The Color Purple Context

What was the initial basic premise for the novel, which came from Walker’s sister?

one day The Wife asked The Other Woman for a pair of her drawers

What was Walker’s idea of history for the novel?

intimate interactions between women

Where was Walker living when she started to write the novel?

New York

Where did Walker move to to write the novel?

rural northern California

How does Walker describe herself in relation to the novel?

author and medium

According to Walker, what emotion defined finishing the novel?

grief

Who describes the novel as “a womanist Bildungsroman”?

Sundqvist

According to Penfold, how does Celie recount her trauma at the beginning of the novel?

factually, and without emotion

According to Penfold, what does Celie’s growing voice emerge from most?

interactions with other women

According to Penfold, what does Nettie’s standard grammar show?

how she defines herself by external roles

What does Weston say Walker’s emphasis is on?

the inherent yearning for unity in all life

According to Penfold, which character helps Celie to unite body and voice?

Shug

According to Boesenberg, who or what is the most potent force against misogyny in the novel?

lesbians and lesbianism

What two criticisms does Penfold make of Boesenberg’s opinion?

the lack of homophobia makes Celie’s sexual awakening unrealistic

emotional development is as important as sexual development

According to Penfold, what conveys Celie’s developing voice and independence?

the introduction of other women

According to Abbandonato, what is purple a sign of?

indomitable female spirit

What does the West African root word of jazz metaphorically mean?

life

According to Walker, what is Celie’s spiritual state at the beginning of the novel?

spiritual captive

According to Walker, what has Celie realised by the end of the novel?

she is a radiant expression of the Divine

Who terms the novel a theological work?

Walker

According to Walker, what is Celie’s spiritual journey based on?

her own evolving faith

How does Walker identify religiously?

a worshipper of Nature

What does pantheism mean?

the belief that God is and is in everything

According to Walker, when did African-Americans acquire their white, male image of God?

the moment of enslavement

How does Walker describe God?

the All Present and All Magical

According to Walker, what does Southern African-Americans’ worship of Jesus mirror?

master slave dynamics

According to Walker, what is the novel’s ultimate theological premise?

the God image versus God

According to Walker, what is the purpose of Pa and Mister’s status as “natural disasters” in Celie’s life?

to challenge her to grow into liberation and peace

What does Higginbotham argue makes certain dialects incorrect speech?

racism

What did a Missouri court rule slave masters had a right to?

rape

What does Gates argue Celie does with her letters?

write herself into being

According to Playle, what does the strikethrough on the first page establish?

Celie has no sense of self

According to Playle, why can’t Celie establish herself through the epistolary novel alone?

it is an 18th-century European form

According to Playle, what allows Celie to establish her identity?

textile arts

Which Classical character does Lauret liken Celie to?

Ovid’s Philomena

According to Simons, what is Celie’s ultimate fantasy?

to be heard

According to Simons, what do Celie’s confessional letters to God show?

internalised victim-blaming

According to Simons, what power do the letters in the novel have?

restorative, curative powers

Who is Mr based on?

Walker’s grandfather

What was Walker’s relationship to her grandfather?

she adored him

How does Walker characterise her grandmother’s behaviour?

slavish

According to Walker, what are Celie’s two uglinesses?

skinniness and beaten-down spirit

Who is Shug based on?

Walker’s Northern aunt

According to Walker, what saves Albert from total failure as a human being?

love for Shug

Who does Mary Agnes represent?

light-skinned black women who were pursued, fetishised, and stereotyped by Black and white men

According to Walker, what is Sofia?

one of the first womanists

Where did Walker study abroad?

Africa

Where did Walker grow up?

rural Georgia

According to Warren, what is the limitation of the epistolary novel?

it is often heteronormative and restrictive

According to Warren, how does Walker deviate from the norm of the Bildungsroman?

Celie cannot embrace societal norms, and instead embraces herself

Who describes the novel as a neo-slave narrative?

Warren

According to Warren, who does the use of AAL come from?

Zora Neale Hurston

According to Warren, what does the use of folk language reflect?

the Black oral tradition

According to Warren, what impact would writing the novel in Standard English have?

Celie’s narrative would be unbelievable

What was TIME’s criticism of the novel?

sisterlove is beautiful, and men stink

What have some critics argued about Walker’s depiction of Black men?

it supports violent stereotypes

What have some critics says Walker requires for the redemption of her Black male characters?

feminisation

According to Warren, how does Celie rationalise her abuse?

Christianity

What is clearly displayed on Sofia’s body, according to Warren?

white violence

What does Walker say sexual love can be?

extraordinarily holy

What does bell hooks say makes the novel a fantasy?

the lack of homophobia

What does the novel propose, according to Warren?

a theology of transformation

According to Warren, what is Celie’s spiritual conversion not complete until?

she can live without Shug

What are the four definitions of a womanist?

1. feminist of colour

2. woman who loves other women

3. woman who loves spirit, love, struggle, herself

4. womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender

What are Walker’s three stages of Black women’s history?

suspended, assimilated, emergent

What movement was Walker actively involved in?

Civil Rights Movement

Walker was part of the first interracial married couple in which state?

Mississippi