surprising and lacking in morals evidently
contribute to her works ambivalence. Both ethical and cultural values are
relative. A discourse, which engages in any of these two, is often
paradoxical because it often does not rely on truth.
Nonetheless, Walker employs propaganda to relay her intended
message across to her readers. For example, Walker does not indicate to
her readers that morality in Olinkan society was enforced through the
observation of taboos such as encouraging people not to make love in
the fields because many young people, as well as some adults committed
fornication and adultery away from home to avoid accusations. She also
intentionally avoids justifying such African customs because if she does
she will jeopardize her objective of showing the relevance of encouraging
African people to have freedom in their sexuality. Particularly, she does
not allow her readers to recognize that Africa had its own educational
system, and that before the arrival of missionaries in Africa there was
already a system of learning in place. African elders employed specific
educational methods to inform the youths, as well as the adults on the
need to observe morals. For instance, in Things Fall Apart the week of
174

peace is observed with honor and respect to the earth goddess without
whose blessings the Umofians crop production is at risk. When Okonkwo
breaks the taboo by beating his wife, Ojiugo, thus going against societys
expectations in which a man is not supposed say a harsh word to his
neighbor, the priest to the earth goddess, Ezeani, reprimands Okonkwo for
his disrespect (30). Because the production of crops sustained the lives of
the people, nobody could be expected to affect crops. Okonkwos
action is a threat to all people in the Umofian community, because by
provoking the wrath of the earth goddess, who decides on the
productivity of the crops, he renders the Umofia people hopeless since
they rely on food crops for their survival.
Also, in protecting crops people could not make love in the fields
and thus maintaining morality. In fact, one way adults used to educate
children in the traditional society was by telling them folktales, which had
some moral values in them. People observed morals by avoiding taboos
such as making love in the cornfields because this could annoy the earth
goddess, Ani, and in effect she could fail to encourage good crop
production (35). And since Umofians relied on agricultural products for
their survival, they respected their mores and beliefs to protect their crops
and to preserve morality. African methodologies of education entailed
learners to decipher meaning from real life examples using myths,
parables, and tricksters, proverbs among others. Walkers challenge of
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such taboos through her character, Adam, is similar to many Western

views that tend to portray some African values as unrealistic, but Walker
often intentionally and ambivalently portrays those customs which
oppress African women as absurd.
c) Circumcision of Females
Circumcision has been a controversial thematic concern for most
African and non-African writers because majority people advocating
against it argue that it oppresses females while some practitioners support
circumcision because they believe it is their cultural tenet, which define
who they are as a people. Walker mentions the theme of circumcision in
The Color Purple, but develops it further in Possessing the Secret of Joy. In
the former novel Walker introduces her readers to the value of the phallus
as an embodiment of female power and the African mens urgent need
to cut it off as a way of controlling their women by claiming it is unclean
(59). Walker is intentionally subjective in her examination of circumcision
and her lack of objectivity often leads to her ambivalence. Chandra
Talpade Mohanty in Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and
Colonial Discourses identifies that a writer may be intentionally
subjective in the evaluation of a thematic issue with the aim of meeting a
defined goal, especially in convincing readers to accept the point of
views under focus. This intentional subjectivity is characteristic of feminist
literary study or rather is a feminist political practice. Mohanty explains:
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The necessary and integral connection between feminist

scholarship and feminist political practice and organizing
determines the significance and status of western feminist
writings on women in the third world, for feminist scholarship,
like most other kinds of scholarship, does not comprise merely
objective knowledge about a certain subject. It is also a
directly political and discursive practice insofar as it is
purposeful and ideological. It is often seen as a mode of
intervention

into

particular

hegemonic

discourses

[for

example, traditional anthropology, sociology, literary criticism,

etc.], and as a political praxis, which counters and resists the
totalizing imperative of age-old legitimate and scientific
bodies of knowledge. Thus, feminist scholarly practices exist
within relations of power, which they counter, redefine, or
even implicitly support. There can, of course, be no apolitical
scholarship. (65)
Thus, a writer functions as a teacher and a politician at the same time.
Walker as much as she attempts to educate her readers on some
oppressive norms that have prevailed in some traditional societies, she
realizes that some people are likely to challenge her suggestions. An
example of such opposition to her idea of circumcision is possible in Africa
although female circumcision has highly been discouraged. As a
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politician, who at times relies on truth and false rhetoric, she has to
convince her readers to accept her observations. Her narratives thus
explore her audiences reality, which may be grounded sometimes in
propaganda, but intended to meet particular objectives.
Theorizing or politicizing of female oppression starts with Walkers
presentation to the reader the harrowing experience of circumcision
through her protagonist, Tashi. The main character narrates a story about
her sisters death, Dura, who had been circumcised and died from
bleeding:
She had been very obedient to the village women who she
claims eventually betrayed her. She bought matches and
snuff for them nearly every day. These same women
celebrated in the cutting of her body, which caused her
death . . . There was a scar at the corner of her mouth . . .
shaped like a miniature plantain, or like the moon when it is
new . . . while she was crawling, shed picked up a burning
twig that protruded from the hive and attempted to put it
into her mouth . . . but I knew about it from the story that was
often told: how bewildered Dura looked, as the twig stuck to
her lip . . . cried piteously, her arms outstretched, looking
about for help. . . . They were always saying you mustnt cry!
These are new people coming to live among us, and to meet
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them in tears is to bring bad luck to us. (Possessing 12)

Therefore, circumcision of females, which is a form of a warrior mark
or scar, is blamed on the women of the village. Tashi, as a woman who
succumbs to torture, is not spared this accusation. Walkers novel
therefore is a story about two kinds of women; That is, those who
participate in the ritual of mutilating the phallus and those who are the
initiates. Walker believes clitoridectomy is a practice that is inhuman and
at all costs it should be discouraged. Walkers Possessing, specifically is
meant to overcome African female oppression by creating awareness
among the people of Africa on the insignificance of humiliating rituals
such as circumcision.
In examining the theme of circumcision Walker further politicizes it
through her language. For example, her description of cutting the
female phallus is at times exaggerated to convince readers that
circumcision is an inhuman exercise, which needs to be discouraged.
Readers sympathize with the victims when Tashi describes the horrific
female Olinka circumcision as such:
As I painted I remembered . . . the day I had crept, hidden in
the elephant grass, to the isolated hut from which came pain
and terror. Underneath a tree, . . . lay a dazed row of little
girls . . . I knew instinctively that it was Dura being held down
and tortured. . . . And then I saw MLizza shuffle out, dragging
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her lame leg, and at first I didnt realize she was carrying
anything, for it was so insignificant and unclean. She carried it
not in her fingers but in her toes . . . MLizza lifted her foot and
flung this small object in the direction of the hen . . . and in
one quick movement it gobbled it down. (59)
Walker supposes that the objective behind circumcision of African
women is basically male motivated in order to curtail female autonomy.
Thus, cutting is a controlling strategy, and, more often than not, the
reason behind it is far-fetched. Furthermore, rarely do some contemporary
participants of the ritual recognize the traditional absurdity of initiating
females with the goal of maintaining moral order while at the same time
circumcision oppressed many women. As Walker puts it, the act of cutting
brutalizes the initiates through the senseless cutting of their reproductive
organs just because their men think are women with a soft soul and
therefore vulnerable to committing evil (Possessing 24). Therefore, men
and some women in many African societies encourage female
circumcision to curtail their innate ability to commit sin. Walker advocates
for women freedom from such oppressive customs without minding if her
readers will judge her as being ambivalent. She takes this position
probably because the men and some womens idea behind circumcision
is so absurd that it deserves no courtesy. Her aggressive protest often
leads to justified ambivalence in discouraging circumcision.
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In some African traditional communities, especially from where the

writer of this study comes from, during female initiation to adulthood the
elders prepare the youth for a new life by informing them of their societal
secrets, traditions, and responsibilities in the community. Walker suggests
that the people who practice circumcision are themselves fearful of the
harm they cause to the young girls. They are scared that the missionaries
arrival will make them ashamed of their barbaric acts. Besides, Walker
identifies scarring or creating warrior marks especially by circumcision as
some rituals that portray Africans as primitive and uncivilized.
Also, the African style of dressing is norm that surprises Adam and
Olivia because the dresses are scanty and their bodies are almost nude.
Adam, Tashis missionary friend, who later becomes husband, remarks:
Our arrival in Olinka certainly must have been . . . I noticed
the small heads. Their near nakedness . . . I noticed the men. .
.and the greasy amulets they wore . . . the flies . . . the long
flat breasts of the women who worked bare-breasted, babies
on their backs . . . I was too young to be embarrassed by their
nudity. (11)
There is no doubt that Walker fails to recognize and appreciate some
African values such as circumcision irrespective of the fact that
circumcision was an unhealthy and oppressive ritual. This studies
assumption of Walkers misconception is probably true because Jeanne
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Daigle, who has researched many aspects of African Culture and written
about African Culture since 1997, argues that during her cultural studies in
Africa, she talked with people and discovered that a lot of non-African
people know absolutely nothing about Africa and even think Africa is a
country instead of a continent made up of many African nations and
tribes (2). Walker cannot be categorized into this type of people, because
she is very familiar with many African experiences. However, she
sometimes appears to be slightly detached from the experiences of
people in the African continent. Whether Walker fails to appreciate the
roles circumcision played among Africans or intentionally chooses not to
even talk about it, especially its significance of preparing youths for adult
life and about community affairs in order to make appoint, is a bone of
contention.
Walker views the practice of circumcision as a means through
which to examine how African Women are rendered joyless and spiritually
dead.

For example, Tashi struggles to reconcile her two conflicting

soulsher American and African souls. Tashi has a conviction that ritual
female circumcision defines her as an Olinkan woman, but is at the same
time aware that this is a ritual that oppresses her as a woman and which
Africans should abandon if possible. In relation to the conflict inherent in
the self, Mohanty explains:

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Assumptions of privilege and ethnocentric universality and

inadequate self-consciousness about the effect of western
scholarship on the third world in the context of a world
system dominated by the west, characterize a sizeable extent
of western feminist work on women in the third world. An
analysis of sexual difference in the form of a crossculturally
singular, monolithic notion of patriarchy or male dominance
leads to the construction of a similarly reductive and
homogeneous notion of what she calls the third world
difference . . . It is in the production of this third world
difference that western feminisms appropriate and colonize
the constructive complexities which characterize the lives of
women in these countries. (128)
Therefore, it is in this process of discursive homogenization and
systematization of the oppression of women in the Third World that power
is exercised in much of the recent Western feminist writing, and this power
needs to be defined and named. Unquestionably, these are novels by a
woman and about women, which advocate for the rights of women. The
right that Walker champions for most is that which will ensure that African
women own their Secret of Joy, the phallus, which is symbolic of
independence, happiness, and power. In fact, she argues that the right
for women in Africa to own their bodies and experience the joy they
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excite, the joy of independence and equality, are both threatened by the
literal destruction of the most crucial external sign of womanhood: the
vulva itself (Warrior Marks 21). The oppressive nature of females lies in the
senseless and merciless cutting of the clitoris itself. Fran Hosken, concurs
with Alice Walkers reflection that female circumcision is essentially
oppressive. In her Female genital mutilation and human rights she writes:
There are ways in which women as a category of analysis, or
we are all sisters in struggle is used in western discourse on
women in the third world to construct third world women as a
homogeneous powerless group often located as implicit
victims of particular cultural and socio-economic systems . . .
the goal of genital mutilation is to mutilate the sexual pleasure
and satisfaction of woman. This in turn, leads her to claim that
womans sexuality is controlled as is her reproductive
potential. . . . Here women are defined systematically as the
victims of male controlthe sexually oppressed. (11)
Mohanty, Fran Hosten, and Walker have indicated that male violence
should be politicized within societies that practice female circumcision so
as to change the peoples attitude toward such oppressive norms.
Accordingly, Walker proposes the formation of a bond of sisters with the
common cause of fighting for female autonomy. Indeed, Tashi develops
strong bond towards Olivia who guides encourages her to disregard
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values attached to circumcision and other forms of subjugation. In The

Color Purple the two characters become close friends after the death of
Olivias mother, Corinne. Thus, female politicization of patriarchy, if
possible, is necessary to ensure justice for all humankind.
Also, in Possessing The Secret of Joy Adams depiction of Olinkans
as barbaric in their practicing of female circumcision, as well as dirty,
uncaring, and small headed are justification of Charles Darwins theory
of civilization and its proponents reference of Africa to a dark
continent. In The Color Purple there are similar images of Africans who
are portrayed as uncivilized. For example, Nettie, Celies sister, in her
epistemology in which she informs her about the behavior of some
Africans she meets writes, Some of them cant seem to get it through
their thick skulls that you are not Samuels wife (134). Walkers intention to
create characters that harbor Western ideologies about the inferiority of
Africans, and who do not seem to develop in the novel, is questionable.
Probably, she supposes that Darwin was right in his evolutionary theory
which associated people of color, especially Africans, to monkeys and
tried to justify that the thinking capacity of Black people is low compared
to whites. This intellect variation seemed to justify the imperialist
domination of African colonies as well as enslavement of Africans in the
Diaspora. Edward Said argues:

185

It is true that no production of knowledge in the human

sciences can ignore its authors involvement as a human
subject in his own circumstances, and that it must also be true
for a European or American studying the Orient there can
be no disclaiming the main circumstances of his [her]
actuality: that he [she] comes up against the Orient as a
European or American first, and as an individual second.
(137)
Although Walkers intention of criticizing female circumcision
probably was to discredit some African values which she did not approve
and which dehumanized women, her strong hatred and resistance
against these values leads her, unknowingly, into making ambivalent
statements. As much as some African societies had their own reasons of
circumcising their females, Walker is totally opposed to circumcision and
she hardly acknowledges that there was any other objective of
circumcising and scarring women apart from subjugating them. This study
recognizes that Walker is not an historian to account for facts. However,
since fiction is based on realism, readers expect that a writers
experiences of the people she explores be realistic. Otherwise, a false
account of the peoples cultural values will develop mistrust towards the
writer, and more often readers will treat such work as ambivalent.
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5.6: Themes in The Color Purple

a) Circumcision
The Color Purple specifically explores the relevance of the clitoris as
a

sensual

organ.

Walker

is

clearly

opposed

to

African

female

clitoridectomy, and she seems to embrace her political feminist epithet,

The personal-is-political. Leave alone my body or else we engage in
politics to discourage circumcision and domestication of women
because they were oppressive. Equally, Walker candidly shows the
ambivalence that surrounds the issue of circumcision especially among
the Africans. Walker reflects her skepticism about circumcision through her
character, Nettie, who remarks, If you talk to an Olinka girl about her
private parts, her mother and father will be annoyed. . . . Although the
one ritual they do have to celebrate womanhood is so bloody and
painful, I forbid Olivia to even think about it (The Color Purple 161). The
author projects that both males and females encourage female
circumcision, especially females who help carry out the initiation itself.
Indeed, Walker engages herself in writing rather as a politician to
advocate for female autonomy by discouraging customs that seem to
oppress females. The death of such mothers, who initiate females, creates
a possibility of female autonomy once they die. Walker actually
advocates for women initiators to be killed because according to her
they are brutal and inhuman. This desire to kill the violator of taboo is
187

what Samuel Weber calls the ambivalence in taboo because of its role in
performing the socializing function and at the same time isolating
individuals (22). However, Sigmund Freud associates such ambivalence to
neurosis and argues:
The violation of the taboo prohibition entails the expectation
that the violator will be punished, either spontaneously (by
illness, fate etc.), or by the acts of the community. The other is
thereby held responsible for the transgressive acts performed.
In the case of obsessional neurosis the situation is different:
whereas a taboo produces a mode of behavior that appears
to be egoistic, the neurotic seems to behave altruistically:
he [or she] worries that his [her] transgression may bring harm
to some other, innocent person. (Totem and Taboo 50).
However, Freud seems to criticize the aggressive desire to destroy
the other; and argues that the fear is in reality brutality egoistic in that it
has already performed the very aggressive act against which it defends,
precisely by projecting it upon the other and thereby identifying him [her]
and as a possible object of aggression.
b) Taming Patriarchy
Angeletta Gourdine identifies that rhetoric is a framework of
ethnography and argues that Walkers political statement, When the axe
came into the forest, the trees said the handle is one of us (237), serves a
188

rhetorical function speaking to collectives being torn a sunder from within.

The idea being that the easiest way to deplete the forest is through
manipulation of the trees. The blade of the axe represents the institution of
patriarchy and though it actually cuts the trees bodies, much like those
blades, which remove womens clitorises, the hands that hold and
maintain it are themselves trees. They represent women who are actively
involved in the struggle for liberation from patriarchy (239). Both AfricanAmerican womens voices, those of the author, and the authors
characters are present in the text and all confront the cultural text of
female circumcision from their various culturally and ethnically embodied
spaces. Similarly, in Possessing the Secret of Joy Tashi is an African and
American. She is aware of the consequences inherent in pledging full
allegiance to either or both. But she is also aware that the two are
differentconnected but separate. It is through the lens of this
ambivalent image of the self that Walkers experience about female
circumcision is examined. Despite these findings, Walker and most feminist
and gynandrist writers do believe that clitoridectomy, in particular,
humiliates females and, as a result, curtails their sexuality as illustrated in
her novels, Possessing the Secret of Joy and The Color Purple. Walkers
resistance to this ritual is evidenced in the Character of Tashi, who
describes how tormenting female circumcision can be not only to the
afflicted, but also to the uninflected. Also, Walkers Black male missionary,
189

Adam, is tortured in his dreams about the experience he learns from Tashi
about female circumcision. He imagines that her own people imprison
Tashi and they break her wings (21). Walker implies that female power lies
in the wings that enable them to fly to more secure destinations. The
wings Adam dreams of are none other than the phallus. The freedom of
females is thus denied when they are clitoridectomized.
Expressing ones sexuality in many African communities is a sign of
having weak moral ethics and since majority men thought women were
the culprits in the traditional society, men thought they had to find away
to control their sexual desires and, in effect, easily tame them. Cutting of
the wings, therefore, is a strategy of disempowerment that eventually
renders women powerless and subjects them to patriarchy. Because
many men think women are morally weak in Africa, circumcision
becomes mens strategy of controlling women. Furthermore, In The Color
Purple Walker asserts that for someone to realize joy, that person must of
necessity recognize the vitality of experiencing the secret of joy, an idea
she also extensively discusses in Warrior Marks and The Color Purple. For
example, Mr. Albert and Celies initial relationships in The Color Purple, are
closely connected to the sensuality of the phallus, which Walker assumes
many men married to circumcised wives do not enjoy and neither do
women. However, joy or happiness does not just involve sexuality. In the
The Color Purple it is evident that Mr. ______ or Alberts sexuality fails later in
190

his marriage because Celie probably does not love him as much as she
loves Shug. Walker clearly shows that there are various reasons why a
stable marriage prevails, and when relationships strife, it is necessary for
individuals to seek for happiness either through reconciliation or
separation. Often, Walkers oppressed women characters seek for their
consolation from their sisters. Indeed, Celies marriage with Mr. Albert is
unstable. She seeks for love in Shug who makes her happy as opposed to
her husband.
Also, Tashi is unhappy for undergoing circumcision and losing her
sister, Dura, during circumcision. She lives in a harsh African environment.
After meeting Olivia, she develops an intimate relationship and this
bonding makes her happy. Olivias mother, Corrine, does not initially
approve of this relationship, because Tashi and Olivia are two different
women with varying cultures. Thus, ambivalence is profound in the The
Color Purple. For example, Nettie informs her sister, Celie, that after
Corrines death, Olivia developed an intimate relationship with Tashi:
Right after her mothers death, Olivia got her friend; she and Tashi tend
to each other is my guess (161). The timing of Olivias relationship with
Tashi is questionable. Olivia does not give herself enough time to mourn
her mother but soon after her death she develops an affair with Tashi. Her
action shows readers that generational gab or change is evident in this
context, and Corrines death ushers in a new kind of perception towards
191

life. However, the reader might question whether it is morally right when
Walkers characters celebrate upon Corrines death the same way they
celebrate Rayes death in Possessing. Therefore, Walkers celebration for
the death of a conservatist woman such as Corrine, who does not allow
her daughter to make choices concerning her life, is an intentional
ambivalence and functions as a feminist rhetoric technique to encourage
for female independence.
c) Motherhood
When Celie breaks away from the domineering and abusive
husband, Walker indicates that it is necessary for the oppressed minority
women to break away from the role of motherhood and heterosexual
romance, which is much encouraged especially in the orthodox
institutions. Furthermore, the focus on the clitoris, which Celie calls little
button, shows how people who do not practice female circumcision
possess the secret of joy while those who do are denied their sexual virility
and power by their males. Juteau Lee argues:
In Western societies since the 19th Century, the role of the
sacred has been replaced by . . . the biological cultural
which invokes mans nature in its definition of the social order
that justifying socio-cultural inequalities, and that it is the
category of women which is destined to play a biological role
complementary to men, the bearer of culture. (83)
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In the same vain, Moreau Bisseret in eugenic discourse and social

