Abstract

The Color Purple is the representative novel of American woman writer Alice Walker. In this novel, Walker describes a typical African American woman Celie, who is oppressed by patriarchal society and suffers aphasia. The thesis makes an attempt to analyze the causes of Celie’s aphasia as well as her final walking away from it and reveals the inevitability of her tragedy and the social significance of her freedom from aphasia.

Key words: Celie，aphasia，patriarchal society，freedom

摘    要

《紫色》是美国女性作家艾丽丝•沃克的代表作。在这部小说中，沃克描写了一位受父权社会压迫、患有失语症的典型黑人妇女西莉。本文试图分析西莉患上失语症并最终走出失语症的原因，同时揭示了女主人公西莉悲剧命运的必然性及其最后走出失语症的社会启示。

关键词：西莉；失语症；男权社会； 自由

1. Introduction
After the American Civil War between the South and the North, black people gained their freedom，but only in a superficial way. They were still oppressed by white people both physically and mentally. There was still a long way to freedom and equality. Most of the black people still suffered from poverty and racism. In order to fight against racism, there appeared many famous African American writers in American history. “They contribute to the contemporary flourish of Afro-American literature; this literature undoubtedly has become an important and indispensable part of the whole American literature.”(qtd. in Luo 431) They want to resist the oppression by white people and reconstruct the relationships between the white and the black. Also, many writers firstly concentrate on analyzing the relationship in black community—the relationship between black males and females.
Alice Walker is “one of the important African American novelists of the contemporary period, whose works have attracted the attention of readers and critics alike” (qtd. in Chang 527). She is a fertile writer with works of varied body including poetry, novels, short stories, and criticism. When she was a child, she suffered a lot because of one blind eye. After she began to write, she learned that black female writers received little attention and respect from the society. She felt the need to arouse the attention to them. As a result, she depicted the real and unequal relationship between black female and male, especially in The Color Purple.