Women and Literacy in Alice Walker's The Color Purple

This reading starts off talking about how women of the Diaspora have been using the oral culture for generations. "Before Black women were allowed to publish, they kept their stories alive through the act of storytelling" (137). Black women writers recorded their histories through their stories. The reading goes on to talk about how literature from writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Gloria Naylor, and Alice Walker mirrors the realities of being both Black and female. 

The reading also states that there are five basic types of feminism: liberal feminism, radical feminism, prostructural feminism, social feminism, and black feminism. Liberal feminists focus on the rights of individual women and work to transform traditional beliefs about femininity and masculinity and emphasize women's rights to create their own identity. Radical feminists argue that the roots of women's oppression lie in the biological differences between men and women. Prostructural feminists examine the ways language patterns produce notions of gender. Social feminists believe that race, social class, and gender oppression are interrelated consequences of a patriarchal, capitalist system. Black feminism, or womanism, defines African-American women's struggles as issues of race, social class, and gender and work to give voice to the experiences of Black women. (138)

In the middle of the reading, five major epistemological categories from which women view reality and themselves and draw conclusions about truth, knowledge, and authority were drawn from a case study of 135 women. The passage went on to show how Celie, from The Color Purple, transitioned through all five categories to find self-worth and joy. 

In the beginning of The Color Purple, Celie begins in the category of the silent woman. Silence is a position in which women experience themselves as voiceless and mindless (138). It represents a denial of self and a strong dependence on external authority. Women of silent knowledge do not view themselves as learners. After Celie progresses through the stage of being silent, she begins to rely on what people say and think. She looks for others to validate her self-worth. The women who rely on received knowledge quiet their own voices to listen to what others have to say. These women are confident in their ability to gather knowledge from others. Celie then becomes a subjective woman. Shug pushes Celie into a place loving herself. When Celie realizes her potential, she no longer looks to others for affirmation because she has recognized the authority with herself. Celie then moves into the scheme of reason. These types of women try to take charge of their lives in a planned manner. During this stage, Celie began questioning God on why her life had been filled with so much turmoil even though she had always been a good person. In the last stage, women desire to improve the quality of life not only for themselves, but also for others. In this scheme, Celie ultimately learns to survive alone and finally possesses the secret of joy. Alice Walker asserts that knowing one's place within a larger schema enables women to maximize their power, uncover their hidden talents, and discover the God inside. That, perhaps, is the greatest level of literacy---knowing that self is an essential part of all (145).