Darwinism discourse remarks that the category of women acquires other
discriminatory traits of ethnicity and class and that this minority group is
constantly manipulated as part of males political projects (82). How do
Walker and her novels break away from these oppressive ideologies?
Walker suggests that motherhood is not only an important human
relationship, especially in orthodox societies; it is also a political gimmick
encouraged by the law, education and religions. Similarly, Rich recognizes
that there are societal institutions which many societies use to ensure that
every girl is socialized towards heterosexual romance and childbearing
which are perhaps the most intense of all socialization practices (79).
Motherhood, which Walker discourages, has been an enforced identity
on women. Many people have considered circumcision, anti-lesbian and
anti-abortion advocacy movements as organizations controlling women,
and therefore are instrumental in violating human rights.
Walkers position on motherhood as exemplified in the character of
Celie is flawed. Mr. Albert and Celies sexual life is lacking because Celie is
in love with Shug and therefore uncomfortable with her husband, Mr.
Albert.
d) Sexuality
Celies intention to break away from motherhood is evidenced in
her description of her flawed sexual life with Mr. Albert as such: Nobody
193

dance like Albert when he was young. Sometime us did the moochie for a
hour. After that, nothing to do but go somewhere and lay down. . . .
Albert was funny. He kept me laughing . . . he aint funny no more . . . he
never laugh (The Color Purple 104). Although Mr. ______ (Albert) is an
African-American male who is not a practitioner of circumcision, he
represents the insensitive African males who encourage circumcision of
their women in order to dominate them. Mr. Alberts partial impotence or
inactiveness is similar to African males insensitivity to sexuality. In effect
when Celie reveals to Shug about her husbands impotence, she seems to
show that he no longer has the powers to control her.
Walker has employed similar strategies of overcoming patriarchy in
her early novels. For example, in The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Mem,
the wife to Brown Copeland, cannot bear her husbands beatings
anymore, and a part from abusing him in public that he is impotent, she
takes up a gun and threatens shooting his reproductive organs (128).
Walkers use of such a reductionism strategy in which he ensures
demeaning mens powers by rendering them useless is similar to many
African feminist writers. For example, in Their Eyes Were Watching God,
Zora Neale Hurstons protagonist, Janie Crawford, who cannot stand her
second husband, Joe Starks mistreatments, retaliates by abusing him
before other men that he is an old man who has lost his sexual virility (79).
Therefore, Janie abuses Starks before his male friends and in the process
194

strips him off his illusionary powers that majority men admire to possess. In
Ann Petrys The Street when an African-American man rapes Lutie
Johnson, she responds with violence fueled by rage and frustration. She
murders her rapist, Mr. Jones, for sexually molesting her. Thus, reductionism
discourse is a political tool female writers often use to fight female
oppression.
Seidel Gill has carried similar studies on the strategies of taming
patriarchy and mens mechanisms of domination. According to Gill in his
book, The Nature of the Right, women in most societies are always seen
by their males as less powerful and they often comprise minority groups
that are often oppressed when they are poor and workless, and when
they belong to a particular minority culture, they are also oppressed as
women (10). Indeed, Walker employs a left wing discourse ideology or
rather a minority discourse similar to Gill to articulate specific oppressions
of sex, race, and their intermeshing, including the circumcision of females.
Walker, first of all, opposes this rite of passage to adulthood by not only
showing that it is unhealthy, but by revealing to her readers the relevance
of the phallus itself and the need to avoid cutting it.
It is worth noting that such reductionism ideologies are ambivalence
in the sense that in trying to solve female subjugation the female arbiters
end up using the same oppressive techniques to effect change.

195

e) Gender Roles
Alice Walkers notion of treating woman and men is different or
rather ambivalent from Gill Seidel as discussed early. While Seidel treats
woman as the non-animated and man as the animated, Walker treats
woman as the animated and man as the non-animated (28). Thus, she
resists some socio-enunciative characteristics of texts concerning sexes or
gender roles. Furthermore, within her linguistic framework, defining
operations are opposite of Seidels. Walkers linguistic framework
operations include the ratification of the notion of man versus
humanization of the notion of woman, the placing of the notion of
woman in an independent relationship with regard to the notion of man
and / or woman (lesbianism). Walker, instead of excluding women from
excising power, she excludes men from excising any power that will seem
to subjugate the women. Such exclusion is evidenced in The Color Purple
where Mr. Albert is treated as a voiceless character and his side of the
story about his problematic relationship with Celie is understood through
Celie herself when she discusses with Shug about it. Walker does not
engage herself in telling the reader anything positive about Mr. Albert,
because he is not ready to accept change. Sacks H. argues, The various
hesitations, appositional utterances, and prefatory expressions that have
been characterized as dispreference markers are indicative not of
dispreference, but of reluctance (697). The confusion of reluctance and
196

preference comes about because of the ordinary language meaning of

preference. That which one is reluctant to do, such as Walkers not
describing Mr. Albert positively and not discussing the importance of
circumcision, is that which one prefers not to do.
f) Christianity and Buddhism
A discussion of Walkers belief in the personal dimension of
Buddhism, which she contrasts with Christianity, is in itself a clear
recognition of the importance literature plays in registering particular
theological insights and, in so doing, breaks the whole universe into small
discrete units. According to Christian doctrines, it is taboo to speak against
God or to blasphemy. Walker is a Buddhist and she believes in Reason
and meditation and not Christianity. Thus, her characters attitudes
towards religion are themselves ambivalent to readers who do not believe
in Buddhism. For instance, Walkers reflection that Celie makes love with
God might be ambivalent to Africans who are predominantly Christians.
Celie informs Harpo, another male character and friend to Celie that the
link between her soul and her lovers is smoke and further narrates, Do I
look like a fool? I ast. I smoke when I want to make love. Lately I feel like
me and God make love just fine anyway. Whether I smoke reefer or not
(The Color 187). Furthermore, Celie is very skeptical to God especially in
her letters to God and her sister, Nettie. Walkers discussion on religious
differences in society in these texts is similar to the 15th Century literature
197

that tried to define the moral nature of art. Eli Siegel, the founder of
aesthetic realism writes:
Everyone has a secret life hes ashamed of . . . this war,
between narrowness and width, care for self and justice to
the world, is at the heart of these early morality plays, and
also takes many deep, humorous, surprising forms in their
dialogue, plot, and texture. . . . There are some things people
have found it hard to be honest about: . . . What is God, if he
is at all? (qtd. in Richards and Balchin 24)
On a similar note, Alice Walker addresses the many wars in the
human self, including the understanding of God, morality, equality and
homosexuality. Walker agrees with Siegels principles of aesthetic realism,
which states:
The deepest desire of every person is to like the world on an
honest or accurate basis. The greatest danger for a person is
to have contempt for the world and what is in it. . . .
Contempt can be defined as the lessening of what is different
from oneself as a means of self-increase as one sees it, and all
beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of
opposites is what we are going after in ourselves. (qtd. in Ann
Richards 25)

198

Walkers exploration of Buddhist religious beliefs in her novel is actually one

way of creating awareness of the diverse religious doctrines that define
humankind and showing the need for all people to respect various
religions in the world. Walker argues that disrespect and contempt are
reasons why warring pacts in the world exist, including wars between
countries such Iraq and America, between individuals in the family level
such as men and women. Christopher Balchin in his Imagination: What
Kind Is Good? argues:
A good imagination, I learned, is based on the desire to
respect the world and people as much as possible. As a high
school social studies teacher, I've seen that contempt versus
respect is behind the difference between an imagination like
that of Nazi Heinrich Himmler, who pictured various non-Aryan
peoples as subhuman, and the imagination of Nelson
Mandela, who, in spite of the brutal discrimination and
imprisonment he endured, had a vision of a society in which
blacks, whites, Asiansall peoplewould live together as
equals. (Aesthetic Realism 2)
As by the early suggestion of Eli Siegel the great barbarity of human
beings is not to want to see the feelings of people other than oneself. This
lack of desire to see others as having feelings as real as one's own
because they are Buddhists, Muslims, or Christians is fundamental
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contempt. In order for Walker to make her readers see sense in the

relevance of respecting other peoples religions, she starts by attacking

doctrines that she thinks have sustained disrespect to others. She praises
her own Buddhist ideologies while at the same time criticizing Christians
position on the doctrine of blasphemy. One of her characters alleges to
make love with God. Therefore, when Walker intentionally attacks
Christianity in favor of her Buddhist religion, she fails to respect Christians.
However, it should be understood that Walkers attack is intentional, and is
meant to address how the Western society has viewed people with other
religions especially Islam and Buddhism, and how such perceptions have
lead to animosities. Making a similar note about the intention of a writer in
advancing a point of view, Kearns writes:
Narrative rhetoric (within a text) and the reader's experience
of that rhetoric (narrativity) both exemplify and depend on
the

Principles

of

Relevance.

Narrative

is

type

of

communication; as such, it is "a more or less controlled

modification by the communicator of the audience's mental
landscape or 'cognitive environment' as we call itachieved
in an intentional and overt way. (74)
Therefore, when Walker engages in an intentional attack on the
dominant orthodox Western society, she makes her work ambivalent.
Nonetheless, readers of Walkers novels should recognize that Walkers
200

ambivalence is twofold. An understanding of both sides is crucial in

deciphering the meanings of her expressions.
5.7: Unconscious Ambivalence
To this end, this chapter has been examining how Walker
consciously or intentionally employs ambivalence as a semantic strategy
to counter social and religious issues including circumcision, sexuality
orthodoxy, Buddhism, and patriarchy. Similarly, her characters expressions
have shown that Walker engages in ambivalence to persuade her
readers so that they can appreciate her opinions. The remaining part of
the chapter will focus on another polarity of ambivalence, which the
present study considers unconscious or unintentional. The readers of
Walkers works will understand better how these two ambivalences
function if they understand how in the traditional African context an issue
such as female circumcision was perceived by Africans.
a) Female Circumcision and Scarification: An African Perspective
Circumcision played an important role of educating people. In most
African communities there were individuals specially trained to initiate
both women and men. The people expressed their loyalty and belonging
to their communities by participating in this circumcision ritual. However,
there were also other rituals that the people carried out to show their love
to their community including face scarification, oath taking, and offering
of sacrifices, which transmitted various messages to the society about
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these

communities

beliefs.

Particularly,

circumcision

and

face

scarification were symbolic of social class to which each member of the

community belonged to, and they were embodiments of societal
knowledge. Circumcision in itself was an important scar that distinguished
age groups. Since the initiates expressed their readiness to be part of their
communities and to defend it, they deserved a lot of respect from the
community. Therefore, many people accepted to be circumcised so they
could be respected. Otherwise, those who forfeited this rite they could be
treated as outcasts by the other initiates. Women circumcision and
scarification are what Alice Walker treats as warrior marks, which she
considers forms of oppression towards women.
Walker's aesthetic value and that of her community is different from
the African people she describes. Face scarification and, specifically,
circumcision are rituals that are hardly practiced by African-Americans.
Her studies on African culture make her novel both fictional and
ethnographical. The artists freedom to present ideas through fiction
allows her to defraud the rules of ethnography, especially that which
requires ethnographic researchers and artists concerned with cultural
studies to present their findings accurately. Walker discredits African
customs that she feels are oppressive to women, especially clitoridectomy
which is not only a painful, unhealthy experience, but also dangerous. By
defrauding the rules of ethnography, Walker expresses her prejudice
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towards some African beliefs, which she considers dehumanizing. Lena

Ampadu validates Walkers breaking of rules governing ethnographic
studies when she writes that gossip is correctly validated as a legitimate
instrument of social relations and a medium by which women help and
console one another in a patriarchal setting where they are at best
pushed to the margin. In this respect, Ampadu remarks:
Gossip and Orature graduate to contemporary literary forms
in which women writers from South Africa and Zimbabwe
subsume themes that are of interest and relevance to female
lives and which they use to advance female social progress.
Because the women's quest towards modernism comes into
conflict

with

traditional

expectations

and

practices,

education and enlightened female bonding are embraced

as tools for personal, socio-economic and political survival.
(A History of Africana Women's Literature 23)
Nonetheless, we as readers are confronted with one troubling
question if African readers will appreciate Walkers works, which demeans
what

they

sometimes

hold

sacred,

especially

scarification

and

circumcision. For instance, in the Maasai community in Kenya, the cutting

of the face had its symbolic meaning. In particular, depending on the
kind of marks one had on the face, they conveyed some specific
message. The marks for the married men and women, widows and
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widowers, the youths who were ready for initiation and marriage were all
different. These marks informed people of whom they related or dated
with, and, therefore, the marks helped guard against immorality among
the people. Marks in this Maasai society were a form of sign language,
which helped people to appreciate their culture, especially in an era
when formal education did not exist. Equally, circumcision played a vital
role in the traditional society although it has been detrimental to majority
contemporary African women lives. Even in the contemporary society,
many initiates bleed to death and others die from sexually transmitted
diseases which they contact after unhealthy procedures. For these
reasons and many others, such as the failure for sexual satisfaction
because as Alice Walker puts it they are denied their secret of joy, African
women are subjected to oppressive situations, which they can avoid if
they disregard circumcision. It is, therefore, the obligation of the writer to
educate the public about the need to safe lives by simply taking
responsibility of what they do for the sake of maintaining customs.
How does the outsider artist present the realities of a people who
she or he does not share much experience with? How do different society
members perceive scarification and circumcision? In many African
communities scarification may it be on males or females, had important
values that people attached to them. Walker, as identified early, chooses
not to discuss some of the relevance of these marks and instead examines
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their negative impacts on the people who practiced them.

Walkers Possessing the Secret of Joy reveals some troubling views
about African values, discourages female circumcision, and advocates
for the need for African women to gain their self-consciousness. Walker
allows her characters such as Adam, Olivia, and Tashi to strongly
disapprove of these oppressive rites and as much as she is aware of the
significance many Africans attach to the customs she does not hesitate to
ridicule them. Whereas she has the freedom as a writer to choose what to
write about, her presentation of issues such as scarification and female
circumcision without discussing other relevant reasons why Africans
practiced them makes her work ambivalent. But this ambivalence is what
this study considers conscious or unintentional and, therefore, central to
this study as a significant semantic rhetoric.
b) Change of Gender Roles to Counter Oppression
Instead of using Tashi or a female character to oppose oppression
towards females, Walker chooses to resist it through a male character,
Adam. He was born and raised in America and had never experienced
female circumcision until he visited Africa as a missionary. Having been
brought up in America where female circumcision is not practiced, he is
conscious that uncircumcised females sexuality is unmatched with that of
the circumcised ones. Indeed, Walker depicts Adams desire to love Tashi
in her flesh condition:
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She was like a fleshy, succulent fruit; and when I was not with
her I dreamed of the time I would next lie on my belly
between her legs, my cheeks caressed by the gentle rhythms
of her thighs. My tongue bringing us no babies, and to both of
us delight. This way of loving, among her people, greatest
taboo of all. (22)
Definitely, Adam defies the Olinka peoples culture, because he
realizes that female freedom is crucial. However, Walker fails to recognize
that all African customs were intended to promote specific moral values.
For example, she is not interested in presenting before readers the reasons
why Africans circumcised females. Without these reasons, readers will
think Africans are barbaric. The role Walkers character, Adam, plays in
discrediting the idea of love making in the corn fields is similar to what
happened during the scramble and partition of Africa. For example, the
imperialists discredited the role of witchcraft and the power of the African
spear. Whites, who had guns, proved what Africans thought were
effective tools for their defense harmless. Ridder Huggards King Solomons
Mines was so instrumental in demeaning African customs, especially when
Gagool, the old woman, who is a respected society witch, is treated as
powerless before the imperialists because they do not recognize her
divinations and they eventually successfully penetrate the mines without
being harmed by the spirits (109). Furthermore, when Adam imagines of
206

making love to Tashi in her own flesh, his imaginations are not different
from Captain Georges who arrives in Zulu land in South Africa, and
sexually oppresses her African girlfriend whom he adores because of her
virginity and by virtue of her being a defenseless African woman. Both
Walkers Adam and Huggards Captain George are adventurers who
desire to explore the beauty of the African Continents virgin lands.
Although it goes without saying that Walkers aim in writing this novel was
to re-establish distorted African perspectives, especially by Western literary
writers who often expressed demeaned African values in their works, her
main characters remarks are sometimes simply evident of their biasness
towards Africa. As the creator of her characters she shares the blame of
expressing prejudiced opinions about Africans especially to an outsider
who is unfamiliar with African culture. In this respect, some of Walkers
perceptions, as well as the views of her characters are actually
unconsciously ambivalent.
c) Cultural Disparity
Walkers opposition to female circumcision appeals to most
feminists and other human rights organizations. However, there are
practitioners of the custom who will disagree with her presentation of a
thematic issue such as love. For instance, in most African societies, people
consider sex a sacred and private practice. Achebe in Things Fall Apart
writes that the youths, as well as adults could not make love in the yam
207

fields because Umofians believe the earth goddess will be annoyed and
there could be no good crop production, which the whole community
relies on. Such beliefs help maintain morals in society by discouraging
Umofians from committing fornication and adultery. Walker challenges
such a belief when her characters, Adam and Tashi, make love in the
cornfields, and there isnt any effect on crop production. Adams
openness about sex, desire to love Tashi in her flesh condition, or rather his
public love making in the field with Tashi are taboo to Africans. Like the
missionaries and the colonialists, Walkers mouthpiece, Adam, acts in
defiance of the Olinka customs.
Furthermore, Adams criticism and disregard of Olinka customs is
similar to the adventurous nature of the Victorian society adventurers who
tried to exercise their manhood by making love to the virgin African
women. An example is Captain George in Ridder Haggards Kings
Solomons Mines, who sexually exploits a Zulu woman once in South Africa
(234). Nonetheless, expression of love in public, may it be in the form of
kisses, which is common in the Western world, is often scorned in most
African communities. Those people who deviate from these Standards of
norms are often considered having loose morals and at worst treated as
prostitutes. Notwithstanding the fact that both women and men are
likely to criticize the taboo breakers, one wonders whether Walker is the
right mouthpiece for African women. Mohanty has also expressed doubt
208

on the role Western Women play in liberating women in the third world. He
comments:
While feminist writing in the U.S. is still marginalized (except
perhaps from the women of color addressing white women),
western feminist writing on women in the third world must be
considered in the context of the global hegemony of western
scholarshipi.e. the production, publication, distribution and
consumption of information and ideas. Marginal or not, . . .
this writing has political effects and implications beyond the
immediate feminist or disciplinary audience. One such
significant effect of the dominant representation of western
feminism is its conflation with imperialism in the eyes of
particular third-world women. (qtd. in Williams 199)
Hence, there is urgent need to examine the political implications of some
of Walkers linguistic analytic strategies. Even after society undergoing
changes and people becoming freer in their sexual life, it is often
problematic to most Africans to adapt to the new ways of sexuality. The
more flexible people are especially in adapting new styles of life, the more
they get abused on the streets for behaving differently. Majority men and
a few women do not respect many of the feminists in African societies.
This is because when these independent women fail to succumb to male
domination they end up breaking their families either through divorce or
209

