Ethnicity in the Color Purple

The Color Purple was a famous novel that was turned into a musical. the story focuses on female black life during the 1930s in Georgia. There are three main themes in the novel. The exceedingly low position in American social culture, racism and sexism. The two main characters lean on each other throughout the novel because both of their men treat them horribly. They find comfort in each other and look for each others support in their abusive relationships. Georgia was a difficult place for African American to live during that time. At one point in the novel that main character hit’s the white mayor back because he slapped her and she was sent to jail for 12 years. Throughout the entire novel women are degraded by men and treated as second-class citizens.



In Bell Hooks “Postmodern Blackness” there were many similarities to the Color Purple. Hooks wrote, the idea that there is no meaningful connection between black experience and critical thinking about aesthetics or must be continually interrogated” (Hooks 2510). Hooks writings stood up for African Americans in a postmodern way. She was very outspoken saying that women should be heard just as much as the men are.
In Langston Hughes “the Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” he stated that “one of the most promising of the young negro poets said to me once I want to be a poet- not a Negro poet” (Hughes, 1190) this relates to the Color Purple because they had tight restrictions on what they could do back then. Then he goes on to say, “I am ashamed for the black poet who says, I want to be a poet, not a Negro poet” (Hughes, 1196) He stresses the importance of a racial consciousness in these quotes just like the novel the Color Purple did.




Works Cited

Hooks, Bell. 2508-2510.The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W.

W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
Hughes, Langston.1190-1195 The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York:

W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: W.

W. Norton &, 2010. Print.