Connections Between The Color Purple and Why Be Happy?

The fictional novel, The Color Purple, was published in 1983 during the second wave of feminism and the post-slavery period of segregation in the American South. The novel is set in the early 20th century and ends around the period of the second world war (1939-1941). It is a fictional epistolary novel (In the form of letters) based on a fictional character, Celie, who is the symbolic representation of the struggle faced by African and African-American women. There are also parts in the novel set in Africa during the colonial period. After Jeanette Winterson's 1985 fictional autobiographical novel 'Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’ was published, Winterson went on to write an auto-biographical memoir ‘Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?’ in 2011.This biographical memoir covers aspects of Winterson’s life; from her tough upbringing to 2011 (despite the 25-year intermission). Both writers explore the physical and metaphorical themes of conflict due to societal restraints and suffering which the characters fight against.

Both writers use the semantic field of conflict to convey how characters like Sofia and Jeanette are presented as a product of their upbringing. Walker presents Sofia as a fierce character brought up thick skinned through the support of her sisters, ‘All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers... I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men.’ Sofia is presented as more ‘masculine’ in both looks and demeaner, distinct from the rest of the women in the novel. However despite the first sense of a successful feminist character we see near the beginning of the novel, Sofia’s personality foreshadows the conflicts she will face amongst wider society and within the black African American community, who deem her as trouble because she does not adhere to the stereotypical expectations surrounding black women. She is introduced as Harpo’s lover in letter 13; however, Sofia is also introduced as a problem by Celie being that she is ‘big’. Sofia already being pregnant portrays her to be societally deviant, this foreshadows the difficulties in both Harpo and Sofia’s relationship and the effects that social values can have on a loving relationship, proving the norms and values at the time were problematic. Despite this, in letter 17, Harpo brings Sofia to meet Albert to ‘have a look at her’. The complex elliptical declarative ‘They be marching, hand in hand, like going to war.’ presents Harpo and Sofia’s relationship as being established amongst conflict, foreshadowing their relationship as already doomed. The present participle dynamic verb ‘marching’ in the semantic field of war conveys a unity between Harpo and Sofia presenting their relationship as one that is truly loving in contrast to Celie’s relationship with Albert, however the use of present tense connotes that Albert will create conflict in their strong bond by preventing them to marry. The adverb of manner phrase ‘hand in hand’ further establishes a powerful bond, which conveys Harpo is willing to fight for Sofia despite what Mr--- will say about her, the noun from the semantic field of conflict ‘war’ in the simile ‘like going to war’ presents Mr---‘s character as a symbol of societal oppression, Albert is seen as a powerful force against Harpo rather than a caring father, conveying Albert as a product of his own oppressive ideology (reflecting the relationship between Jeanette and Mrs Winterson).

The semantic field of war foreshadows the physical fighting in Sofia and Harpo’s relationship, due to Harpo feeling the need to assert his masculinity even though Walker illustrates the fighting through comedic dialogues. She presents Harpo as rather weak and childish, however the domestic ‘exceptions’ Harpo allows out of love for Sofia may reflect a change in attitude between stereotypical roles in relationships, with Harpo being apart of the younger generation in contrast to Mr----.

In the simple sentence ‘She in front a little.’ The prepositional adverb ‘in front’ presents Sofia as a dominating character which opposes the norms of society at the time, as women like Celie are enforced to be submissive to their husbands, which is shown when Celie later gets jealous of Sofia’s individuality telling Harpo to ‘beat her’. Therefore, individuals in the novel work to present characters like Sofia as rebellious and deviant because she is different to what society depicts as normal. Walker uses Sofia to present the conflict black women had to face not only in a racist society (Sofia having to be Miss Millie’s maid) but also within the black African American community.