separation. As a result they become the talk of the society because

many people think they are rude and disrespectful to their husbands.
Often, strict adherents to African customs call these free women
prostitutes, and consider them bad role models for the children.
Walkers understanding of sexuality is quite ambivalent to African
perception, and whereas Possessing the Secret of Joy may appeal to
most African female and some males especially because it discourages
female circumcision, which has recently claimed lives and subjected
other females to unhealthy conditions, it might not be highly appreciated
in Africa because of its outright openness. As Bove claims:
In the novel, . . . we always read in and through the models of
coherence. This means that deconstructions of traditional
representational forms by modern novels is possible only
within the generally shared field of a writers and a readers
competence. (271)
This means that the moment a writer undermines cultural conventions of a
particular social group; he or she must expect challenges from her critics.
For example, African peoples awareness on sexuality is mostly secretive
and openness in discussing about some issues related to sexuality, as
Walkers Adam and Olivia do, is considered immoral. The Color Purple and
Possessing, therefore, might lack publicity in most African nations. If Walker
encourages Adams sense of sexuality, to many Africans, she will equally
210

be disrespectful and non-appreciative to African values. Whereas she

condemns Western exploitation of Africa through her depiction of how
missionaries opened avenues for African exploitation, Adams message of
a new form of sexuality that he encourages Africans to accept is, in a
way, another form of African exploitation. Readers may consider Adam a
sexual predator, who longs to exploit Tashi in her own freshness. In this
same way, the imperialist not only exploited African women but also their
natural resources. Adams marrying of Tashi and relocating her to
America, where she will be Americanized by adapting new love, food,
climate, and culture is in itself a new form of exploitation in the pretext of
fighting for female independence. Elders in the traditional African society
discouraged lovemaking among the youths before marriage.
In the African traditional society, many people considered
procreation sacred. Children and wives often determined the powers and
leadership capabilities of the father as the head of the family. They also
contributed to the status quo of the father because the more children
and wives someone had the more respect he deserved from the
community. Also, more sons meant more protection of family and family
properties. Thus, the procreation of baby sons was more valued than
baby girls (Chains 56). This kind of peoples preference of sons to girls has
continued into the contemporary society. This tendency of some men
treating male children as more valuable than girls creates gender
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inequality and often humiliates the woman or girl who feels that she is
inhuman, inferior, and unwanted. Indeed, females and, in some cases,
some males, who fail to reproduce, are often considered outcasts by
other people. So, the unlucky couples become subjected to societal
abuses and try to do whatever they can including offering sacrifices to
appease the spirits because it is always thought that for everything that
happens in society, some form of supernatural powers are in control. For
example, Frank Catherine argues that Amakas One Is Enough opens the
story with Amaka groveling in submission before an iron-hearted motherin-law and begging not to be thrown away because of her barrenness
and failure to produce a son for Obiora, after six years of marriage. She
further observes, In traditional society for a woman to lack reproductive
power is to lack all power, indeed to be deprived of her very identity and
raison detre in life (20).
Children are so valued in an African family to an extent that in
cases where the couples fail to give birth, the clan has an option of letting
other men help in procreation, but not vice versa. Wife sharing in an era
of deadly diseases has claimed the lives of many people in African
societies. Furthermore, wife inheritance has led to family disintegration
and domestic violence. These are some of the reasons Walker feels that in
a patriarchal society, the woman is the one who suffers the most and her
suffering is due to her failure to have her own independence. Walker
212

postulates women freedom will be realized only when women recognize

they have full control over their lives, and thus disregard customs, which
subjugate them. Often, feminist positions on motherhood, sexuality, and
circumcision have lead to family instabilities. Walkers thematic concerns
often explore issues that are ambivalent when they are viewed from an
African point of view.
d) Color as a Symbol of Optimism
Color plays an essential role in Walkers novels although it is often
ambivalent. For example, the effects of colonialism are felt through
Walkers depiction of societal inequality as exemplified in different colors
of the people. The Olinkan flag in Possessing the Secret of Joy has varying
colors that define the history of the Olinkans and thus disputes race as a
central tenet of categorizing people. Walker feels that black and white
have been colors that define humankind relations albeit in a racist way
and she instead suggests all people should be seen as yellow. If Walker
could have written her work in the 19th Century during the Harlem
renaissance period, when writers such as Langston Hughes and Zora
Neale Hurston tried to reestablish black identity by celebrating black
culture; their dance forms, music, and dressing, i.e. the praise of the
beauty inherent in black people and anything black with the goal of
negating Western writers prejudices towards black people, she could
have been equally ambivalent in her works. However, since her novels are
213

written in the 20th Century, this ambivalence is not applicable. Thus,

Walkers suggestion that all people are yellow and, therefore, the same
and equal implicates that the 20th Century literature tends to focus on
values of equality among humankind without much attention to race.
Also, Walker employs the discourse of color to express optimism
about the subjugated people in Olinka. The young woman in Possessing
the Secret of Joy interprets the significance of the colors red, yellow, and
blue in the dock as such:
Red_ for the blood of the people spilled in resistance to white
supremacist regime. Yellowfor the gold and minerals in
which our land is still rich, even though the whites have
carted a large amount of it away. Bluefor the sea
surrounding us and for the sky, symbols of our peoples faith in
the forces of the unseen and their optimism for the future. (90)
It is quite ambivalent that walker discourages people seeing
themselves as white and black yet she encourages Africans to search for
their identity and culture, which the white supremacist distorted during
slavery and colonialism. Tashi confesses about herself discovery thus when
she says, I have the uncanny feeling that just at the end of my life, I am
beginning to re-inhabit completely the body I long ago left (90). Tashi
greatly appreciates herself being black, but given that she has assimilated
some of the Whitemans education and social values in her missionary
214

schools, which are in stern conflict with her own values, she is a victim of
two warring souls. These souls contributes to her ambivalence as a
character who is a victim of color line, which Walker seems to explore and
which W.E.B Du Bois aptly describes as two warring ideals in one dark
body (3).
e) Orientalism
Alice Walkers novel in the context of an overwhelming silence
about the experiences of women in many countries in the third world, as
well as her desire to forge international links between womens political
struggles, is absolutely essential. The researcher does not question in this
study the descriptive and informative value of Walkers feminist writings on
women in the third world. However, it is both the explanatory potential of
particular analytic strategies employed by such writing and their political
effect in the context of hegemony of Western scholarship that I
occasionally draw attention to, especially the writers creation of
characters which embody views and attitudes similar to those made by
the imperialists or Occidents in their texts.
The women Walker seems to enlighten have less power than the
writer herself. Said Edward in defining the orient women argues:
Flauberts encounter with an Egyptian courtesan produced a
widely influential model of the oriental woman. Flaubert was
a revolutionary realist writer of Madame Bovary and L
215

ducation Sentimentale who traveled to the Orient in 1849,

and was an unabashed connoisseur of prostitution. Of
particular interest to Said was Flauberts encounter with the
Egyptian almehan accomplished dancer and courtesan
Kuchuk Hanem, in her learned sensuality, delicacy, and
mindless coarseness, had no voice and no real existence
other than igniting Flauberts imagination. Kuchuk Hanem is a
conventional

image

of

the

Oriental

woman:

sensual,

obedient, silenta paradigm for the silent, irrational Orient.

(10)
Therefore, Flauberts situation of strength in relation to Kuchuk Hanem is
not an isolated instance. It fairly stands for the pattern of relative strength
between East and West, and the discourse about the Orient that it
enabled. This same discourse about the orient has transformed itself in the
literary feminist studies in which the East and West women can be
categorized as Orients and Occidents respectively. Thus, Orientalism
acquires a new social and geographical definition since it shows the
power of women of color vis--vis African women. Therefore, Walker
strongly encourages African women to be independent and these
women constitute what this study considers the new Orients. On the other
hand, Walker together with her characters, Olivia and Tashi-Evelyn, who is
the revolutionist African in America, all constitute of the new Occidents.
216

Furthermore, Walkers treatment on the issue of women oppression

as universal and her representation of African women in the fight against
oppression renders her work ambivalent. This is because in the first case
she speaks for the less powerful group of women thus presupposing a
power difference among African women in general. Walker is aware of
the relevance of female independence as symbolized through her sense
of self-ownership. She fully knows that circumcision, as an oppressive
practice, is not only political, but also ambivalent. This is ambivalent
because as much as Walker encourages African women to stop the
practice with the aim of encouraging them to realize justice and maintain
good health, it does not auger well for the African males and some
tradition-die-hard women, who even in the contemporary society are
still convinced circumcision is an essential cultural norm. Nonetheless,
categorization as a whole is even more ambivalent because Walker
attempts to discredit it, but ends up participating in the very vice she
discourages. Walkers intention in using prohibited speech in African
communities to advocate for women freedom is clearly intentionally
ambivalent. However, Mohanty disagrees with Alice Walkers treatment of
women as a homogenous group with identical interests and desires. He
argues:
One of the analytical presupposition in western feminism
discourse is the strategic location of the category women
217

vis--vis the context of analysis. . . . Often western writers

assume a homogenous notion of the oppression of women as
a group. The effect of such homogenization is that discourses
produces the image of an average third-world woman . . . in
contrast to the implicit self-representation of western women
as educated, modern, as having control over their own
bodies and sexualities, and the freedom to make their own
decisions . . . western feminists who sometimes cast third world
women in terms of ourselves undressed all construct
themselves as the normative referent in such a binary
analytic. (200)
The categorization of African women and American women in
effect encourages discrimination, which Walker tries to advocate against,
especially as evidenced in African societies where men are generally
seen as superior while women are inferior. Although Walkers intention of
liberating African women by encouraging them to avoid some norms
which are instrumental in encouraging oppression such as circumcision
and domestication, her approach leads to grouping with the African
woman as the voiceless Other, who needs help from the more articulate,
blunted, independent, and informed sisters in the Western world.

218

The distinction between Western feminist representation of women

in the third world, and Western feminist self representation is a distinction
of the same order as that made by some Marxists between the
maintenance of function of the housewife and the real productive role of
wage labor, or the characterization of by developmentalists of the Third
World as being engaged in the lesser production of raw materials in
contrast to the real productive activity of the First World. Thus, Walker
seems to draw on developmentalists theory of import substitution
strategies as envisioned in (Yu Bin 24). It is important to note that, using this
theory, social and economic development in most Third and Second
World

nations

is

framed

by

modern-day

Western

criteria

which

presupposes that economic success is gauged in terms of capitalistic

notions of what it means for a country to become developed, and that
not only are there similar stages to development for all countries but also
that there is a linear movement from one stage to another that goes from
traditional or primitive to modern or industrialized, a view which has been
denied by Eric Wolf who argues that the Western world is only one of
many visions of the world, and to view it as the pinnacle of a linear world
evolutionary chain would be inaccurate (18). Indeed, these social and
economic distinctions of nations and people are made on the basis of the
privileging of a particular group as the norm and therefore such
privileging becomes ambivalent especially in Walkers novels because
219

she wants to discourage her readers from looking at nations and people
as the Other.
Also, Walkers expectation for an African, such as Tashi, to learn her
sexuality, leave alone circumcision, from American missionary friends,
Adam and Olivia, as argued early presupposes a kind of autonomy and
the need for dependency for these three characters that is characteristic
of imperialist and supremacist ideologies. A reader may question whether
it is good or evil not to kiss or hug in public for an African. In short, from the
above position, it is no surprise for this study to suggest that Walkers
ethical discourse sometimes can be ambivalent. In fact, Walker suggests
that Africans have got to borrow a lot to learn sexuality, especially from
Adam and Olivia who seem to act as role models for Tashi. Thus, she raises
the idea of American autonomy and African dependency for social
acculturation. Such conflicting ideals are often articulated using ethical
discourse, which Walker exploits to reflect on African cultural values,
especially sexuality. If I may draw evidence from Shore again, he argues:
Presumably, such a conflict is rooted in the very conditions of
human evolution that produced in Homo sapiens creatures at
once hopelessly dependent on one another for survival and,
yet, with an equally powerful capacity for reflection and selfconsciousnessthe psychological prerequisites for the need
to experience autonomy. Though the conflict has its roots in
220

pre-cultural, species-specific characteristics, the experiencing

of the contradiction and its partial resolution are culturally
mediated. The fundamental dilemma is partially defused
through elaborate cultural discourses that render one pole of
the

contradiction

relatively

articulable

[sic]

and

thus

legitimate and the other pole relatively inarticulate and

illegitimate. (174)
The kind of sexuality represented by Adam and Olivia is ambivalent to
some readers because their interpretation and understanding of sexuality
is often dictated by norms that they have assimilated. However, many
readers will not judge the behaviors of these characters lightly, because
they will think their biasness reflects the way they perceive Africa. Without
taking into consideration of the idea of ambivalence in Walkers
examination of Orientalism and how it affects Africans, readers will
interpret Adam and Olivias traits differently.
A study of Walkers Possessing portrays how her characters
sometimes show how discrimination of people based on their civilizations
often leads to Orientalism changes. Whereas Orientalism was coined to
reflect how the Western white literary scholars perceived Other peoples of
color, Walkers novel does reveal that Orientalism encompasses Black and
White scholars, who by virtue of living in First World nations do express their
powers in their discourses over their less powerful others in Second and
221

Third Worlds. In this respect, Walkers characters express Oriental feelings.

Indeed, the massive jungle, rivers, and animals Olivia encounters are
symbolic of the natural beauty of African continent. However, having
been brought up in America, where she has developed mixed feelings
about Africa both from her formal and informal education like that
knowledge passed down to her by her father, Olivia has no clear
understanding of Africa until she actually visits the continent. At first
readers recognize that Olivias feelings about Africa are prejudiced and
they are characteristic of the Western ideologies about Africa as an
uncivilized continent. Mohanty in trying to uncover how ethnocentric
universalism is produced in certain analyses argues that it is true that for
any discourse there are authorial subjects who act as the implicit referent,
that is the yardstick by which to encode and represent the cultures of the
Others, and that it is this kind of representation that shows how power is
exercised in discourse (198). Walkers missionary characters indeed do
cross through the forests without any harm; something that is a miracle to
Olivias own thinking since she taught African jungles are dangerous,
because these forests are said to be inhabited by fierce animals and evil
spirits. Having been brought up in America, she has been indoctrinated
with prejudiced Western ideologies about the barbarism exhibited by
Africans, especially in Olinka.

222

Indeed, Olivias description of Tashi, the first African girl she meets
when they arrive in Africa, shows her distorted view of Africans. She
compares Tashi to a monkey: and at first there was only Tashis hand, a
small dark hand and arm, like that of a monkey (6). Olivia has prejudiced
feelings about Africa and the people she meets, because as AfricanAmerican character she has lived in a society where she is dogged with
double consciousness. She has feelings of both African and American and
self-identification of who she really is a problem. Olivias views are similar
to the Western imperialist Orientalism and her naivety about Africa is
probably Walkers way of depicting how people in the Western World
nurture misconceived notions about Africa as an uncivilized continent.
Walkers treatment of Orientalism is multi-dimensional because Whites, as
well as people of color in the West can be biased towards people in the
East. Thus, whereas the Orient initially was a term that provided a
dichotomy between whites or the Occident and all people of color, the
scope of the Orient widens because it encompasses some people of
color, who often consider other blacks as culturally inferior.
Furthermore, in Possessing the reader discovers through Adams
discussion about his first experience in Africa that missionaries went to
Africa with the same objective: to civilize people in a dark continent.
The villagers physique is an attestation of Western ideologies about the
African barbaric behaviors, which are basically ambivalent:
223

The villagers were smiling anxiously at us, when we arrived,

and were dressed in their colorful and scanty best . . . I
noticed small boys my own age, their knobby knees and
shoved heads. Their near nakedness. I noticed the men; . . .
the greasy amulets they wore around their necks. I noticed
the dust and the heat. The flies. I noticed the flat long breasts
of the women who worked bare-breasted . . . as they swept
and tidied up the village as if in expectation of inspectation
[sic]. I was too young to be embarrassed by their partial
nudity. And so I stared, mouth open, until Mama Nettie poked
me firmly in the back with her parasol. (11)
Story telling enables Walker to present her characters views to the
readers in a very relaxed manner. Particularly, Adams stories about the
bizarre

physical

appearances

of Africans

do show his

shocking

experience in Africa. The obvious nudity of the villagers Adam and others
encounter after arriving in Olinka village may be shocking to people with
diverse cultural beliefs. Reader responses to some of the African peoples
behaviors will vary because different people have different cultural values
which influence the way they respond to society. For instance, although
Adam finds African customs at times embarrassing, Olinkans are at ease
with their lifestyles. Indeed, the Olinka peoples norms are their cultural
energies or drives, which often times are misinterpreted by strangers thus
224

subjecting Olinkans to ridicule because of the Orients misconceptions

towards them. For example, Adam, who is an essential mouthpiece of the
author, fails to recognize the welcoming nature of the people he meets in
Africa, especially as exemplified in their smiles to strangers. Such insensitive
feeling by strangers often disturbs Olinkans. Particularly, when Mama
Nettie pokes Adam in the back to alert him of African backwardness, she
clearly shows her biasness.
The Africans Adam and Nettie encounter in Africa behave the way
they do; smiling to strangers and dressing almost half nude, because of
several reasons. From the above except it is worthy for this study to identify
the following: First, the villagers Adam describes, indeed, smile anxiously at
the missionaries and have no doubt about their intentions. Thus, Olinkans
are welcoming, and they feel privileged having visitors in their midst.
Relating with visitors in a social manner indicates African peoples sense of
communism or rather brotherhood and humankind to all people. This
socialist attitude is also evident in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart,
which Mezu aptly describes as, a historical reconstruction of a lost
civilization which, despite flaws that will eventually be the nuclei of its
destabilization, was friendly and welcoming to strangersqualities that
worked eventually to its disadvantage (The Man and His Works 17).
Second, Adams description of the boys nakedness symbolizes the
African peoples natural way of life because Olinkans are used to
225

covering only their waist given that their dressing style at the time of
missionarys arrival was defined and dictated by the availability of
resources. Third, although the mens amulets are greasy, they have a
symbolic meaning to the Olinkans, and they often define the marital
status of the men. In fact, the value Africans attach to the amulets is
similar to the significance of rings commonly used by people in the
Western nations. Fourth, this Olinka village has defined roles for genders,
including sweeping as a duty for women, albeit prejudiced and sexist,
while hurting is specifically for men. Fifth and last, some African
communities recognize flies as images of wealth and productivity. An
example is the Maasai community in Kenya that believes that flies are
indicators of fertility. Cattle waste and products such as meat and milk do
attract flies, and the availability of flies in any homestead is a sign of
wealth and hope. Villagers accept flies in such homes because villagers
accept to co-exist naturally with flies.
5.8: Summary
Generally, this chapter has demonstrated that Walkers two
polarities

of

ambivalences

including

conscious

and

unconscious

ambivalences are crucial semantic rhetoric strategies. For readers to have

a clear understanding of Walkers concerns, they need to be conversant
with Walkers treatment of ambivalence as a semantic style. This study has
shown how Walkers aesthetic and cultural drives make an imperialist
226

tradition like the Orientalist one and how narrative writings contribute to
the service of Orientalisms broadly imperialist view of the world. Further, it
has shown African views on female circumcision and domestication, and
how Walker disregards their views while indulging in ambivalence to
enhance female liberation, among other issues.

227

Chapter Six
The Discourse of Pragmatics as Walkers Rhetoric Technique
6.1: Introduction
Chapter Six examines how color, revolution, and negation
determine pragmatic techniques especially of fronting, code-switching,
and negation strategies of oppressive values, as well as if at all Walkers
strategy of exploring social issues does, indeed, help in achieving her
objective, especially of enhancing social change. This chapter focuses on
Alice Walkers In Search of Our Mothers Gardens and Now Is the Time To
Open Your Heart. The researcher has chosen these two novels because
they demonstrate Walkers exceptional ability in using language to
convey her views on race and gender.
Essentially, this study considers Norman Faircloughs view of
pragmatics as a branch of linguistics that deals with how language
involves performance, which is often exemplified through speech acts,
including how language enables speakers and writers to make promises,
ask questions, assert opinions, implicate meanings, and refer to people
and things (Language and Power 7). Therefore, in most cases speech
expressions indirectly relate to what is conveyed in social contexts.
Edward Finnegan equally treats pragmatics as a branch of linguistics that
is concerned with the encoding of information structure, which treats the
relationship of sentences to their discourse environment (218). Further, the
228

present study recognizes that linguistic research studies on pragmatics

have entailed an examination of short discrete variants that speakers
employ in evaluating social issues. However, this study focuses on the
strategies Walker employs in writing her novels to meet her objectives,
including both the use of short and longer expressions. Evidently, it is true
that other writers may use varying techniques in different social contexts,
but the creativity of both writers and speakers in interpreting texts makes a
difference between speech act performers. In short, this study does not
attempt to outline how different Walkers discourse is from any one
particular writer, but it investigates how social issues impact pragmatic
techniques in Walkers selected novels.
6.2: Methodology
Since the aforementioned factors are central to this research,
each of the above issues of color, revolution, and negation strategies will
be separately examined in the selected novels above. The present studys
focus on these issues and the kind of language Walker and her characters
employ to discuss about them, suggest that the study is more descriptive
than empirical.
6.3: Theoretical Framework
Pragmatic studies have illustrated that language among speakers in
everyday speech acts can create power differentials among participants
according to gender, race, and geographic region (Fairclough 8, Labov
229

3, Jeremiah 238, and Pandey, Language and Representation 112).

