precis 3 & 4

#3

ON THE COLOR PURPLE, STEREOTYPES AND SILENCE

The tale of the novel's popularity is the tale of the media' ability, once again, to dictate the tastes of the reading public, and to attemkpt to shape what is acceptable creation by black American writers. These readers, who do not identify with the chareacters and who do not feel the intensity of their pain, stand back and view the events of the novel as a cirxus of black human interactions that rivals anything Daniel Patrick Moynihan concocted. The spectator readers show what damage the novel can have; for them, the book reinforces racist stereotypes they may have been heir to and others of which they may have only dreamed. After all, a large number of readers, usually vocal and white, and decided that The Color Purple is the quintessential statement on Afro-American women and a certain kind of black lifestyle in these United States. what matters is cruelty, vilence, keeping the truth from others who need it, suppressing someone's will of talent, taking more that you need from people of nature, and failing to choose for yourself.

Selzer, linda."Race and Domesticity in The Color Purple" African American Review,29.1(1995):67-82 JStor Depaul U. Chicago, may 5th, 2009

#4

Race and Domesticity in The Color Purple

An important jucture in Alice Walker's The Color Purple is reached when Celie first recovers the missing letter from her ling list sister Nettie. This discovery not only signals the introduction of a new narrator to this spistolaru novel but also begins the transformation of Celie from writher to reader. Indeed, critics from vrious aesthetic and political camps have commented on what they perceive as a tension between public and private discourse in the novel. Thus, in analyzing Celie's representation of national indentity...discourages in the novel and concludes that Celie's narrative ultimately emphasizes "individual essence in false opposition to institutional history". Thus, Butler Evans finds that Celie's "private life preempts the exploration of the publiclives of blacks". ...Celie's family oriented point of view and modes of expression can displace race and class analyses to the point that the "nonbiological abstraction of class relations virtually disappears".

Harris , Trudier. "ON THE COLOR PURPLE, STEREOTYPE, AND SILENCE." Black American Literature Forum,18.4(1985): 155-161. JStor Depaul U. Chicago, may 5th, 2009