Similar to Sofia, Jeanette is also presented as a tough character, ‘For most of my life I’ve been a bare-knuckle fighter. The one who wins is the one who hits the hardest.’ ?The fronted adverbial of time phrase ‘For most of my life’ conveys that like Sofia, Jeanette has grown up with a tough upbringing, which has caused her to have a tough exterior in response to what life can throw at her, due to Mrs. Winterson failure of being a loving parent. The superlative determiner ‘most’ may imply that Jeanette did not always have to be ‘tough’, as there were memories of Jeanette and her family going to the beach, and celebrating Christmas together, she relays these memories and considers them happier times later in the novel. Moreover, this could also foreground the present experienced Jeanette, who has learnt to forgive and is away from Mrs. Winterson. ?The pre-modifying compound adjective ‘bare-knuckle’, in the semantic field of fighting, reflects an attitude of roughness from Jeanette, conveying her relationship with Mrs. Winterson and the physical beatings she had faced, has impacted her to have a survival outlook in life due to the lack of care, love, and nurturance Mrs. Winterson refused to show to her. The complex sentence ‘The one who wins is the one who hits the hardest.’ uses parallel phrasing which conveys a pejorative idea of success, through the harsh sounding verb ‘hits’ from the semantic field of violence reflects the abuse faced from her mother has influenced her idea of accessing success in life. Jeanette uses the contraction of I have, ‘I’ve’ in the first-person singular reflects that she only has herself to rely on being a ‘bare-knuckle fighter’ unlike Sofia who becomes resilient towards the end of her novel having the power of sisterhood, as we even see characters like Squeak who stick up for Sofia in her absence.

Both novels use a range of sentence types to explore the idea of conflict between female characters accessing education with characters like Olivia and Tashi In The Color Purple, and Jeanette in Why Be Happy. The writers use declaratives to stress societal restraints at the time, particularly sexism, which prevents the characters from accessing education. In The Color Purple, Nettie praises Olivia in letter 62 for taking after her mother, Celie, in ‘stubbornness and clear sightedness’ and describes her being able to go to school, unlike Tashi, who is an Olinka born village girl expected to subscribe to the Olinka tribe’s traditional patriarchal values. Olivia begins to questions Nettie, ‘Why can’t Tashi come to school? She asked me. When I told her the Olinka don’t believe in educating girls she said, quick as a flash, They’re like white people at home who don’t want coloured people to learn.’ Olivia uses the interrogative ‘Why can’t Tashi come to school?’ to convey the naivety of Olivia and Nettie towards the ideology of the Olinka as the definite article ‘the’ emphasising the noun ‘Olinka’ further implies Nettie’s disassociation with the Olinka’s beliefs. In the simile ‘They’re like white people at home who don’t want coloured people to learn.’ the pre-modifying adjective ‘white’ and plural noun ‘people’ conveys the level of understanding Olivia has of the power of education, as she connects this power to the level of power white people have in the segregated American south compared to that of black people implying it is an unfair loss to Tashi’s potential of freedom, suggesting that she rejects this discrimination both at home and in Africa. This further implies similar issues of racist oppression and sexism African American women face in America, also occur within the internal complexities of certain black communities in Africa. The plural noun ‘girls’ with the present tense verb ‘educating’ conveys the conflict the girls have to endure as the Olinka think education is unnecessary for the girls as their goals are enforced to be mothers of their husbands’ children. However, Olivia is presented as determined to fight for Tashi’s education through the simile within the adverbial clause ‘quick as a flash’. There is asymmetrical imagery of Olivia teaching Tashi what she has learned like Nettie and Celie in the beginning of the novel. Although this implies the fight for education is still an ongoing battle, there is a repeated theme of sisterhood to combat the oppression, which implies we as an audience must fight together for our own victories.

Similarly, Winterson uses imperatives to illustrate themes of conflict due to societal restraints. In Chapter 7, Jeanette questions The school song at Accrington High School for girls ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Men’ for being sexist, ‘Where were the famous women – indeed any women- and why weren’t we praising them?’. Jeanette uses the imperatives ‘Where were the famous women’ and ‘why weren’t we praising them?’ to progress her argument and convey her anger towards the lack of glorification of women being lorded in the education system she receives. The use of imperatives allows the readers to understand that there is no answer for why we do not praise famous women, who have made changes to societies through their knowledge. Jeanette emphasises that there is no sight of this praise for that of any women with the parenthetical voice ‘-indeed any women-‘ the use of em dashes around the interjection emphasises the statement, underlining women’s limited opportunities to make a name for themselves socially, politically or academically. She later discovers that Oxford also presents a lack of representation of ‘great’ women poets, this presents to the readers the effect of societal restraints against women’s success. The use of the first-person plural noun ‘we’ conveys that readers have a duty like Jeanette to fight together for the success of women, similar to the attitudes of sisterhood present in The Colour Purple. Both writers emphasise the impact of unified action in the fight for equality.