Whereas such gendered or dialectal power differences may be imminent,
this investigations focus is not strictly directed to factors influencing social
differences, but rather whether issues influence Walkers language. With
this objective in mind, the writer of this work will apply Faircloughs
concepts of social action in spoken and in written discourses in an
attempt to solve the problem.
In the previous chapters, the writer attempted to illustrate how
language stratifies, dominates, and oppresses people. The current
chapter presupposes that narratives studies, just as studies in single
utterances, will provide a significant insight into the scope of pragmatics.
The possibility of such a view will enable linguists to extend their scope of
pragmatic studies from single utterances to larger variants. Therefore, this
research sometimes borrows from Norman Faircloughs social concepts,
because the researcher recognizes that language plays a crucially
important role in enforcing gender power differences in discourse that
attracts the interests of literary critics, and thus, pragmatics helps a
speaker or a writer to indirectly or directly approach issues affecting
individuals in society in order to enact change. Many writers effective
language selections are crucial in persuading readers so they can accept
the writers points of view. The study of pragmatics in literature is
important, because Fairclough has also suggested that linguists and non230

linguists need to discover how pragmatics impacts on larger discourses

rather than to focus on discrete or single expressions (9). This suggestion,
indeed, informed the current research which is intended to analyze the
relevance of linguistic knowledge is relevant in studying literary narratives.
Another equally important theorist that informed this study is Edward
Finnegan. His examination of how linguistic studies have focused
exclusively on the marking of information structure contributed greatly to
this study, which examines Walkers strategies of presenting information to
her readers (196). Especially, it informed this investigation on how color
lexemes in larger excerpts function as contrasting expressions. Also,
Robert-Alain de Beaugrande and Wolfgang U. Dresslers model of
situationality, which explains how authors attempt to negotiate or
mediate with readers, (163), will inform this research about Walkers means
of negotiation with her readers.
6.4: The Impact of Color on Pragmatics in Now Is the Time
Color in Now Is the Time To Open Your Heart enhances individual
categorization. Most societies of the world have different semantic
meanings associated with colors. This does not mean that language
lexemes in these societies are limited to color. Actually, both major and
minor languages have different lexicons in which information is encoded
and color words are just part of them. Nonetheless, empirical studies on
color have shown that semantic meanings associated with some colors
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are universal. For example, Brent Berlin and Paul Kay used a set of stimulus
materials to assess the meanings of basic color terms of ninety-eight
languages and concluded that there are universals in the semantics of
color in (probably) all languages (742). All of the major color terms, they
found, appeared to be based on one or more of the 11 focal colors, and
they discovered that there exists an evolutionary sequence for the
development of color lexicons according to which black and white
precede red, red precedes green and yellow, green and yellow precede
blue, blue precedes brown and brown precedes purple, pink, orange,
and gray (qtd. in Paul Kay and Luisa Maffi 743). A study of Walkers use of
color may reveal to her readers how color semantics determine
language. Since pragmatics examines how sentences are related to their
contextual discourse, it is difficult to talk about pragmatics without relating
it to syntactic impression of expressions and to the semantic roles of
expressions of any given language. A study of color as a lexical category
in Walkers novels that encodes information is thus a pragmatic one.
Edward Finnegan has shown that linguistic studies have focused
exclusively on the marking of information structure on noun phrases,
although verbs, prepositions, and other constituents can encode given or
new information and can also be contrastive (206). In everyday life we
perceive objects and animals in terms of colors. Buildings, trees, dresses,
people, soil, machinery, and liquids are often interpreted according to
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color specifications. Thus, every language has a way of interpreting these

colors according to what they do represent. Generally, lexical items of
color have different information structures. A study of how Asians, Africans,
Caucasians, and people of different nationalities perceive the colors
black or white, for instances, and how similar or dissimilar these colors are
in these societies is a pragmatic one. Whereas linguistic studies focus on
how specific words encode information in short expressions, this study
examines color words in larger expressions and how color lexemes in
specific excerpts function as contrastively marked expressions.
Walkers novels extensively employ many color words. Hence, it is
worth to study these lexemes and other constituents that may inform
readers about the authors style of encoding information. Some of her
novels have titles, which depict the role of color in her works, including The
Color Purple and In Search of Our Mothers Gardens (the garden of
flowers with different colors). Indeed, Walker uses color in almost every
page of her work. Particularly, in Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart
Walkers heroine and persona, Kate, narrates that her grandmother told
her that she needed to live in space for a few years, and it seems blue
color, provides her with the solace she needs to live longer in space. Later,
when Kate is married to Yolo, her husband paints her house blue like the
planet earth. Armando, the spiritual character that accompanies Kate

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and other women folk to the river, defines and explains his understanding
of the blue color as it relates to someones life:
The truth is that at a certain point in ones spiritual
development living in a blue house is imperative, whether
grandmother suggest it or not. It is a color that suggests that
the infinite and the soul wants to live there because it is the
most free place to live. There are in fact three colors that the
evolving soul encounters and must eat: the color of the earth,
literary dirt, which includes all the browns and tans and
yellows; the color of menstrual blood, which includes the reds,
oranges, and maroons; the color of water and space and
eternity, which is blue. You will see when you travel, said
Armando, that in every community someone will be living in a
blue house. (2067)
Walkers usage of blue color in this context thus shows that blue color
liberates the individual. This color does reflect the yearning of the people
to live in freedom. For example, Armando suggests that to attain spiritual
sublime an individual needs to eat the three colors that the evolving
soul encounters. The universality of the need for freedom is expressed
through generic references of people and communities through
expressions such as the truth is that at a certain point in ones spiritual
development living in a blue house is imperative and You will see when
234

you travel that in every community someone will be living in a blue house
(206). The individuals search for freedom and solace entails that these
individuals live in a blue world, which is spiritually sublime. Therefore, blue
color contrasts between the sublime and the non-sublime and indicates
the desire for people to live in a spiritually perfect or sublime world.
Color also plays a religious function in this novel. Whereas Armando
sees color differences as explained above, Rela, Charlies Black wife and
only woman in the group with a white husband in the journey, makes only
one expression in the whole novel which is very informative. She
comments, Among Buddhists, blue is the color of healing (207). Yolo, the
painter and partner to Kate, informs his wife that blue color is the one that
will remain after everything is destroyed, and after her return from the
journey, she finds Yolo has painted her house blue (19). Blue, therefore,
embodies the power that enlightens the lives of oppressed people. Blue
outlives all creations, and it represents the peoples hope in existence.
Walker creates a male spiritual character, Yolo, who encourages his
partner to persevere with her challenges. Walker portrays Yolo positively
and this changes her perception of males, who she seems to treat with
bias, especially in The Color Purple.
In this novel, there is a close relationship among color, materialism,
and poverty. In a philosophical discussion, Kate inquires what it means by
eating a color. Armando responds that, there is a joy that you feel and a
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rekindling of the spirit. Someones big house is a big cake and your soul,
seeing it takes a big delicious bite . . . . Many people cannot eat the color
blue and they havent digested their reds and yellows (207). Armando
suggests that it is difficult for people to forget what color they have, and
that understanding ourselves in terms of color is problematic. People try to
avoid color prejudice, but feelings of self persist in our social lives.
According to Armando, trying to accommodate people of all color is
undigesable and, therefore, a social dilemma. Indeed, when the story
opens, readers realize that Kate is disillusioned with her dilapidated home,
which she often refers to as her altar room, because initially she had
excitedly treated it as a symbol of hope. She writes:
And though she had loved her home, her berry-colored
house with starry blue trim, which Yolo later paints blue, she
thought of selling it. It did not seem important even though for
years shed jumped for joy each time she managed to pay
the mortgage. Now she dreaded thinking about its needs.
(13)
Shortly after, Kate, in her dream, listens to her friends, who advise her to
find a real river, probably in the Colorado, where she will undergo spiritual
change which may help her forget about her dry river or rather her
disillusioned life. Her visit to this river, together with other women, who are

236

accompanied by some male diviners, forms the framework of the entire

story in the novel.
Another color lexicon dominant in this novel is purple. One year
during the adventure into the unknown river, Kate returns and meets her
partner, Yolo, and both arrange to wed. While sweeping her altar room,
she realizes that everything is just as she had left it. The persona describes
that Buddhas picture is still under the purple cloth. Also, Aunty Pearlua
narrates a story about a time when women ruled, especially in Hawaii
where they had Queen Liliuokalani. Pearlua feels that she carries on the
Queens legacy and explains the possibility of the overthrow and
enslavement of woman, and the consequent ruin of her children. She
promises to live an independent life, which Yolo recognizes, and this
independence is symbolized through purple color. Furthermore, the
persona writes that aunty cleared her throat and Yolo noticed the dark
purple shade of her nail polish and the slight stubble visible on her chin
(122). However, the aunt realizes, as we are informed earlier in the novel
that her past life is lacking since it held no hint of queenly purple or of
Hawaiis past (120). Kay and Maffi in their Appearance and the
Emergence and Evolution of Basic Color Lexicons emphasize the
importance of color in speech participants expressions. They write:

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There are three categories of colors and that purple (and

orange) is the binary color of the vision of literature, whereas
the other two categories include the six primary colors of the
opponent theory (black, white, red, yellow, green blue) and
fuzzy unions of the above categorygreen or blue, red or
yellow, black or green. (744)
Purple color expresses beauty and serenity. For example, in the novel,
readers are informed that Lalikas grandmother shaved her head purple
to hide old age (166). Thus, purple functions as a rejuvenating agent of
the otherwise aging, as well as the oppressed human being. It, therefore,
provides a sense of hope.
Walker employs specific colors In Search of Our Mothers Gardens
when she wants to discuss positive issues that show happiness. For
instance, when the narrator starts the journey, she carried mosquito
repellant, hiking duffel, and a walking stick that is described as carved
from a twig, lovely in its lightness and the color of dried hemp (14).
Walkers story is about a heroine, who embarks on a journey in search of a
flower, which she thinks will calm her frustrations. The discovery of herself is
evidenced in her finding a connection of her life to flowers. She finds a
yellow flower by the river, chews it, and it calms her down. She calls this
flower her friend and continues to look for similar yellow flowers (desert
thistleweed) along the banks of the river (In search 37).
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Whereas purple and yellow are colors symbolic of optimism, gray

represents hopelessness or sadness. The value of gray is evidenced in
Cheryls description. Cheryl says:
Gray had such terrible associations. . . . It was the color of
blandness, dullness. Lifelessness. But then I began to notice
stones and water, and gray skies, not to complain about but
to appreciate. If youve ever lived through a drought you
appreciate gray skies. Rain. Rain is gray. (37)
Also, Yolo associates gray with dullness of life. For example, he
remarks, How can you escape when every commercial you see advises
you to hate the gray, hide it away (200). Consequently, color pragmatics
becomes a determinant factor, especially when Walker and her
characters express themselves. Probably, the cultural perception of the
characters towards life, which is often associated with colors, determines
the kind of expressions Walker uses in the novel, In Search of Our Mothers
Gardens.
6.5: The Effect of Negation on Pragmatics
Walkers gender power difference is measured exclusively via
absence of male voices or a predominance of female voice. The idea of
women association or rather sisterhood, which excludes men, is one way
of rejecting women oppression in this novel. The persona writes:

239

Her lover, Yolo, had watched her leave. A compact,

muscular woman . . . a woman no longer sure there was a
path through life or how indeed to follow one if there was. Her
journey now was to be with women. Only women. Because of
women. And partly because she had seemed to feel, and to
wonder aloud, about the possibility that only women, these
days, dreamed of rivers, and were alarmed that they were
dry. (16)
The thought of her unromantic relationship with Yolo, who seems to
nurture the idea of female subjugation, makes her appreciate women
that she considers understanding. Walkers appreciation of women as
opposed to men demonstrates her rejection of male female relationship,
which according to her subjects many women to subjugation. In The
Color Purple Mr. Albert is a voice less character, and Walkers treatment of
African-American males as helpless is evidenced in her earlier novel such
as The Third Life of Grange Copeland through Brown Copeland, an
abusive husband and irresponsible father. However, in her latest works,
Walker has shaped the image of men. For instance, in Now Is the Time To
Open Your Heart Armando is a Mexican medicine man, who treats
women fairly. In Letters of love and Hope, Walker also expresses the voices
of Cuban men, who are jailed in America because they attempted to
liberate their oppressed people in America. What is surprising is that
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Walker, in many of her narratives, appears to use men characters who are
non African-Americans to shape mens image.
Nonetheless,

women

objectification

is

evidenced

in

Kates

admonition of her laboring in search of mens love. The persona

describes Kates dream: And to think how she had lain under him, night
after night dreaming of getting away . . . her wings grown back . . . that
welcomed space, nothingness, in place of the domesticated, bourgeois
life of a way that no longer fit (28). Thus, Walker suggests that
endrocentricism or male ruling should be countered with an equal force
imminent in gynecocracy, women ruling. Kate becomes Walkers Queen
figure, who is ready to resist male subjugation. She decides to leave and
to forgo her husbands properties, which she feels oppresses her because
the husband feels that she cannot leave him by virtue of his being
wealthy. Nonetheless, she aspires to find her freedom and true love. She is
ready to leave her fine house with two floors, seven rooms, and a junk of
silver utensils to search for her freedom. Among all these properties, what
Kate recognizes the most is her art. She had loved it the art more than
anything else (30). She has strong attachment to art probably because
she feels it is through art that women voices can be heard better and
eventually create a sense of female conscious that is necessary in their
liberation.

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Objectification emanates from the idea of dominance. Kates

husband is a bully, because he treats Kate unfairly. Kates story about her
husband is meant to discourage wife beating. For example, she
complains that after treating Yolo so lovely by feeding him and clothing
him, he strikes out at her. She derives sympathy from readers in her
emotional recapitulation of how submissive she has been to her husband,
who treats her unfairly. She remarks, Do you realize . . . the pink scarf . . .
that I have done all of those things, and more, with and for you. And yet,
at the moment I tell you I must have time alone to be with myself, you
strike out at me. Would you call this love? (34). Yolo apologizes to strike
back, but fails to acknowledge his mistake of raping Kate. The persona
comments, He joined a mens group (35). Thus, Walker shows how males
often nurture feelings of power ownership and the feelings that they have
a right to own and to control their wives. Particularly, Yolo, just as the other
men in the group, believes that he has a right to have sex with his wife,
and he cannot imagine that he can rape her.
Indeed, in The Color Purple, Walker shows that masculinity is
inherited in most societies and that domination of any kind should be
discouraged. Kate denounces the idea of men giving wives gifts such as
serving dishes, which are covered with red and white flowers. These dishes
are symbols of women domestication because they reflect what
husbands expect women to do. In most societies, males treat Women as
242

individuals

responsible

of

domestic

chores.

Therefore,

womens

appearances in the public spaces are often condemned by many men.

Such attitude of men towards women is often passed down from one
generation to another. Walker has examined this fatherson generational
inheritance of violence in her other work, The Third Life of Grange
Copeland, where Brown Copeland beats up his wife, Mem. Just like his
father, Grange Copeland used to beat his wife. In this novel under focus,
In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, Kate writes that her first husband had
given her for Valentines Day a serving dish as a gift, and together the son
and father recognize that this is the best gift that should be given to a
mother (27). A gift, which dehumanizes her, makes her loose her love for
the husband, who time does not seem to favor in this novel:
A lump had risen in her throat. Of sadness. Of
disappointment. Anger that she had entered the unromantic
era of life, so soon! That her child was in cahoots with her
father in giving her this awful gift, this mirror in which she saw
herself as someone whom time was passing by. (27)
Generally, Kates frustration under a patriarchal society is a
reflection of what happens to most women worldwide. Kates rejection,
which is one way of negating patriarchy, becomes a strategy of
overcoming oppression. Therefore, Walkers objective in writing this novel
is to inform readers that there is need for a universal understanding that
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women too need freedom and justice. Walkers choice of style to reject
oppression is, therefore, a pragmatic endeavor.
6.6: Revolution and its Impact on Pragmatics
Pragmatics, the way information is encoded in a text, is determined
by the readers knowledge and expectations of how an ideal world is
arranged. In speech analysis, participants may encode their information
in their discourse, focusing on various factors that enable readers to
interpret each others meanings. Edward Finnegan proposes that such
factors include salience, referentiality, contrast, topicalization, and
definiteness among others (200). A linguist can employ the same factors
to analyze how information is encoded in literary texts. For instance, a
study of the salience or prominence of subjects and objects in a literary
text, such as Walkers, may reveal how linguistic information is relevant in
the study of narratives.
On

related

topic,

Robert-Alain

de

Beaugrande

defines

situationality as general designation for the factors, which renders a text

relevant to a current or to recoverable situation of occurrence, and that
meditation between the readers and the writer is very essential if at all the
effects of any situational setting is to be exerted (163). Beaugrandes
model of situationality, which explains how authors attempt to negotiate
or mediate with readers, informs this research about the means of
negotiation between readers and writers. This study may treat meditation
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as a process in which a writer provides his or her own cultural values and
objectives into ones model of situational communicative strategy. For
example, Walkers novel, Now Is the Time, advances her own religious and
political ideas and attempts to convince her readers that her Buddhist
and socialist views are tenable. For example, Kate, who is the authors
mouthpiece, encourages the ideology of thought and non-violence as
essential in enacting change. For example, Kate, narrates the influence of
Buddhist ideologies on her life and the contradictions they create with her
early religious views, which had been imparted in her during her
childhood when she followed her parents Christian beliefs:
She developed interest in the teachings in the dharma talk by
her Buddhist teacher. She identifies a talk about a hot
revolution and a cool revolution. A hot revolution is one
fought with guns and a violent one while a cool one is one
fought with words and non-violent. This later one was
introduced by Lord Buddha. (4)
In short, Walkers goal in creating a character such as Kate, who
encourages Buddhist views, is, first of all, to illustrate to her audience that
freedom of worship is essential in any society, and secondly, that
Buddhism, her religion, and its ideology of meditation have enabled
societal transformation just as any other religions of the world. However,
her religion becomes unique, as opposed to Christianity, in the sense that
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Buddhism attempts to avoid the contradictory ways of depicting God as

white and male, as opposed to the God of color and female. According
to Walker, the way Christianity portrays God as white and male is a
categorization process meant to justify male domination. Nonetheless,
Walker does not make a judgment that her own religion is the best, but
she lets the reader to decide. Therefore, Buddhism is salient in this novel,
because it is the one that the author follows.
Likewise, Fillmore suggests, Salience affects surface formatting.
Salient objects are readily assigned to the subject or direct object slots of
English sentences to bring them into a prominent perspective (5974). In
the above citation, Kates interest in Buddhism is illustrated through
admiration of her Buddhist teacher. The sentence, She developed interest
in the teachings in the dharma talk by her Buddhist teacher, functions as
the topic of the citation. This sentence is supported by Lord Buddhas
support for people to be non-violent in creating revolution. However,
Buddhas non-violent fight against oppression is contrasted with that of
violence. Walkers strategy of ordering conventions in discourse is based
on what the writer thinks about the peoples beliefs and what these
people think is worthy noticing. This withdrawal tendency demonstrates
that non-mention is a kin to not worthy of linguistic inquiry. Similarly, a hot
revolution that leads to bloodshed is compared to a cool revolution, and

