ANALYSIS OF SETTING BY KAWSALYA NANTHAKUMAR

The Color Purple by Alice Walker takes place in two significant settings. One being Africa, and the other being Georgia, United States. Celie writes her letters from Georgia, and Nettie writes hers from Africa. The time of when this novel was published was in 1982. Alice Walker depicts the lives of black women in the early 1900s. During this time, black women were going through an extremely rough time, where they were being abused and mistreated.

            Socio-economic and historical context is evident throughout the novel. In the earlier years, black women were faced against such brutal treatment. These women were challenged with poverty, sexism and racism. In the novel, Celie had constantly faced these issues. She was sexually mistreated by her step-father Alphonso, and abused by her husband Mr.____. Celie had been raped by her father several times, and the babies are taken away from her; killed or given away. “He took it. He took it while I was sleeping. Kilt it out there in the woods. Kill this one too, if he can.” (Walker 2). “He took my other little baby, a boy this time. But I don’t think he kilt it. I think he sold it to a man an his wife over Monticello” (Walker 3). The time in which the novel was taking place, reflects what happened in reality in the early twentieth century. Some black women did not attend school, as they were stay at home wives who looked after the family and house. Celie had never gone to school. Her sister Nettie would teach her how to read and write when she had the chance to. Celie was a stay at home wife after she had married Mr.____, and even when she lived with Alphonso. She kept the house neat, cleaned up after the kids, and did what pleased the men. In addition to this, poverty was common. “Take two dollars. Give her a quarter back. He look at me. You want something gal? I say, Naw Suh… I don’t have anything to offer” (Walker 14). Celie would never go to the store to buy anything for herself, as her husband would not buy anything for her either. She felt inferior to other women who had the luxury to buy their own things for themselves.

Cultural context is evident as Tashi’s story evolves. Tashi is an African girl who is from the village of Olinka, and is against the white culture. As Tashi becomes a woman, she goes through the African rituals of becoming a women in order to set apart her from the white culture. She endures facial scarring, which she was very much ashamed of; however, it was a part of her decision. And so in unity with Tashi, Adam her lover had also gone through the facial scarification as well, to show his respect to Tashi’s cultural traditions. Similar to the discrimination that black women faced in the past, Tashi felt the need to distinguish her from the colonial culture as she was pressured by them.

After reading the novel, each major women role, such as Celie, Nettie, and Tashi, reflected the struggles that black women encountered in the real world. Whether it is the poverty, sexism, racism, discrimination, or abuse, Alice Walker precisely matched the roles of the women in the novel to the real world. Using the appropriate use of the setting, Alice Walker truly captured and portrayed the life of black women the in early 1900s.