Both writers use nouns and imagery to explore the internal conflicts of loss. After Shug leaves Celie in letter 83, Celie becomes frustrated with herself in?letter 87 stating that ‘happiness’ was just a trick in her ‘case’. ‘Just cause you never had any before Shug, you thought it was time to have some, and that it was gon last. Even thought you had the trees with you. The whole Earth. The stars. But look at you. When Shug left, happiness desert.’ Celie uses the adverbs ‘just’ and ‘even’ to present the theme of mocking, to convince herself that she is not worth loving and the relationship was above what she could achieve. Through the use of concrete nouns ‘earth’ and ‘stars’ presents an unreachable fantasy Celie has created for herself, something that is bigger than her, and intangible. Celie uses direct address to address herself through the repeated use of second person plural pronoun ‘you’ in the declarative ‘Even thought you had the trees with you.’ Celie mocks herself by bringing back Shug’s religious pantheistic imagery, emphasising anything extraordinary had never been with her but with Shug, Celie devalues herself through the emphasis of the adjective ‘whole earth’ mocking the extent of her happiness she had with Shug, and the adjective emphasises the high standard Celie has placed of Shug in her life. The noun ‘desert’ in the clause ‘happiness desert’ creates imagery of Celie feeling abandoned by the greenery and beauty Shug had symbolised and being left to dryness of going back to her younger more vulnerable and fearful character at the beginning of the novel. The fronted subordinate clause ‘When Shug left,’ shows Celie looks to Shug as her source of happiness at this point in the novel, however we see Celie progressively towards the end of the novel find peace within herself, as she reaches her epiphany of true happiness and contentment through forgiveness of Albert.

In Why Be Happy, Winterson also explores the internal conflicts of loss through the use of nouns and similes to create imagery of despair towards the end of the novel. Jeanette expresses her feelings in chapter 15 towards her biological mother, Anne, through the complex declarative ‘But my other mother had lost me and I had lost her, and our other life was like a shell on the beach that holds an echo of life of the sea.’ ?Within the independent clause ‘But my other mother had lost me and I had lost her,’ the possessive determiner ‘my’ and the pre-modifying determiner ‘other’ creates a conflicting separation and implies that Jeanette does not consider Anne as her ‘mother’ but separates her as a second figure to Mrs. Winterton. She further explains this through the parallel phrasing ‘my other mother had lost me and I had lost her,’ the repeated past tense verb ‘lost’ reflects a feeling of hopelessness between Jeanette and Anne. The use of the fronted adversative coordinating conjunction ‘but’ is interjectory, conveying a deep sorrow from Jeanette as she envisioned her relationship with Anne in a better light. The use of the first-person singular object pronoun ‘me’ and the third person singular object pronoun ‘her’ also conveys an ongoing theme of separation, and reflects the ongoing conflict of separation Jeanette has faced throughout her life. Further, the first person possessive plural pronoun ‘our’ within the simile ‘and our other life was like a shell on the beach that holds an echo of life of the sea’ conveys the only thing Anne and Jeanette have together is a life that is not tangible, as the simile ‘like a shell on the beach that holds an echo of the sea.’ The noun ‘sea’ symbolises a boundless span of a life that could have been. This results in the conflict Jeanette has with her mother, an emotional matrix that cannot be untangled. Winterson uses this imagery to convey Jeanette’s feelings of powerlessness and inner turmoil like Celie.

Over all, both writers use similar techniques to present how characters deal with conflict. Winterson’s memoir being more realistic in presenting reunions between adopted children and their biological families (Jeanette stating ‘TV style pink mists of happiness are wrong.’ On the other hand, The Color Purple has been criticised for being ‘utopian’ and ‘unrealistic’. However, it is worth noting that a happy ending may be what Celie deserved and being that she is a symbol for many black women in the past and today; a happy ending is a hopeful one. ?Despite this, Alice Walker presents a quote which captures similar messages of purpose behind both writers, ‘For in the end, freedom is a personal and lonely battle; and one faces down fears of today so that those of tomorrow might be engaged.’.?