246

definitely Walker understands that readers could want to accept a

revolution that does not involve violence.
Furthermore, the ideology of thought as the guiding principle of
Buddhists is juxtaposed with Kates troubling view, especially the one she
learns when she is a child from her parents about the Church of God and
Christ. Kate writes that she is unable to believe human beings, simply by
being born, she had sinned. After meditating on what the redwood trees
that surrounded the meditating hall represent, she eventually finds that
the only place to be safe is staying under one of the trees:
Each tree created a little house, shelter, around itself. Just
right for a human or two to sit. She hadnt realized this before,
how thoughtful this was. But on her next walking meditation
she slowly, slowly, made her way to the largest redwood tree
and sat under it, becoming invisible to the dozens of people
who continued their walking meditation and slowly walked all
around her. When everybody else returned to the meditation
hall, she did not. (6)
Since meditation functions as a Buddhist tradition that replaces Christian
prayers, it is a thought-provoking strategy that creates consciousness in
the readers about the essence of equality and fairness. Thus, it becomes
one of the ways Alice Walker employs in negotiating with not only her
characters and readers, but also her God so that they can accept the
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ideology of thought and other beliefs, which could eventually enhance

change in society. Similarly, Erving Goffman stresses the way in which
noticed material is expressed in texts is often influenced by normal
ordering strategies, possibly, such as the ones Walker employs as
delineated above, and further notes that in the process of ordering,
situations are sorted into various tracks of objects or events worth
attending or disattending (164). On the other hand, Beaugrande
suggests that when an author or speech participant engages in such a
process of ordering of events, there is always some kind of situational
management or monitoring ensured. The writers speech monitoring
encourages effective negotiating between an author and a reader who
might accept what is largely considered as truth. Also, it is the obligation
of an author to explore the audiences reality and to try to convince other
readers to accept such reality. Pragmatics, therefore, plays a crucial role
in exposing what is salient to readers in both spoken and written discourse.
Female oppression is another topic that is worth discussing in
Walkers text. Beaugrandes situation monitoring strategy in discourse is
aimed at problem solving (165). In Walkers text, Kate, the narrator,
criticizes women oppression in the Middle East, where they are not
allowed to show their faces and to smile at any man, who is not a relative
without the possibility of being beaten. The persona envisages of a time
when such oppressed women will be free (46). Actually, in shorter
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pragmatic discourses, a noun phrase such as David wants to marry an

African with black eyes; her name is Cinderella is referential because it
refers to Cinderella in particular, unlike a non-referential noun phrase;
David wants to marry an African with black eyes, but he has not met any.
In the same expression, the pronoun he replaces the noun David, and it is
deleted in the second part. Therefore, the rule of pronoun deletion applies
because the person who wants is the same person who looks for a spouse.
Similarly, in longer discourses, referentiality may be examined based on
the information a writer presents before readers in the early context. In
Walkers text referentiality is a category of encoding information structure
in discourse because it helps in contrasting the West and the Middle East
women. Also, the treatment of Walkers women is generic since her
discourse often refers to a category or to a particular member of a
category. Thus, the idea of feminist universalism influences Walkers
discourse sometimes, which employs referentiality and generic categories
of encoding discourse.
Furthermore, fronting is evidenced in The Color Purple, especially
when it opens with a dedication to Anunu, who readers identify later in
the story is an African-Amerindian woman and a healer who has
recorded down womens healing songs on a tape over several
generations. The tape is titled Now Is the Time To Open Your Heart. The
first story that Kate narrates to Anunu is about her invisibility to the
249

American audience, yet she is well published. Both Kate and Anunu
discuss women discrimination and agree that domination is a system men
use to keep societys labor force, especially women, under control.
Also, what Finnegan treats as fronting in speech is similar to
flashback in fiction. For example, in Bush I cannot stand and I cannot
stand Bush both have the same meanings, but sentence one has marked
information. Similarly, the variants, I like pizza and Pizza I like, have the
same meanings, but in the second clause Pizza is the marked information
as opposed to any other meal. The given information is represented by
the fronted noun phrase, Bush. Thus, the fronted noun phrase becomes
the more salient element of the sentence (208).
Walkers style of fronting relevant information is meant to mark given
information, create suspense, and keep the readers interest in the story.
Now is the Time starts with a dedication to Anunu, whom the reader learns
later in the story is a griot that embodies the knowledge of female
experiences over time. Also, when the story in the novel starts readers are
introduced to this character and are informed that the story to be told in
the next chapters is about cool revolution. Walker ensures that cool
revolution is the initial title of her first chapter. Unlike in speech where
linguists attempt to show if noun phrases are definite or indefinite for
reference, Walker does not do so in this case. The topic, cool revolution
takes no article and, therefore, it is neither indefinite nor definite, and it
250

does not enable readers to identify the particularity of the referent. This
style of fronting engages a reader in searching for answers to the kind of
revolution Walker actually discusses. There are other examples of
expressions that do not take definite or indefinite articles, including
chapters three and four that simply talk about Change and River Run.
Walkers noun phrases, especially for the initial chapter titles, are
generic rather than specific. However, as the story progresses, readers are
confronted with titles which use both definite and indefinite articles for
referential purposes. Nonetheless, one major category of information
structure evidenced in Walkers novel, Now Is the Time, is the distinction
between given and new information. Finegan describes given information
as information currently in the forefront of the hearers mind; new
information is information being introduced into the discourse (199). In
Alice Walkers narratives as in the examples given above, Cool
Revolution and Change, for instances, are given information because
they are in the forefront. What readers do not know are the specifics of
Walkers cool revolution and change. However, as the story develops,
readers learn that the author discusses these topics in detail using various
imageries as evidenced in her syntactic structures. For example, the
quotation below informs readers that Walkers perception of cool
revolution entails an understanding that humankind should be fair to each
other and that non-violent strategy of opposing oppression is effective in
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enhancing change. Fiction, therefore, is a non-violent medium of fighting

for equal rights. Walkers new information is envisaged through her
heroine, Kate. According to Kate, the color green symbolizes beauty and
she uses it to show discrimination of women by men. She comments:
I do not understand why people have such a hard time
seeing its impossible to be only one thing and to love only
one gender or one race. At least it seems impossible for me. It
could be like thinking only beautiful people have green eyes.
Limitation is willful and childish, she said. (68)
Thus, the acceptance of gay and non-race relationships are the kind of
revolutions Walker is talking about and, as in speech; she demonstrates
that there is always away writers represent given and new information to
their audience.
Furthermore, an examination of given and new information is
evidenced in Walkers employment of pronouns to refer to particular
entities. Chapter Five of this novel, Now Is the Time, is titled He
Wondered. The readers rely on the given information on the previous
chapter, which discusses about Yolo, Kates husband, to understand that
He refers to Yolo in this context. Other chapters using such referential
pronouns include, Had He Been Shot? (65), We Mahus Believe (120),
Toward the Middle of Their Stay, (141), His Streaked Reddish Hair, (145),
When I Came Back Here (174), They Bombed, (183), and One Day
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Standing in Her Garden (205). There are pronouns, however, used in

some chapters, which are non-referential. For examples, You Must Live: A
Future Consequence, (164) and Dont Go Anywhere (202) have the
implied you non-referential pronoun. The pronoun, you, in the former
expression and the pronoun, you, implied in the latter do not refer to
particular people and they are, therefore, non-referential.
Similar examples of such non-referential usage of pronouns in
linguistics may include statements such as If you want to have a better
life, stay away from the streets, and It is believed that literature promotes
social awareness. In these two clauses the pronouns You and It are
generic and, therefore, non-referential. Walker equally employs the nonreferential pronouns when it is appropriate to advise the public readers of
what they need to do. Readers recognize authorial intrusion especially
when Walker employs non-referential pronouns. An example of nonreferential pronoun is when Walker comments that You Must Live: A
Future Consequence, (164), which is an apt advise to her audience
about the relevance of living in a spiritual dream world that provides a
sense of hope for a better life for humankind based on the inevitability of
change.
Furthermore, in narratives, what readers know is that in most
societies, there are cases of sexual abuse, group discrimination, and
racism. So, when a writer decides to examine some of these issues he or
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she is aware that readers may share the same information and, therefore,
such knowledge is indeed given based on whom the writer addresses.
However, what the addressees might not know is how such issues take
different forms depending on cultural values of the writer and her
characters. Nonetheless Paul

H. Grices theory of conversational

implicature demonstrates that a writer has the obligation to make the

communication as effective as possible, and one way of doing this is
through an elaborate examination of issues by illustrations (55). Readers
do not know what new information in Walkers novel is until they
understand that issues of abuse, racism, and group discrimination take
different dimensions depending on geographical regions and culture. For
example, sexual abuse is given information and Walker represents it in a
manner that compels readers to sympathize with her character, Missy.
A reading of Now is the Time reveals that Missys grandfather, Timmy
Wimmins, sexually abused her. Missy observes, In away my grandfather
was our father and husband . . . he used to tickle me. And then the
playing would run off into sex. I was an infant. . . . I had a hard time
figuring it out. I took to marijuana like a duck to water (155). Missys
revelation of her sexual abuse is relevant to the title Now Is the Time To
Open Your Heart, because as the title of the novel suggests, she opens
her heart to show the readers how much she is hurt. Therefore revelation
becomes Missys a healing process. After these confessions, the medicine
254

men place their hands on Missys knees and procure treatment. The
appearances of the dragons, which are scary beings, are symbolic of
men rapists, who witness this healing (157). Also, Lalika is another
character in Now Is the Time who is raped. The same rapist tries to sexually
abuse Lalikas friend too, but Lalika kills him. Unfortunately, both Lalika and
her friend are jailed and repeatedly raped by jailers and inmates (105).
Walker shows that there is no law that categorically defends women from
abuse. The judicial system is flawed; because the men, who are prison
warders and who are supposed to help maintain the law, take
advantage of their positions to oppress women.
Also, discrimination is another aspect of given information. Walker
attempts an examination of thematic concerns involving the active
participation of minority groups in shaping the literary canon. Walkers
character that encourages for this kind of participation is Kate. Kate
asserts that she has eventually found pleasure in relating to women lovers.
However, she remarks:
She couldnt claim she thought they were better, as lovers, or
as partners, than men. And this was actually a great comfort
to her; she felt, finally, an emotional and erotic balance.
Having parents whom she loved fairly equally, shed been
puzzled on some level that she must, as an adult, choose to
relate primarily to one or the other sex. Whose idea was this
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really? . . . Freuds? And what a lot of lies hed told trying to

avoid his own childhood sex abuse . . . and now, like the
artists of old . . . she could leave a gentle, indelible message
of self-love to all humans everywhere. (47)
Therefore, Kate questions people who believe in heterosexuality which she
thinks deny many people the right to exercise their sexuality. Similarly,
Armanda and Cosmi, the shamans, explain to the voyagers that Rick who
acted out as an orangutan, grunting and rutting around the floor, could
not be excluded from the circle of the voyagers because, they had
explained to the group, what makes a circle sacred is that those who
show up for it are the ones who belong in it. . . . Casting anyone out, no
matter how bizarre their behavior, drained the energy of the circle (148).
Walker demonstrates that exclusion of any kind becomes a social
problem through the characters of Kate, Armando, and Cosmi.
In short, categorizations based on gender and races are central in
discourse written by the minorities, and these discriminations characterize
their literature, which defines their social conventions. The dominant
groups narratives often tend to avoid focusing on the social conventions
of the minorities. Because of this sidelining of minority discourses, readers
often are exposed to majority discourses, which some people perceive as
more relevant as opposed to the marginalized ones. It is vivid that even
differences based on sex lead to predominantly male-based narratives,
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which is often marked, subjective, politically engaged, emotional and

hysterical (Michard and Ribery 8). Many writers, therefore, examine
gender differences in various social environments in narratives, such as
Walkers, using different linguistic conventions. These conventions are
different in the sense that social disparities and the resistance of
andocentric

theories

of

domination

by

the

oppressed

in

these

environments pretty much have unique linguistic constructions.

The third example of given information is race. People of color are
invisible in the American continent. In the novel, Now Is the Time, the
character of Armando, which is the leader of the medicine men
accompanying the women to the river, remarks that the medicine for
curing invisibility, the idea of not recognizing people of color, is tears (162).
Indeed, Lalika cries after narrating about her sexual abuse ordeal, and
raps her tears in her crochet with the hope that if she lives the sun will most
likely dry the tears. Also, after Kate listens to Lalikas astonishing story, Kate
catches a tear sliding down Lalikas cheek, leans forward, and presses it
into Lalikas design. She remarks that there will be the tears of two of us,
which symbolizes closeness or unity among the women (107). Also, Rick,
the grunting orangutan character, tells his story about his family history
and how his family members hated African-Americans. The parents,
particularly, discouraged him from dating a black woman and warned
him not to go to their neighborhoods. Because his family hated black
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people, they sold drugs to them with the intention of ruining them. Rick
confesses, Selling drugs to oppressed people was our family business, for
generations (152). Lalika remarks with anger towards Ricks family hatred
of Black people by saying that they thought selling dope to black people
didnt matter because were animals (149). Rick concludes, I started to
understand why to myself and often to other people I have felt invisible
(152). In the circle formed by the people at the river, there are people of
different colors. Among the people are two young Aborigines from
Australia:
Both very dark, one with curly black hair, the other blond.
Blond straight hair was natural for this very black people. Yolo
thought these men had been programmed to think all blacks
were inferior . . . all blonds were superior. In the circle they
represent those who are coming back from the dead: the
young black men who have failed seeing the truth. (137)
As the above example shows, color and the physical features of
individuals reveal how people perceive one another in society. The
difference in color perception contributes to group categorization and
the sustenance of such classification. Walkers treatment of various facets
of color perception illustrates how individuals perceive each other and
why domination of one group over the other is justified because of
different views concerning color as an embodiment of power in relations.
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It is through dialogue among characters that problems related to race

can be solved and evidently the character of Rick in Walkers novel, Now
Is the Time, realizes that his family is prejudiced towards Black people.
After discussing about race with Lalika, the reality dawns on Rick that, in
society, invisibility is a veil that oppresses people of color.
Besides dialogue, Walkers idea of spirituality plays a big role as a
means through which her characters negotiate to solve problems. For
example, in Alice Walkers Now Is the Time, Yage is the medicine that the
voyagers

take

to

reveal

their

secrets.

Kates

first

session

with

grandmother had been seven hours long, and the discovery of

grandmothers teaching starts at this moment (88). Yage medicine
reveals all the secrets of people once taken by the characters on the
voyage. This medicine is an awakening agent, which is symbolic of what
narratives, can do in creating consciousness among the audience. The
writer becomes an agent of revealing societal problems and providing
solutions to them. Similarly, Walker understands the frustrations of women,
the strategies of male domination and issues affecting people of color,
including racism, invisibility, oppression, slavery, materialism, and so forth.
For Walker to counter these problems, she has to employ some strategy to
do it. Fronting of thematic concerns is one of these strategies. Also, in The
Uses of History: Frances Harpers Iola Leroy, Shadows Uplifted Christian
Barbara reflects that a writers use of history is necessary in developing
259

sound literary analysis (165). This is because literature seems to create

social change in particular historical periods apart from expressing a
writers desire to express oneself and to create aesthetic beauty. Thus,
history becomes another way of analyzing the African Peoples
experiences. Knowledge is often embedded in the historical and current
images, myths, legends and generally other oral traditions. Evidently, Zora
Neale Hurston, Gloria Naylor, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Frances
Harper, have derived their language from African-American voodoo
culture, especially as exemplified in the healing powers of herbs when
curing barrenness.
Also, the title of the novel, In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, refers
to a revisit to the foremothers of literature and to a re-examination of their
knowledge, which white male writers and sometimes white females
sideline simply because Black women writers are treated as inferiors and,
therefore, their literary works are unrecognized. Many of these Black
female writers are different, but they employ oral tradition symbols to
expose the amount of knowledge that precede them, knowledge which
is actually important in showing who a woman is in a sexist society.
In short, the kind of language readers are confronted with in these
womens works is thus determined by what they have undergone in a
patriarchal society. It includes a language of trajectory meant for selfdefinitions. Also, as much as these females attempt to maintain their
260

traditions in through their works, they do not spare traditions that seem to
oppress others such as submissiveness and obedience. Many feminist
writers, as a way of counteracting oppression, they sometimes use
obscene expressions. Even further, the heroines of these writers are often
rebellious because it is imperative that they have to aggressively resist
oppression of women by their men.
6.7: The Impact of Color on Pragmatics in In Search
Pragmatics of color, especially the color white, is evidenced in
Walkers examination of the Whitemans perception of God. The
Whitemans religion portrays God as white and, therefore, his whiteness is
attributable to purity and serenity; qualities that are in stern contrast with
Black, which symbolizes impurity. Unfortunately, slavery, colonialism, and
later Western imperialism undermined African traditional systems of
worship, and, consequently, rendered them less powerful as opposed to
Christianity. In a big way, this Western missionary religion greatly
influenced various African institutions, especially schools and churches.
Thus, the Whitemans Christian doctrines contributed a lot to the cultural
alienation of the people of color.
Even in postcolonial countries after most nations had gained
independence, Christianity played a substantial role in influencing the
peoples social and economic views. Walker in particular recognizes the
tendency of neo-slavery and neo-colonialism, which continues to oppress
261

people because they mostly rely on a white God who they do not
identify with. Indeed, Walker unequivocally criticizes the role Christianity
plays in alienating her own parents when she observes:
As a college student I came to reject the Christianity of my
parents . . . though they had been forced-fed a white mans
palliative, in the form of religion, they had made it into
something at once simple and noble. . . . True, even today,
they can never successfully figure a God that is not white,
and that is a major cruelty, but their lives testify to a greater
comprehension of the teachings of Jesus than the lives of
people who sincerely believe a God must have a color and
that there can be such a phenomena as a white church.
(18)
Evidently, Walker discourages people of color from accepting religious
views, which dehumanizes them. One such a view is that of looking at
God as white and failing to recognize the essence of the people of
colors religious beliefs. The narrator In Search of Our Mothers Gardens
explains the role Walkers mother plays in enlightening her siblings to
realize their humanity despite the Whitemans treatment of people of
color as inferior.

262

Therefore, color functions as a signal of both double consciousness

and racism. The narrator reflects:
My mother raised her family to work for what they wanted, to
be honest, proud of your color and do the right things. She
taught us a man was just a man, no matter what color he is.
My mother said that the reason we are black is this: a curse
from God. (30)
Therefore, color becomes a troupe for Alice Walkers call for
revolution. She advocates for change, which will ensure that people view
God not as white, black, and yellow, but as a super being with super
powers. However, the way people in various societies relate to God is
unique, and each societys way of life deserves to be respected. Walkers
attestation to such a religious view is evidenced in her belief in Buddhism.
Also, Walkers text attributes positive

qualities

to all colors thus

downgrading the relevance that has been attached to white color as the
dominating concept.
Walker perceives colors as symbolic of human power and beauty.
For example, her description of her college teachers in Sarah Lawrence in
the following excerpt below illustrates how colors play different roles in this
text. Furthermore, her appreciation of the role her great female teachers
played in creating her awareness is illustrated artistically by the use of
different colors. The narrator remarks, And who can express the magic
263

that is Jane Coopers instruction? Helen Lynd I always think of as a tulip.

