The Color Purple Essay
Explore how Walker’s manipulation of Celie’s voice conveys attitudes towards the relationship with Shug Avery & Examine how the novel as a whole shows how these attitudes are shaped by the society in which the characters live
Throughout The Color Purple, Alice Walker manipulates Celie’s voice in a variety of ways in order to convey the different attitudes she possesses towards Shug Avery. As the exposition of the novel progresses, Walker initially represents Celie as a vulnerable, oppressed character, who eventually develops into becoming a confident, independent and open-minded woman, which is greatly influenced by the significant relationship she has with Shug.
One way in which Walker manipulates Celie’s voice is through a graphological feature within the extract. The repetition of the lexis ‘humming’ creates uplifting and peaceful imagery of Shug, which is conveyed through Celie’s perspective, as it emphasises Celie’s appreciation of Shug’s singing. Therefore Celie’s voice is manipulated to create an affectionate attitude towards Shug, as she immediately becomes conscious of Shug’s presence through her voice. Shug openly dedicates a song to Celie, called ‘Miss Celie’s Blues’, although the intimacy in their relationship is not as obvious to the other characters, as this form of sexuality and relationship is denounced by the rest of society. Nevertheless Walker believes in equality and that ‘love is love’, which is conveyed through the developing relationship between Celie and Shug.
The relationship between Celie and Shug can also be interpreted as personal and secretive as Celie ‘sneak back’ which suggests that the other characters are unaware of their relationship. ‘Sneak’ is an example of AAVE which represents the uninflection of present tense verbs that occur throughout the novel, which indicates that this verb does not alter according to the tense of the dialect. In Standard English, there would be an addition of the letter ‘s’ at the end of the lexis,
Throughout The Color Purple, Alice Walker manipulates Celie’s voice in a variety of ways in order to convey the different attitudes she possesses towards Shug Avery. As the exposition of the novel progresses, Walker initially represents Celie as a vulnerable, oppressed character, who eventually develops into becoming a confident, independent and open-minded woman, which is greatly influenced by the significant relationship she has with Shug.
One way in which Walker manipulates Celie’s voice is through a graphological feature within the extract. The repetition of the lexis ‘humming’ creates uplifting and peaceful imagery of Shug, which is conveyed through Celie’s perspective, as it emphasises Celie’s appreciation of Shug’s singing. Therefore Celie’s voice is manipulated to create an affectionate attitude towards Shug, as she immediately becomes conscious of Shug’s presence through her voice. Shug openly dedicates a song to Celie, called ‘Miss Celie’s Blues’, although the intimacy in their relationship is not as obvious to the other characters, as this form of sexuality and relationship is denounced by the rest of society. Nevertheless Walker believes in equality and that ‘love is love’, which is conveyed through the developing relationship between Celie and Shug.
The relationship between Celie and Shug can also be interpreted as personal and secretive as Celie ‘sneak back’ which suggests that the other characters are unaware of their relationship. ‘Sneak’ is an example of AAVE which represents the uninflection of present tense verbs that occur throughout the novel, which indicates that this verb does not alter according to the tense of the dialect. In Standard English, there would be an addition of the letter ‘s’ at the end of the lexis,