Abstract and Key Words
 
Abstract:Alice Walker is one of the most famous and prominent writers in America since 1970s.The Color Purple is her masterpiece, which makes her the first African American woman writer to win the Pulitzer Prize. This thesis mainly analyses the process of the heroin Celie’s quest for self-identity and discusses her psychological changes in different phases of life. By analyzing Celie’s quest for self identity,this thesis reveals the transformation of Celie from a long-suffering black girl to an independent and indomitable woman .

Key words:The Color Purple; Celie ;self-identity

摘要： 艾丽丝•沃克是20世纪70年代以来美国文坛最著名、最有影响力的黑人女作家之一。《紫色》是她的代表作，《紫色》使她成了美国历史上第一位获得普利策文学奖的黑人女作家。本文主要分析主人公西丽自我身份的寻求过程，探讨她人生不同阶段的心理变化。本文通过对西丽自我身份的寻求的探讨，揭示了西丽从一个逆来顺受的黑人女孩到独立自主的顽强女性的转变历程。

关键词：《紫色》；西丽；自我身份

1.Introduction
1.1 A Brief introduction to Alice Walker and The Color Purple
Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an African American author and poet.Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, the youngest of eight children,to Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant.At the age of 9,Alice was blinded in her right eye by her brother’s BB gun pellet which left scar tissue.However,her family didn't take the immediate treatment,so she turned out to be permanently blind after the accident.After high school, Walker attended Spelman College in Atlanta on a scholarship for the disabled in 1961 and later transferred to Sarah Lawrence College near New York City, graduating in 1965.During her time in college, she was involved in the Civil Rights Movement,which left a great influence in her writing career.In the movement,she acted as a womanist and an activist.
Based on that experience and what she had known about the black culture in the Southern American,she wrote two collections of poems and a great quantity of prose novels.She came up with the word "womanist" so as to distinguish it from "feminist".One of her most famous novel was The Color Purple,which made her the first African American woman writer to win the Pulitzer Prize.She also won the American Book Award for the novel.