Red-orange. . . . Muriel Rukeyser I perceive as an amethyst, rich and
deep. Purple. Full of mystical changes (39). The narrator in this novel is the
author at the same time. Walker as the narrator presupposes that readers
perceive realities of life in terms of colors. Thus, colors are central to
everyday speech acts. Walkers variation of color from red-orange to
purple in interpreting her teachers shows how the human mind functions in
encoding information.
In

Beyond

the

Peacock:

The

Reconstruction

of

Flannery

OConnor, Walker writes that an examination of ones history as reflected

in art, without necessarily exploring what others histories entails, is a
reflection of ones partial literacy (43). Walker loved the works of
OConnor, who was a Southern, Catholic, white female writer, until she
realized that there were other Black women writers whose writings she had
not been exposed to. Walker treats white female writings as prejudiced
because they do not represent Black womens experience. However, she
recognizes that such White female writers contributed to female
awakening in the 20th Century, a time when male literature dominated art
and seemed to embody images that enhanced male-female inequality.
Nonetheless, Walker treats the peacock as a symbol of beauty. Thus, her
concern in Beyond the Peacock shows the writers perception of how
what can be seen as beautiful can actually be destructive at the same
264

time. Walker and her mother revisit Eatonton, Florida, where they lived to
reexamine their past and to relate it to the White females experience.
She writes, It seemed right to go to my old house firstto see, at the very
least, whether her peacocks would still be around (43). Unfortunately,
OConners peacocks are not as pretty as the peacocks nurtured by
human beings, because the former are as proud as the owner. Walkers
mother explains that she could not raise them nor could black females do
because they destroyed their flowers. Essentially, Walkers interest in what
is beyond the peacock refers to beyond beauty and specifically, white
beauty or rather white aesthetic value in artsuch as Flannery
OConnors art. Furthermore, Walker implicates that art written by White
females could have been a lot prettier than theyd be if somebody
human had made it without race prejudice (46). The author probably
discovers that true beauty is better than the beauty inherent in a
peacock. It is the beauty as she writes which is beyond the Peacock.
This aesthetic beauty amounts to nothing other than her past history
which she must revisit by not only revisiting the South where she grew up,
but also by revisiting the historical writings and contributions of significant
African-American women such as Zora Neale Hurston, Gloria Naylor,
Phyllis Wheatley, and Sojourner Truth. It is in Hurston and other women
writers works that she can find truth about African-American women
experiences. Walkers mother is skeptical towards literary significance of
265

literature by White women and she advises her daughter during the visit to
the South: Well, I doubt if you can ever get the true missing parts of
anything away from the white folks . . . they have sat on the truth so long
by now theyve mashed the life out of it (49). Walkers mother
demonstrates that literature written by outsiders is often prejudiced, and it
does not effectively mirror the experiences of the audiences. Before the
20th Century, most White males and females wrote most American
literature. Such literature universally treats women as a homogeneous
group, although African women are often not represented. These partisan
literatures, therefore, fail to reflect the real experience of women. The 20th
Century thus shows the reawakening of African-American women who
start writing literary works that truly exhibit who they are.
Particularly, Walker relies greatly on oral tradition in examining Black
experience. She appreciates Hurstons employment of traditional story
telling techniques, use of proverbs, imageries, myth, legends, and dance
in her works, which critics failed to recognize in the early 20th Century.
Walker, as well as her mentor, Hurston, shows their creative powers of art in
enhancing social consciousness among African-Americans. Both her art
and that of Hurston do reveal the following:
Descendants of an inventive, joyous, courageous, and
outrageous people: loving drama, appreciating with and
most of all, realizing the pleasure of each others loquacious
266

and bodacious company . . . characteristics of zoras work:

racial health; a sense of black people as complete, complex,
undiminished human beings, a sense that is [was] lacking in so
much black writings and literature in the 30s. (85)
Walker identifies, therefore, that literature by African-American women
per se is unique in the sense that it draws from oral tradition, for example,
imagery, which is an embodiment of African peoples realities. Equally,
she identifies that this literature by African women writers is natural,
entertaining, and complete, and, by so doing, she suggests that there is
need for re-establishment of their cultural values through such art.
The color dynamics prevail especially when Walker describes
Hurstons small, but seemingly slow aging graveyard. Hurstons cemetery
seems not to grow old because this is where the most important female
artists, who helped shape the literature of African-American women
writers, are buried. Hurstons graveyard is painted purple and white, and
thus her importance in the literary world gives these colors their aesthetic
value. The narrator writes: Unlike most black funeral homes in Southern
towns that sit like palaces among the general poverty, lee-peek [Hurstons
funeral home] has a run down. Perhaps this is because it is painted purple
and white, as are its Cadillac chariots. These colors do not age well (101).

267

Also, the character of Faye, which in spite of her troubled marriage

to raise her own children, expresses her hope in terms of color imageries.
Faye particularly points out that colorful art can represent hope. She
describes her optimism in her childrens life by showing the lively colors she
wants in her childrens wall (184). Therefore, she suggests that art should
be inclusive and aesthetic. Therefore, color and its interpretive meaning
much contribute to the aesthetic value of art. Furthermore, Walkers
favorite aunt would add: And then Id come in the house, bathe . . . put
on my red dress. . . . A little red rouge and wait for my fella to come
calling (185). Red is for love and for danger.
Similarly, the title, In Search of our Mothers Garden, symbolizes the
discovery of the female African-American artists, who in spite of writing a
lot about themselves, are often overlooked by both males, as well as
Whites. Walkers reference to Our Mothers Garden demonstrates that it
was in this garden that stories could be told and shared among the
women and that an understanding of such stories and the knowledge
they carried will contribute to cultural reestablishment. In regard to the
examination of the creative or active roles of mothers in the AfricanAmerican society, especially during the post slave era Walker explains:
When J Toomer, poet, walked through the south in the early
twenties, he discovered a curious thing: black women whose
spirituality was as internal, so deep . . . that they were
268

themselves unaware of the richness they held . . . exquisite

butterflies trapped in an evil honey . . . in an era, . . . that did
not acknowledge them, except as the mule of the world . . .
our mother and grandmother, some of them: moving to
music not yet written . . . they waited for a day when the
unknown thing [their spirituality in music/ talent] that was in
them would be made known, . . . were not saints, but artists . .
. they were creators, who lived lives of spiritual waste . . .
enduring their unused and unwasted talent drove them
insane. (233)
The book, which is actually a collection of essays, is meant to rediscover
the early 19th Centurys creative power of African-American women artists
in a society that highly discriminated against them. The examination of
African-American peoples mothers and grand mothers works, which
have the artistic talents, but die before their abilities are recognized, is the
central concern in Walkers text. For instance, Whites oppress AfricanAmerican artists, especially female writers, after realizing that education is
an important tool in liberating them. Evidently, the acquisition of writing
and reading abilities by Blacks threatens the status quo of Whites and they
forbid Blacks acquisition of education. Notably, Walker illustrates how
Black gifted artists are discouraged from adventuring into literacy. She
poses:
269

How was the creativity of the black women kept alive after
years . . ., when for most of the years black people have
been America, it was a punishable crime . . . to read and
write? . . . what might have been forbidden by law. The aging
of the women who might have been poets novelists . . . who
died with their seat gifts stifled within them. (234)
Further, Walker adds that a writer such as Hurston was unrecognized by
Whites, who had an upper hand in publication, and her genius was
thrown away since she was merely black. Walker suggests that, as a
people, we do not throw geniuses away and if such genius is thrown
away, it is the duty of the artist to collect them piece-by-piece again for
the sake of our children (92). The beauty of genius lies in the hands of the
mothers in the African-American communities, and mostly in Walkers
novels, their wisdom is portrayed through their colorful artistry. Walker, for
example, writes that in The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Mem like her
mother:
Adorned with flowers whatever shabby house country we
were forced to live in ... because of her creativity with her
flowers, even my memories of poverty are seen through a
screen of blooms a garden so brilliant with colors, so original in
its design, so magnificent with life and creativity. . . . What she

270

is involved in was her soul must have, ordering, the universe in

the image of her personal conception of beauty. (241)
It is, therefore, important that readers examine how color functions as a
tool of enquiry and how it is equally an instrument of power and action in
minority discourses by the minority writers themselves, which often tends to
place oppression at the core of most minority discourses. Gill Seidel
proposes that social philosophy and the Ferdinand De Saussurian model
have impacted on linguistic studies which focus on the power relations
present in symbolic interactions, and that the same is true of some studies
of pragmatic principles, suggesting that the systems of signs need to be
explained with reference to an ideological and social milieu (8). On a
similar note, Mikhail Bakhtine, as early as 1929, identified that we can
better understand linguistic productions if we recognize them as practices
which constitute social relations (2930). Thus, a study of narratives with a
focus on the linguistic structures is essential in understanding how social
conventions shape or determine language use.
Walker writes that since Whites have often stifled African-American
foremothers talents, she has the responsibility to revisit their spiritual and
creative talents and to let the world know the important role foremothers
played in educating people in the American society. She reiterates that
[A]nd so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not
anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they
271

themselves never hoped to see; or like a sealed letter they could not
plainly read (240). Therefore, according to Walker, she seems to argue
that her wisdom of artistry is inherited from her foremothers. Also, the
narrator, who in this text is the author at the same time, describes her
female friends who reflect the true image of womanhood in terms of
color: She was blonde . . . my other friend brown, a wise of blue and
scarlet (247). Therefore, establishing the place of a woman in the AfricanAmerican community entails a spirited fight for personal new definition of
womanhood. For a long period, Walker writes that many people and
particularly women do not know who they are. Consequently, using
Virginia Woolfs book, A Room of Ones Own, Walker argues that in order
for a woman to write fiction she must have two things: a room of her own
(with key and lock) and enough money to support her (235). Essentially,
both Woolf and Walker propose that women need adequate space and
economic empowerment as necessary conditions, which will enable to
produce quality creative works.
One way oppressed women can liberate themselves is by
protesting for a revolution. Even further, Walker encourages women artists
to advocate for a petunia revolution. This revolution derives from the
parable of the petunia plant and its blooming and black generational
continuity irrespective of hardships in a White dominated society. The
petunia plant, she writes: Had never died. Each winter it lay dormant and
272

dead looking, but each spring it came back, livelier than before . . .
Petunia revolution is a celebration of people who will not cram themselves
into any ideological or racial mold (268). Likewise, the modern petunia
revolutionists encourage the portrayal of Black women as equally
beautiful as the petunia bloom itself thus negating a supremacist attitude
towards black women who could not be recognized as beautiful simply
because of their skin color. For instance, Walker remarks that the word
beautiful itself was never used to describe black women in those days . .
. her skin is black but she is sure nuff pretty. . . . Beautiful was for white
women and black women who look like you (292). Thus, black skin
functioned as a veil that made Black women invisible. The narrator further
writes that Black was not a color on my mother: it was a shield that made
her invisible (124), just as it affected her foremothers before.
6.8: The Effect of Negation on Pragmatics
Walkers concept of sisterhood often changes into lesbianism. The
persona writes:
A year after her confession she left her husband and her
brothers house. She became an itinerant minister . . . among
other black women who . . . met in small groups . . . to pray,
discuss the scripture and sing, and sustain each other . . .
following the true voice within them. (76)

273

Although the author does not directly suggest that Rebecca Jackson
started a lesbian relationship, there are hints in the story that actually do.
In a dream motif Rebecca is portrayed as angry when she sees another
woman comb all her intimate woman friends hair because Rebecca
Jackson had worked so hard on her friends hair that it had gotten so long
(80). Walker makes a remark that, perhaps, had Rebecca been born in
the modern age, she would have been an open lesbian (79).
Nonetheless, Walker denies the two being lesbians. She argues that the
two Rebeccas became spiritual sisters partly because they cared little for
sex (81). Jackson is particularly skeptical about this relationship. He
explains:
It was at this time that [Rebecca] Jackson formed a
relationship with a younger woman, Rebecca Perot. These
two women lived together, ate together, traveled together,
prayed together, and slept together until the end of
[Rebecca] Jacksons life, some thirty-odd years after they
met. (76)
This kind of female bonding is aimed at redefining new womanhood.
Angela Davis writes that there should be Standards for new womanhood,
which could counter the exclusivity of race and class embodied in the old
definition of woman as submissive and obedient (qtd. in Barbara Christian
161). This struggle for women to define themselves is universal. Barbara
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Christian further shows the hopeless situation of women in the dominant

patriarchal society when she adds:
As poor, woman, and black, the Afro-American woman had
to generate her own definition in order to survive, for she
found that she was forced to deny essential aspects of herself
to fit the definition of others. If defined as black, her woman
nature was often denied; if defined as woman, her blackness
was often ignored; if defined as working class her gender and
race were muted. It is primarily in the expressions of herself
that she could be her totality. (161)
Thus, whereas Victorian literary studies depicted woman as white, AfricanAmerican literature has attempted to portray that Victorian definition of
woman is lacking, and that it is basically exclusive. Other revolutionary
studies have shown that literature of different times have excluded other
people. Gay literature has often been excluded from the literary canon,
and many writers, females and males have shown that inclusion is one
way of encouraging for universal humanism.
Pragmatics of negation encourages readers to accept change. For
instance, the rhetoric of negation involves a speaker giving praise to
somebody or about something and then showing the very bad side of the
target under discussion. W.E.B Du Bois extensively used such a style in his
social ideals that contrasted with Booker T. Washingtons especially in The
275

Souls of Black Folk (30). Equally, Walker credibly employs the same style in
her examination of sexist and racist issues in her novel In Search of Our
Mothers Gardens. For example, Walker praises Sarah Lawrence, her
undergraduate college about 1964, while at the same time she scathingly
discredits it. The author and narrator reflects:
I bought a supposedly comprehensive anthology of English
and American verse, which had been edited by a Sarah
Lawrence faculty member. A nice man, handsome one
even, who had not thought to include a single poem by a
black poet. I believe this man, who was really very nice, did
not know there were black poets, or, if he did, believed . . .
poetry that is identifiably Negro is not important. (1322)
Walkers expressions in describing Sarah Lawrence College are ironic
although there are cases when she appreciates the role some female
teachers played in mentoring her, and the freedom gained after moving
from Spelman College in Atlanta. She writes in praise of Sarah Lawrence
thus, I found all that I was looking for at the timefreedom (130). All in
all, Walker appears to argue that her college, to a great extent, ruined her
because it failed to impart in her meaningful education about Black
people. She further identifies that Sarah Lawrence had left crucial areas
empty, and had, in fact, contributed to a blind spot in my education that

276

needed to be cleared if I expected to be a whole woman, a full human

being, a black woman full of self-awareness and pride (131).
Concerning lesbianism and sexual relationships, Walker often writes
that her characters such as Shug Avery, Celie, Rebecca Jackson, and
Rebecca Perot have had relationships with both men and women.
However, she categorically denies that these female characters being
lesbians. She reflects that their bonding is necessary to liberate them from
their oppressive situations. Thus, Walker makes readers imagine that unity
among females is core to their cause. Sexuality only defines their exercise
of freedom and, therefore, is secondary in her discourse of liberation.
Whether Walker does or does not accept that her characters participate
in sex intercourse is an option she has to make as a writer, either by
informing the reader or not. However, negation or avoidance to reveal
information is crucial in creating suspense in the readers. Indeed,
pragmatic discourse relies on implicature and readers have a right to
make judgments based on the presence of expressions leading to such
conclusions.
The writer of In Search of Our Mothers Gardens rarely employs
speech variants that are characteristic of Black peoples language.
Nevertheless, when Walkers work exhibits them, she seems to discuss an
issue, which touches on the narrators sexual experience. For example,
she employs black expressions when narrating about her childhood
277

relationship with Taylor Reese. She writes, I fell in love with Taylor Reese
when I was six years old. When I was fourteen and he sixteen we began
going steady. Later we became engaged (190). Considering the three
sentences, one realizes that the first expression, which is more of an
introduction, is formal, but the second and third are informal. The use of a
black variant going steady to mean dating, and the use of he for him,
probably indicates that Walker is at ease in discussing the personal in her
own variant than in formal language. Perhaps, Walker feels that it is only
understood better if she communicates her experience in her own dialect.
Indeed, Walker denies having any erotic relations, and she does not show
that she has such fantasies in her relationship with Reese. However, Reese
implicates that indeed there is this kind of sexual relationship. He writes, I
dream about you and her response is one of avoidance and skepticism,
I smile back though that is not what I meant (191). Therefore, to judge
who is telling the truth among the two is a matter of conjecture or
imagination on a part of the reader.
Although Walker supports gay and gay literature, her style as usual
entails denial of the already accepted idea. Further, Walker desires
gender equality in society; hence, she appreciates Fidel Castros equal
treatment of women and men in Cuba. However, she assertively
maintains that Cuban Family Code is ironic because people in Cuba, as in
other societies, do not respect the constitutional codes especially the
278

code that postulates, All children are equal (208). Furthermore, talking
of her American experience Walker writes:
The dramatist in our group declaims dramatically that it is a
matter of record that half the city of San Francisco is
homosexual . . . some of us [black artists] say, with disgust,
Move! It is not that we are gay; it is probably that we have
known the pain of moving into neighborhoods where we
were not wanted. (208)
Thus, Walker implies that gays are equal to non-gays and a dislike of same
sex relationships by some people is an affront to human liberty. Walker
advocates for art that fills up spaces by including minority discourses in it.
Similarly, female African-American critics such as Audre Lorde, Christian
Barbara, and Ntozake Shange have reflected that good Literature must
be inclusive and it should express what other great nations consider
universal humanity. Audre Lordes novel, Zami: A New Spelling of My
Name is an example of an insightful text that explores a mothers task in
understanding her own daughter who is lesbian. The word Zami itself is a
Grenadian expression that means women who work together as friends
and lovers, and is a central image of her book. Similarly, Christian Barbara
has indicated that there is need to shape a literary canon by including
the literature of all nations and people for it to exhibit the ideals of
democracy, justice, and freedom (162). Likewise, Ntozange Shanges
279

Sassafras poem exhibits a language of healing that employs healing

aspects of both African rituals and Afro-American women culture to
redefine the history and identity of the African woman and discusses, just
as in The Color Purple, the bonds between blood sisters, although Walkers
bond extends to Celies sexual love for Shug (Black Feminist Criticism 190),
which are necessary for female liberation.
Walker postulates that patriarchy and its consequent discrimination
of women, and other minority groups, such as gays, have contributed to a
long period of women oppression and subjugation. Walker identifies that it
is potent to create awareness about the place of the minority in the
contemporary society, and this consciousness among the people might
discourage patriarchy. Using Okot PBiteks famous poem, Song of
Lawino, Walker interchanges mens roles in the poem with women as
agents as such:
O, my clanswomen
Let us all cry together
Come,
Let us mourn the death of our mother
The death of a Queen. (234)

280

PBiteks original version of the poem is:

O, my clansmen
Let us all cry together
Come,
Let us mourn the death of our father
The death of a King.
Therefore, instead of using clansmen, our father and king, Walker replaces
them with clanswomen, our mother and queen respectively. In effect, she
criticizes masculinity eminent in the works of art by biased African male
artists. She therefore fills in the gaps created by the absence of women in
these literary works. The crying together and the mourning of the queen in
Walkers version of PBiteks poem are means through which silenced
women are given a voice and work as a group to overcome oppression.
Walkers queens that should be remembered include the important and
unrecognized roles of famous artists of the 19th Century to the present,
including Phyllis Wheatley, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday,
Bessie Smith, Sojourner Truth, Roberta Frank, and Zora Neale Hurston. It is
the works of such important female figures that comprises Walkers Our
Mothers Gardens. However, Walker denies that she aspires to be a true
queen of the universe in spite of praising the visionary women. Precisely,
281

Walker denies, I do not want to be a queen, because queens are

oppressive, but even so . . . any true queen knows the names, words, and
actions of the other queens of her lineage and is very sharp of her
herstory (276). Walker appears to argue that power hierarchy is a system
powerful people employ to ensure their domination over the less powerful
ones and, therefore, she discourages the idea of anarchy.
6.9: Walkers Revolution and Its Impact on Pragmatics
Walkers revolution to overcome injustice, racism, and subjugation is
very radical. Her sense of revolution determines a pragmatic process of
change. Specifically, Walker encourages revolution from the socialist
perspective and confesses that she is a true socialist and an admirer of
Cuban socialism. Walker writes:
Those of us openly enthralled by the Cubans, their revolution,
and the triumphant beat of the drums rose spontaneous to
join their Conga line [dancing in a line] . . . I had understood
fully the evil of waiting interminably for conditions to change
at someone elses convenience, but I still needed to know
that the use of violence did not necessary destroy ones
humanity. . .in this passionate defense of Cuban peoples
right to revolt against tyranny, I could hear the voices of Nat
Turner, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas,
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. (201)
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However, Walker finds fault with Cuban revolution because it fails to fill
gaps for the minority groups, especially women and gays. A better way to
fill such gaps is probably by a steady eradication of habits learned over a
lifetime to oppress others and the consequent abolition of the events that
encourage domination. Indeed, the author remarks: Subservience of any
kind is death to the spirit . . . Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman . . . would fight
on for freedom of all people, tossing white only signs and men only
signs on the same trash heap (170). Walker has encouraged for change
through her creation of social awareness among people especially
concerning the significance of equality, fairness, and respect. She has
particularly expressed her admiration of Russian revolutionary strategies
that ensured female liberation. Walker identifies further that Joseph
McCarthys Senate Committee on Government Operations investigated
people who seemed to like Russian revolutionary policies:
On the liberation of women and their subsequent aspiration
for an education that could free them, walker writes that it
was not only the liberation from racism that delighted him . . .
the Soviet Union . . . pleased him that women, who in Asiatic
Russian had been used for their husbands pleasure in harem,
had thrown off their veils and were going to school, and
could not be bought and sold as they had been before the
revolution. (174)
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Also, Walker recognizes the verity of Russian Revolution in her own aunts
independence when she was a child, an independence that is not often
recognized among women in literary studies. The narrator observes:
I am disappointed at this news of my aunt. When I was a
child, my aunts . . . were the most independent people I
knew. They were nine strong girls . . . on my grandfathers
farm. With the help of three brothers, they had run it. At family
reunions they would reminisce about the old days when each
of them had been to fish and hunt and trap, to shoot straight
as a man and to defend themselves with their own fists. (184
5)
Nonetheless, Walker notes that her aunts portrayed masculine qualities
because they carried out male roles. In so doing, the aunts replaced
gender roles and dismantled beliefs in society that contributed to women
subjugation. Unfortunately, this is an independence that is not often
recognized among women in literary studies. Furthermore, using an
allegory of overgrown hawks and killing snakes, Walker writes:
Unlike many women who were told throughout their
adolescence they must marry, I was never told by my mother
or any one of her sisters. . . . Women can do anything, and
that ones sexuality is not affected by ones work. I am
thinking of the aunts I wished to be like: I still see them
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standing in overgrown fields shooting hawks, killing snakes, not

knowing what it meant to be a afraid of mice. (185)
The overgrown fields are abodes of snakes and beasts, which are scaring.
Therefore, the womens presence in these fields is a sign of bravery to
adventure into the public and, consequently, gains equal economic and
social opportunities. Womens presence in public spheres signals their
commitment to cultivate the fields that have been rendered wild and
uncontrollable by males. Even further, when women hunt for hawks, they
behave as predators and, therefore, they use oppressive forces to
guard against men abusers. Indeed, the narrator informs us that these
women clear off the wild weeds, which represent oppressive males in
society. Therefore, by shooting the hawks (males), women resist
masculinity and maim it using their guns or reductionism tools. These tools
among others include any women art that discusses womens unique
experiences

including

domestication,

sexual

abuse,

childbearing,

educators, and so forth.

Furthermore, according to Jungs conceptualization of the ego, the
snake image may be interpreted as a penis that has to be tamed
because it is the universal problem of power which men use to dominate
women that eventually leads to women brutality to resist patriarchy
(Campbell 131). Hence, Walker could have the reader believe that the
source of the male oppressive instincts lies in the reproductive organs.
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Another tactic of Walkers female characters taking over or reasserting

themselves is by acting men. In The Color Purple, for instance, Shug and
Celie do not have contacts with other lesbians because they do not want
people to treat them as a sole group that is sidelined in the community.
They both ensure that they appear in the public and intermingle with the
rest of people and their love relationship enhances their entire
community, male or female (No More Buried Lives 192). Furthermore, Celie
describes Shug as direct in speech and desirous, a characteristic Celie at
first recognizes as masculine. Celie remarks:
That when I notice Shug talk and act sometimes like a man.
Men say stuff like that to women, Girl you look like a good
time. Women always talk about hair and health. How many
babies living or dead or got teef. Not about how some
woman they hugging on look like a good time. (72)
Thus, Shugs adoption of masculine speech and tendency using explicit
expressions are ways that Walker employs to create characters, which
confront oppression and subjugation. Celie has been raped, beaten and
abused by her husband and she abandons him for a gentler person, Shug
Avery, who treats her more humanely. Thus, what Celie considers
masculine is twisted in the character of Shug to be feminine and,
therefore, adorable. Speech disparity is a discriminating factor among
sexes in everyday conversations because mens speech is considered
286

more direct and acceptable. Talking like a man is an example Walker

employs to show how speech by males is often treated as superior to
speech made by females. Even in daily speech we commonly come
across expressions such as talk like a man, which show that language is
essentially shaped by our cultural attitudes, and therefore, male and
female speech shows power dichotomy. On a related note, Leon Poliakov
pinpoints that this discriminatory tendencies inherent in culture of many
societies are based on the bipolarity of sexes and comments: So the
world is made in such a way that men hold themselves in better opinion
than women (qtd. in Rita Thalmann 154).
Walker explores how racism plays a role in objectification of the
Orient by the Occident. Racial universalism compels Walker to draw from
different societal lexical items that have shown inequality among races.
Joe Harris Home is Alice Walkers high school friend who returned from
Boston to live in the South. He has a dog called uhuru at his home. The
term uhuru is a Kiswahili word that means independence. In colonial East
Africa, Africans had to fight the white mans rule and system of
subjugation in order to gain uhuru or freedom. Uhuru became a slogan to
deconstruct colonialism in many countries of Africa. Arguably, in Walkers
perception uhuru is like Joes dog, which is always restrained by chaining
it and ultimately controlling its movements. Walker writes, Joe comes to
the door and lets us in, restraining the dog, uhuru, by holding its collar. sit,
287

uhuru! He says sharply (186). Indeed, Joe Harris is like his own dog, which
lacks freedom. He sharply hates his former school principal, Mr.
McGlockton, who was not man enough because he let white folks in town
run him (187). He blames his teachers for his hopelessness. His anger
displacement forbids him from boldly facing his challenges in life. His wife
disagrees with his opinion that Boston Blacks are not united. He thus fails to
recognize how Blacks are victims of racism leading to their family
disintegration. Indeed, Harris is a drunk and, therefore, an escapist.
Furthermore, Walker portrays Joe Harris as immature and reluctant
to approach life more positively. He is an adult, yet he cannot avoid using
race-prejudicial lexicon. For instance, he calls his two sons niggers,
something he did as a youth. The persona remarks: Hearing this, I
[Walker] remember why I have not seen Joe in such a long time. It is
because he calls people nigger. Once, in fact, he called my daughter
that. We argued bitterly. I felt I could never forgive him (187). Therefore,
Walker shows how the effect of race prejudice affects Black people such
as Harris although they use the term among themselves. Walker ultimately
reflects that the usage of such prejudice expressions among AfricanAmerican enhances the perpetuation of racism, especially when used
before the presence of the young generation. Therefore, people at all
costs should avoid prejudiced expressions in their conversations. Indeed,
prejudice dehumanizes individuals and many artists have tried to create
288

awareness among the people on the effects of racial biasness, which

includes people having a sense of self-hatred and pessimism. For
example, Charles Dickens Oliver Twist portrays how racism and
oppression subjects human beings such as Fagin and Oliver Twist into
meaningless lives. Both of Dickens characters participate in theft and
prostitution for survival because the economic and social system does not
favor them. This kind of live makes them discard their moral values.
Similarly, Harris abusive behavior is evidence of his objectification. Walker
particularly clarifies that the usage of the N-Word is not independent in
someones mind, and that when Blacks use the term among themselves, it
is one way of preparing Black youths to feel inferior.
Moreover, Walker illustrates that it is not only characters such as
Harris who lack freedom, but the media does so as well. For example, Red
Foxxs Show, which depicts Aunt Esther, the female character as a gorilla,
is morally inept. This prejudice is also evidenced in one of the American
Airline Flights from San Francisco to New York in which, an NFL football
shot starring a famous Black person running back in which the opening
shot was of several monkeys dressed in scarves and the closing shot was
of his wife and two other black women, dressed almost identically to the
monkeys while cheering the famous star (189). Therefore, the media is like
a dog, which has its independence in its collars (Joes dog, Uhuru) and
airs prejudiced adverts about Blacks. In this way, the media curtails Black
289

peoples freedom or uhuru by showing demeaning episodes. Hence,

Walker interestingly explores racism in her text showing how contemporary
technology enhances prejudice towards Black people.
Furthermore, Walker employs the biblical allusion of Moses, Paul,
and God to show that change depends on ones preparedness to
accept it. The narrator identifies:
I believe in change personal, and change in society. Paul . . .
will sometimes change, . . . Moses . . . went through many
changes he made God mad. So Grange Copeland was
expected to change . . . Brownfield did not. . . . Because he
was not prepared to give his life for anything. (2523)
Walkers belief is personal and reflects what she believes in. She embraces
Buddhism and confesses that there is no God beyond nature and that the
world is God and she writes, So is a leaf and a snake. Thus, Grange
Copelands refusal to pray at the end of the book, The Third Life of
Grange Copeland, shows that he is undergoing personal change and he
is avoiding being a hypocrite. He, however, appreciates the humanity of
man-womankind as worthy embracing (265). Morality thus becomes an
impetus of effecting change in many societies, and literature attempts to
ensure that people recognize the essence of humanity.

290

Nonetheless, pragmatics encompasses a wider field of sociolinguistics although it deals with given and new information. Thus, it also
deals with discourse analysis that involves speech acts such as assertions,
declaratives, commissions, code mixing, and persuading, among others. It
is important we understand how these speech acts are evidenced in the
two novels. Kearns defines speech-act theory as a socio-linguistic
approach concerned not only with locution (what is said), but also with
allocution (very roughly, what is meant) and perlocution (the effect of an
utterance on its audience), and he further consistently asks, "What is this
language being used for?" For the type of text and experience we term
"narrative," that use begins with display (789). Similarly, John Searle,
perhaps the most influential speech-act theorist, treats meaning of
speech acts as primarily determined by the use to which an utterance is
put that is its illocutionary point, while James Kinneavy identifies that
language often is used to call attention to either the text or the texts
producer (39).
However, theorists such as Kearns and Wilson Weber have shown
that while text and producer do stand as discrete categories,
distinguishing between the two is not always possible, nor is it really
necessarydisplay is still the use (80). Thus, often people recognize
language use in various places, including posters on the walls, in
textbooks, on road signs, and other areas. All these areas act as centers of
291

language display. The display act will be termed successful if the act's
recipient accepts the locution, the text, as a display (Pratt 18). All
narrative belongs to that kind of language use termed display, and
tellability, which implies that a narrative text is of interest because it
represents an unusual or problematic state of affairs. Furthermore,
Michelle Rosaldo argues that speech act theorists seek to comprehend
the fact that to talk about the world "out there" will of necessity involve not
only

propositions

to

be

judged

for

truth,

but

something

more:

communicative intentions (204).

A study of Walkers novels under focus shows that what speakers
and listeners confront in real spoken conversations actualizes itself in
almost a similar way in narratives. Walkers speech acts have particular
aims including asserting, declaring, commissioning, and persuading. John
Searle, perhaps the most influential speech act theorist, treats these four
intentions as relevant in determining meanings conveyed through speech
expressions. Walkers meanings of expressions, therefore, depend on what
she says, who she is, and what she expects her listeners to know.
In the novel, In Search of Our Mothers Gardens, there are obvious
cases of speech acts whose intentions include declaring, asserting, and
commissioning, which we are likely to find in real live conversations. For
example, during weddings and graduations, we often come across
discourses, which have expressions such as I declare you wife and
292

husband, and with the powers infested in me I give you the authority to
read and lead. These expressions show how through language individuals
show their powers in giving orders or directives. In itself, language has
power in controlling human relationships. Equally, Walkers aims of
discourse are met often through the following variants:
1. Declaratives:
a) The dramatist in our group declares dramatically that it is a
matter of record that half of the city of San Francisco is
homosexual (206).
b) All children are equal (208).
2. Assertions:
a) Some of us [Black artists] say, with disgust, Move! It is not
that we are gay; it is probably that we have known the
pain of moving into neighborhoods where we were not
wanted (207).
b) I was after all a pacifist (200).
c) The truth is probably that I dont believe there is a God,
although I could like to believe it (265).
3. Commissives (promising or guaranteeing something):
a) A society in which there is respectful communication
between generations is not likely, easily to fail (215).

293

b) In order for a woman to write fiction she must have two

things: a room of her own and enough money to support
herself (235).
c) Subservience of any kind is death to the spirit (170).
All these expressions embody what Walker tells her readers. They are the
same ones, which also tell readers who she is, and what she expects her
listeners to know. The above sentences, including All children are equal, I
was after all a pacifist, The truth is probably that I dont believe there is a
God, although I could like to believe it, indeed, inform readers that Walker
appreciates people who accept equality, peace, and personal
spirituality.
Walker expects her readers to accept her opinions and she
convincingly supports her views by giving examples. Our consideration of
context, therefore, is significant in realizing how Walker achieves her
objective. Indeed, she ensures that what comes after such expressions
and before them is an effective back up of these ideals. For example, the
statement, Subservience of any kind is death to the spirit, (170), is
preceded by Walkers examination of many forms of injustice towards
minority people especially gays. Then, the statement is followed by
Walkers examples of African-American personalities, who before her
resisted any form of injustice including Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman.
Therefore, our understanding of context under which Walkers expressions
294

appear is a crucial aspect in understanding her work. Walker employs

various discourse forms such as assertions, declarations, and persuading,
which are effective means of encouraging people to agree with her
perception towards life. In this sense, as James Kinneavy identifies a
language an author or a speaker employs often calls attention to itself or
to the speaker, and this use of language is what he calls literature not as a
kind of text, but as one of the four aims of discourse (39). However, when
readers come across a surprising statement such as The truth is probably
that I dont believe there is a God, although I could like to believe it, they
recognize that, in fact, Walkers works are often significantly constrained
by the relationships and expectations that define their local world. In this
respect, she should comprehend the sociality of individuals who use its
rules and resources to act (Kearns 77). Nonetheless, the narrativity or
tellability of Walkers novels under focus is possible if readers understand
how pragmatics contributes to effective debates concerning the social
affairs of the target audience.
Code mixing is an aspect that characterizes Walkers narrativity,
and it is an important pragmatic discourse that informs the reader about
the strategy of a writer in seeking for solidarity. Although Walker does not
exhibit this style in the two main novels under focus, she has extensively
employed this style in her novel such as The Color Purple. Walkers attempt
to discourage the prejudice of the Western World towards African variants
295

is effective in her use of a speech variant that best depicts her

experiences and that of her characters. For example, there are several
ways Nettie code-switches from Standard English to her Black variant.
Nettie explains her new and most shocking experiences in Africa in formal
language, but when she reminds her sister, Celie, about their own AfricanAmerican experience she often switches to her vernacular. An example of
such shift is evidenced in the citation: Corrine had asked me once
whether I was running away from home. But I explained I was a big girl
now, my family back home very large and poor, and it was time for me to
get out and earn my own living (150). Although these expressions do not
exhibit obvious black variants, the omission of the verb be between my
family back home and very large shows how vernacular influences her
speech. However, she at times uses expressions, which reflect African
Englishes. For instances, The road finally reached the cassava fields
about nine months ago and the Olinka, who love nothing better than a
celebration, outdid themselves preparing a feast for the road builders
who talked and laughed and cut their eyes at the Olinka women (143), I
will write more when things start looking up (145), and Well, I read and
read until I thought my eyes would fall out (111) are all variants of code
mixing across speech variants. Nettie seems to be influenced by African
English, and her expressions exhibit Standard English and less formal

296

African-American and African Englishes. Code mixing, in this case,

becomes crucial in creating speech participants solidarity.
Generally, in written discourse it is also possible that if a reader is not
versed with pragmatics, there is a likelihood of misunderstanding between
the reader and the author. In narratives, a writer may intend to solve a
problem, but it is possible to have different outcomes: Either there is a
solution found or the problem remains unrecognized. Beaugrande further
adds:
Only the former outcome would seem to actually solve the
problem by integrating the occurrence. However, by simply
not commenting on non-occurrences, the participants reaffirm their own Standards and seek similar affirmation from
others. Hence, expectations are validated at the very
moment when they seem to have failed in a confrontation
with an actual situation. (166)
The processes of validations and re-affirmations in narratives entail
negotiation among readers and authors in order that both will adapt an
accepted social reality model. Therefore, situation monitoring becomes
very essential when a reader and author have different views about
events affecting their lives. Indeed, it is common to find characters in a
novel or in real life, call others mad because they exhibit socially
unacceptable behaviors. An example is when many people who do not
297

approve gay relationships often refer to gay people as mad.

Such

biased comments arise because of differences in cultural perceptions.

Generally, the aesthetics and beauty of art lie in the writers ability
to represent this new information appropriately and effectively. In
narratives, such as Now Is the Time, it is evident that thematic issues
greatly determine the pragmatic discourse chosen by the author in order
to solve a problem. Arguably, it is the prerogative of the author to write
about a problem identified in society, such as patriarchy, with the
objective of finding a solution to the problem. Nonetheless, to avoid any
conflict with his listeners, the author has to negotiate with them to accept
change. Therefore, effective negotiation between the participants, the
reader and the author, in case of narratives will entail careful situational
monitoring and management, especially how effective the author should
provide a reasonable unmediated account of the events as they are and
how well can author guide the situation in a manner favorable to her or
his goals (Beaugrande 163). A female writer such as Alice Walker has
shown her immense ability to reveal her credibility as a writer especially in
exploring issues that feature in most political movements in various
societies. The manner Walker transforms her rhetoric of politics into a
personal voice is a powerful example of the feminist concept that the
personal and political are inseparable. Equally, in spoken speech the
understanding of one speaker depends on how competent one is with
298

pragmatic information. Thus, failure to communicate or to interpret

another speech participant at times may involve a lack of understanding
of pragmatic discourse.
6.10: Summary
This section of the investigation attempted to examine fronting,
code-switching, and negation strategies of resisting oppressive values. It
has shown that issues affecting the audience such as religion,
domestication, race, and gender difference influence the kind of
language a writer employs to discuss about them. For instance, rape,
domination, race, and gender differences in Walkers novels and in other
female writers works are often confronted by the writers with an
emotional language that is equivalent, if not more than, the oppressive
nature of the issues themselves. This study concurs with William Labovs
observation that social pressures are continually acting upon the structure
of a language (The Social Stratification 3). Indeed, this chapter has
demonstrated that pragmatic strategies such as fronting of themes, codeswitching, and rejection of oppressive customs through negation are
crucial pragmatic styles in Walkers writings, especially in the novels In
Search of Our Mothers Gardens and Now Is the Time To Open Your
Heart, which encourage for change on various issues.

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Chapter Seven
Summaries, Conclusions, and Recommendation
7.1: Summaries
The objective of this investigation was to analyze rhetorical
strategies of Alice Walker in selected narratives. To this end, the researcher
selected four narratives, namely, The Color Purple, In Search of Our
Mothers Gardens, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and Now Is the Time To
Open Your Heart. These narratives, which she wrote between 1980 and
2004, are among her best creative efforts as an orator and writer, as
opposed to her earlier works. This study was necessary because
languages provide clues for readers to decipher meanings from texts and
it is important for people interested in literature to learn how languages
function, to better understand literary works. To address this problem, the
researcher employed the linguistic tools of phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Furthermore, the present writer used a
combination of theoretical frameworks, including Paul H. Grices
conversational implicature, Gill Seidels discourse analysis, Edward
Finegans concepts of language use, George Yules theoretical writings,
Edward Saids colonial discourse theory, and certain feminist reductionist
concepts.

300

Chapter

Two

examined

phonological

processes,

including

assimilation, weak syllable deletion, aphesis, and fronting, not to arrive at

rules of how language should be produced, but rather to provide an
understanding of Walkers phonological processes. Chapter Three, which
focused on morphology, examined words and word formations in The
Color Purple, and noted Walkers tendency to use words, phrases, and
internal discourses such as letters to disclose power differentials of gender
and culture. Also, Chapter Four aimed at revealing various syntactic
features that Walker employed to negotiate with her readers, including
negation, verb deletion, tense variation, subordination, voice variation,
and co-ordination, whereas Chapter Five illustrated how ambivalence in
discourse leads to a deeper understanding of the representation of
Africans, and especially African women. Finally, Chapter Six disclosed
pragmatic devices such as fronting, code switching, and negation, which
provided strategies that advanced the readers cultural awareness.
7.2: Conclusions
After the researcher analyzed Walkers narratives, he drew five
conclusions.
1. The study demonstrated that Alice Walkers rhetorical strategies,
especially in The Color Purple, contributed to realistic presentation of her
characters. Specifically, the study showed that certain phonological styles
enable Walker to examine the lives of her characters, who, by virtue of
301

sharing their speech variant, develop solidarity among themselves,

because they share common cultural values.
2. The study illustrated that, often, Walkers words and phrases indicated
power differences among characters, and between the characters and
the targeted audience. In other words, Walkers choice of specific lexical
items portrayed cultural power differences in relation to the characters
education, emotions, and class, as well as power differentials in relation to
the audiences nationality.
3. The research revealed that syntactic patterns in The Color Purple, In
Search of Our Mothers Gardens, and Now Is the Time To Open Your Heart
achieved three rhetorical ends: they depicted Walkers characters
realistically, they emphasized moments of intensity, and they asserted a
cultural unity between Walker and her characters.
4. Regarding semantics, Alice Walkers Possessing the Secret of Joy and
The Color Purple, revealed that many of her ambivalent expressions were
part of a deliberate artistic plan, whereas others disclosed Western
attitudes

that could be criticized in a post-colonial

conceptual

framework.
5. The research demonstrated that issues affecting the audience such as
religion, race, and gender bias influenced the kinds of pragmatic
conventions Walker employed. Specifically, pragmatic devices such as
fronting of themes, code-switching, and negation strategies regarding
302

oppressive customs were crucial in Walkers narratives, including In Search

of Our Mothers Gardens and Now Is the Time To Open Your Heart, and
they allowed her to advocate for change on various issues.
All in all, though we do not frequently imagine that writers
consciously manipulate the linguistic features of their creative work, it is
clear that Walker is very much concerned with managing many linguistic
elements to achieve her artistic effects. Her work especially illustrates the
value of linguistic analysis to uncover the specific rhetorical strategies,
which underlie her social, political, and artistic goals. Such an analysis only
reinforces the impression that Walker is an artist of complexity and depth.
7.3: Recommendation for Further Studies
If linguists and literary critics conduct similar studies like the current
one, there is a possibility that narratives will provide a repertoire of
linguistic information that is significant in literary studies. Therefore, the
present researcher suggests that similar studies employing linguistic tools
be conducted to determine the degree to which linguistics reveals how
rhetorical styles allow authors to convey their messages to their audience.

303

Appendices
Appendix 1: First Pilot Study (The Color Purple 126131)
Dear God,
Now I know Nettie alive I begin to strut a little bit. Think, When she
come home us leave here. Her and me and our two children. What they
look like, I wonder. But it hard to think bout them. I feels shame. More than
love, to tell the truth. Anyway, is they all right here? Got good sense and
all? Shug say children got by incest turn into dunces. Incest part of the
devil's plan.
But I think bout Nettie.
It's hot, here, Celie, she write. Hotter than July. Hotter
than August and July. Hot like cooking dinner on a big stove in a little
kitchen in August and July. Hot.
Dear Celie,
We were met at the ship by an African from the village we are
settling in. His Christian name is Joseph. He is short and fat, with hands that
seem not to have any bones in them. When he shook my hand it felt like
something soft and damp was falling and I almost caught it. He speaks a
little English, what they call pidgin English. It is very different from the way
we speak English, but somehow familiar. He helped us unload our things
from the ship into the boats that tame out to get us. These boats are really
dugout canoes, like the Indians had, the ones you see in pictures. With all
our belongings we filled three of them, and a fourth one carried our
medical and teaching supplies.
Once in the boat we were entertained by the songs of our
boatmen as they tried to outpaddle each other to the shore. They paid
very little attention to us or our cargo. When we reached the shore they
didn't bother to help us alight from the boat and actually set some of our
supplies right down in the water. As soon as they had browbeat poor
Samuel out of a tip that Joseph said was too big, they were off hallooing
another group of people who were waiting at the edge of the water to
be taken to the ship.
The port is pretty, but too shallow for large ships to use. So there is a
good business for the boatmen, during the season the ships come by.
These boatmen were all considerably larger and more muscular than
Joseph, though all of them, including Joseph, are a deep chocolate
brown. Not black, like the Senegalese. And Celie, they all have the
strongest, cleanest, whitest teeth! I was thinking about teeth a lot on the
voyage over, because I had toothache nearly the entire time. You know
304

how rotten my back teeth are. And in England I was struck by the English
people's teeth. So crooked, usually, and blackish with decay. I wondered
if it was the English water. But the Africans' teeth remind me of horses'
teeth, they are so fully formed, straight and strong.
The port's "town" is the size of the hardware store in town. Inside
there are stalls filled with cloth, hurricane lamps and oil, mosquito netting,
camp bedding, hammocks, axes and hoes and machetes and other
tools. The whole place is run by a white man, but some of the stalls that
sell produce are rented out to Africans. Joseph showed us things we
needed to buy. A large iron pot for boiling water and our clothes, a zinc
basin. Mosquito netting. Nails. Hammer and saw and pick-ax. Oil and
lamps.
Since there was nowhere to sleep in the port, Joseph hired some
porters from among the young men loafing around the trading post and
we left right away for Olinka, some four days march through the bush.
Jungle, to you. Or maybe not. Do you know what a jungle is? Well. Trees
and trees and then more trees on top of that. And big. They are so big
they look like they were built. And vines. And ferns. And little animals.
Frogs. Snakes too, according to Joseph. But thank God we did not see
any of these, only humpbacked lizards as big as your arm which the
people here catch and eat.
They love meat. All the people in this village. Sometimes if you can't
get them to do anything any other way, you start to mention meat, either
a little piece extra you just happen to have or maybe, if you want them to
do something big, you talk about a barbecue. Yes, a barbecue. They
remind me of folks at home!
Well, we got here. And I thought I would never get the kinks out of
my hips from being carried in a hammock the whole way. Everybody in
the village crowded round us. Coming out of little round huts with
something that I thought was straw on top of them but is really a kind of
leaf that grows everywhere. They pick it and dry it and lay it so it overlaps
to make the roof rainproof. This part is women's work. Menfolks drive the
stakes for the hut and sometimes help build the walls with mud and rock
from the streams.
You never saw such curious faces as the village folks surrounded us
with. At first they just looked. Then one or two of the women touched my
and Corrine's dresses. My dress was so dirty round the hem from dragging
on the ground for three nights of cooking round a campfire that I was
ashamed of myself. But then I took a look at the dresses they were
wearing. Most looked like they'd been drug across the yard by the pigs.
And they don't fit. So then they moved up a little bitnobody saying a
word yetand touched our hair. Then looked down at our shoes. We
looked at Joseph. Then he told us they were acting this way because the
305

missionaries before us were white people, and vice versa. The men had
been to the port, some of them, and had seen the white merchant, so
they knew white men could be something else too. But the women had
never been to the port and the only white person they'd seen was the
missionary they had buried a year ago.
Samuel asked if they'd ever seen the white woman missionary
twenty miles farther on, and he said no. Twenty miles through the jungle is
a very long trip. The men might hunt up to ten miles around the village,
but the women stayed close to their huts and fields.
Then one of the women asked a question. We looked at Joseph. He
said the woman wanted to know if the children belonged to me or to
Corrine or to both of us. Joseph said they belonged to Corrine. The
woman looked us both over, and said something else. We looked at
Joseph. He said the woman said they both looked like me. We all laughed
politely.
Then another woman had a question. She wanted to know if l was
also Samuel's wife.
Joseph said no, that I was a missionary just like Samuel and Corrine.
Then someone said they never suspected missionaries could have
children. Then another said he never dreamed missionaries could be
black.
Then someone said, That the new missionaries would be black and
two of them women was exactly what he had dreamed, and just last
night, too.
By now there was a lot of commotion. Little heads began to pop
from behind mothers' skirts and over big sisters' shoulders. And we were
sort of swept along among the villagers, about three hundred of them, to
a place without walls but with a leaf roof, where we all sat down on the
ground, men in front, women and children behind. Then there was loud
whispering among some very old men who looked like the church elders
back homewith their baggy trousers and shiny, ill-fitting coatsDid
black missionaries drink palm wine?
Corrine looked at Samuel and Samuel looked at Corrine. But me
and the children were already drinking it, because someone had already
put the little brown clay glasses in our hands and we were too nervous not
to start sipping.
We got there around four o'clock, and sat under the leaf canopy
until nine. We had our first meal there, a chicken and groundnut (peanut)
stew which we ate with our fingers. But mostly we listened to songs and
watched dances that raised lots of dust.
The biggest part of the welcoming ceremony was about the
roofleaf, which Joseph interpreted for us as one of the villagers recited the
story that it is based upon. The people of this village think they have
306

always lived on the exact spot where their village now stands. And this
spot has been good to them. They plant cassava fields that yield huge
crops. They plant groundnuts that do the same. They plant yam and
cotton and millet. All kinds of things. But once, a long time ago, one man
in the village wanted more than his share of land to plant. He wanted to
make more crops so as to use his surplus for trade with the white men on
the coast. Because he was chief at the time, he gradually took more and
more of the common land, and took more and more wives to work it. As
his greed increased he also began to cultivate the land on which the
roofleaf grew. Even his wives were upset by this and tried to complain, but
they were lazy women and no one paid any attention to them. Nobody
could remember a time when roofleaf did not exist in overabundant
amounts. But eventually, the greedy chief took so much of this land that
even the elders were disturbed. So he simply bought them offwith axes
and cloth and cooking pots that he got from the coast traders.
But then there came a great storm during the rainy season that
destroyed all the roofs on all the huts in the village, and the people
discovered to their dismay that there was no longer any roofleaf to be
found. Where roofleaf had flourished from time's beginning, there was
cassava. Millet. Groundnuts.
For six months the heavens and the winds abused the people of
Olinka. Rain came down in spears, stabbing away the mud of their walls.
The wind was so fierce it blew the rocks out of the walls and into the
people's cooking pots. Then cold rocks, shaped like millet balls, fell from
the sky, striking everyone, men and women and children alike, and giving
them fevers. The children fell ill first, then their parents. Soon the village
began to die. By the end of the rainy season, half the village was gone.
The people prayed to their gods and waited impatiently for the
seasons to change. As soon as the rain stopped they rushed to the old
roofleaf beds and tried to find the old roots. But of the endless numbers
that had always grown there, only a few dozen remained. It was five
years before the Roofleaf became plentiful again. During those five years
many more in the village died. Many left, never to return. Many were
eaten by animals. Many, many were sick. The chief was given all his store
bought utensils and forced to walk away from the village forever. His
wives were given to other men.
On the day when all the huts had roofs again from the roofleaf, the
villagers celebrated by singing and dancing and telling the story of the
roofleaf. The roofleaf became the thing they worship.
Looking over the heads of the children at the end of this tale, I saw
coming slowly towards us, a large brown spiky thing as big as a room, with
a dozen legs walking slowly and carefully under it. When it reached our
canopy, it was
307

presented to us. It was our roof.

As it approached, the people bowed down.
The white missionary before you would not let us have this
ceremony, said Joseph. But the Olinka like it very much. We know a
roofleaf is not Jesus Christ, but in its own humble way, is it not God?
So there we sat, Celie, face to face with the Olinka God. And Celie,
I was so tired and sleepy and full of chicken and groundnut stew, my ears
ringing with song, that all that Joseph said made perfect sense to me.
I wonder what you will make of all this?
I send my love,
Your Sister,
Nettie.

308

Appendix 2: Second Pilot Study (The Color Purple 143145)

Dearest Celie,
I meant to write you in time for Easter, but it was not a good time for
me and I did not want to burden you with any distressing news. So a
whole year has gone by. The first thing I should tell you about is the road.
The road finally reached the cassava fields about nine months ago and
the Olinka, who love nothing better than a celebration, outdid themselves
preparing a feast for the roadbuilders who talked and laughed and cut
their eyes at the Olinka women the whole day. In the evening many were
invited into the village itself and there was merrymaking far into the night.
I think Africans are very much like white people back home, in that
they thi!1k they are the center of the universe and that everything that is
done is done for them. The Olinka definitely hold this view. And so they
naturally thought the road being built was for them. And, in fact, the
roadbuilders talked much of how quickly the Olinka will now be able to
get to the coast. With a tarmac road it is only a three-day journey. By
bicycle it will be even less. Of course no one in Olinka owns a bicycle, but
one of the roadbuilders has one, and all the Olinka men covet it and talk
of someday soon purchasing their own.
Well, the morning after the road was "finished" as far as the Olinka
were concerned (after all, it had reached their village), what should we
discover but that the roadbuilders were back at work. They have
instructions to continue the road for another thirty miles! And to continue it
on its present course right through the village of Olinka. By the time we
were out of bed, the road was already being dug through Catherine's
newly planted yam field. Of course the Olinka were up in arms. But the
roadbuilders were literally up in arms. They had guns, Celie, with orders to
shoot!
It was pitiful, Celie. The people felt so betrayed! They stood by
helplesslythey really don't know how to fight, and rarely think of it since
the old days of tribal warsas their crops and then their very homes were
destroyed. Yes. The roadbuilders didn't deviate an inch from the plan the
headman was following. Every hut that lay in the proposed roadpath was
leveled. And, Celie, our church, our school,
my hut, all went down in a matter of hours. Fortunately, we were able to
save all of our things, but with a tarmac road running straight through the
middle of it, the village itself seems gutted.
Immediately after understanding the roadbuilders' intentions, the chief set
off toward the coast, seeking explanations and reparations. Two weeks
later he returned with even more disturbing news. The whole territory,
including the Olinka's village, now belongs to a rubber manufacturer in
England. As he neared the coast, he was stunned to see hundreds and
309

hundreds of villagers much like the Olinka clearing the forests on each
side of the road, and planting rubber trees. The ancient, giant mahogany
trees, all the trees, the game, everything of the forest was being
destroyed, and the land was forced to lie flat, he said, and bare as the
palm of his hand.
At first he thought the people who told him about the English rubber
company were mistaken, if only about its territory including the Olinka
village. But eventually he was directed to the governor's mansion, a huge
white building, with flags flying in its yard, and there had an audience with
the white man in charge. It was this man who gave the roadbuilders their
orders, this man who knew about the Olinka only from a map. He spoke in
English, which our chief tried to speak also.
It must have been a pathetic exchange. Our chief never learned
English beyond an occasional odd phrase he picked up from Joseph,
who pronounces "English" "Yanglush.
But the worst was yet to be told. Since the Olinka no longer own
their village, they must pay rent for it, and in order to use the water, which
also no longer belongs to them, they must pay a water tax.
At first the people laughed. It really did seem crazy.
They've been here forever. But the chief did not laugh.
We will fight the white man, they said.
But the white man is not alone, said the chief. He has brought his
army.
That was several months ago, and so far nothing has happened.
The people live like ostriches, never setting foot on the new road if they
can help it, and never, ever, looking towards the coast. We have built
another church and school. I have another hut. And so we wait.
Meanwhile, Corrine has been very ill with African fever. Many
missionaries in the past have died from it.
But the children are fine. The boys now accept Olivia and Tashi in
class and more mothers are sending their daughters to school. The men
do not like it: who wants a wife who knows everything her husband
knows? they fume.
But the women have their ways, and they love their children, even their
girls.
I will write more when things start looking up. I trust God they will.
Your sister,
Nettie

310

Appendix 3: Third Pilot Study (The Color Purple 21719)

Dearest Celie,
Tashi and her mother have run away. They have gone to join the
mbeles. Samuel and the children and I were discussing it just yesterday,
and we realized we do not even know for sure the mbeles exist. All we
know is that they are said to live deep in the forest, that they welcome
runaways, and that they harass the white man's plantations and plan his
destructionor at least for his removal from their continent.
Adam and Olivia are heartbroken because they love Tashi and miss
her, and because no one who has gone to join the mbeles ever returned.
We try to keep them busy around the compound and because there is so
much sickness from malaria this season there is plenty for them to do. In
plowing under the Olinka's yam crop and substituting canned and
powdered goods, the planters destroyed what makes them resistant to
malaria. Of course they did not know this, they only wanted to take the
land for rubber, but the Olinka have been eating yams to prevent malaria
and to control chronic blood disease for thousands and thousands of
years. Left without a sufficient supply of yams, the peoplewhat's left of
themare sickening and dying at an alarming rate.
To tell you the truth, I fear for our own health, and especially for the
children. But Samuel feels we will probably be all right, having had bouts
with malaria during the first years we were here.
And how are you, dearest sister? Nearly thirty years have passed
without a word between us. For all I know you may be dead. As the time
nears for us to come home, Adam and Olivia ask endless questions about
you, few of which I can answer. Sometimes I tell them Tashi reminds me of
you. And, because there is no one finer to them than Tashi, they glow with
delight. But will you still have Tashi's honest and open spirit, I wonder, when
we see you again? Or will years of childbearing and abuse from Mr. have
destroyed it? These are thoughts I don't pursue with the children, only with
my beloved companion, Samuel, who advises me not to worry, to trust in
God, and to have faith in the sturdiness of my sister's soul.
God is different to us now, after all these years in Africa. More spirit
than ever before, and more internal. Most people think he has to look like
something or someonea roofleaf or Christbut we don't. And not being
tied to what God looks like, frees us.
When we return to America we must have long talks about this,
Celie. And perhaps Samuel and I will found a new church in our
community that has no idols in it whatsoever, in which each person's spirit
is encouraged to seek God directly, his belief that this is possible
strengthened by us as people who also believe.
311

There is little to do here for entertainment, as you can imagine. We

read the papers and magazines from home, play any number of African
games with the children. Rehearse the African children in parts of
Shakespeare's playsAdam was always very good as Hamlet giving his
To Be or Not to Be soliloquy. Corrine had firm notions of what the children
should be taught and saw to it that every good work advertised in the
papers became part of their library. They know many things, and I think
will not find American society such a shock, except for the hatred of
black people, which is also very clear in all the news. But I worry about
their very African independence of opinion and outspokenness, also
extreme self-centeredness. And we will be poor, Celie, and it will be years
no doubt before we even own a home. How will they manage the
hostility towards them, having grown up here? When I think of them in
America I see them as much younger than they appear here. Much more
naive. The worst we have had to endure here is indifference and a
certain understandable shallowness in our personal relationships
excluding our relationship with Catherine and Tashi. After all, the Olinka
know we can leave, they must stay. And, of course, none of this has to do
with color. And ___
Dearest Celie,
Last night I stopped writing because Olivia came in to tell me Adam
is missing. He can only have gone after Tashi.
Pray for his safety,
Your sister, Nettie

312

Appendix 4: Fourth Pilot Study (The Color Purple 3)

You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy.
Dear God,
I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl.
Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me.
Last spring after little Lucious come I heard them fussing. He was
pulling on her arm. She say It too soon, Fonso, I ain't well. Finally he leave
her alone. A week go by, he pulling on her arm again. She say Naw, I ain't
gonna. Can't you see I'm already half dead, an all of these children.
She went to visit her sister doctor over Macon. Left me to see after
the others. He never had a kine word to say to me. Just say You gonna do
what your mammy wouldn't. First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort
of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold my titties. Then he push his thing
inside my pussy. When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You
better shut up and git used to it.
But I don't never git used to it. And now I feels sick every time I be
the one to cook. My mama she fuss at me an look at me. She happy,
cause he good to her now. But too sick to last long.

313

Appendix 5: Additional Word Formation Patterns

Word Coinages

Expressive Equivalences

Page # s

1. Hot diggidy dog

2. Bigged girl
3. Ball up
4.Teenouncy voice
5. Near about
6. Slaving
7. Mens
8. Goo-goo eyes
9. Preshation
10. Prankish girls
11. Sorta
12. A
13. Eggplant
14. Yall
15. Blueblack
16. Cold rocks
17. Yanglush
18. Youngish
19. Wildeyed
20. Sassing
21.Tolkses mouths
22. Meetcha
23. Aflying

Amazing
Matured / grown up
to fold the fist
teenage voice
close
to enslave
men
Sexy eyes
presentation
Player
sort of
of
egg plant
you all
black as in coal, dark
ailstones
English
young
wild eyed
With an attitude
talking mouths
meet you
which flies

93
71
73
73
77
89
89
98
98
69
73, 78
74
77
95
119
130
144
242
172
169
170
243
243

314

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