A Comparative Study of the Select Novels of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker

NORTH MAHARASHTRA UNIVERSITY, JALGAON Welcome to the Ph. D viva –voce Title of the thesis A Comparative Study of the Select Novels of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker • Researcher : Mr. Vijay D. Songire • Research Supervisor: Dr. Subhash P. Zanke,

Aims and Objectives of the study • To point out the oppression, exploitation and humiliation of the marginalized sections of the society as based on race, gender and class in America in Morrison and Alice Walker’s works. • To Present the degradation of human values due to the age-old prejudice, social attitude, social and religious taboos, superstitions, notions of superiority and inferiority. • To highlight the need of the mutual understanding, and the human values like unity, equality and fraternity. • Find out some similarities and dissimilarities in the selected work of the respective novelists.

Research Methodology & Chapter scheme • descriptive and • analytical method • The MLA style of documentation (7th edition) Scope & Limitations Toni Morrison’s novels - The Bluest Eye, Sula and Beloved ;Alice Walker’s novels - Meridian, The Color Purple & Possessing the Secret of Joy • 1. Introduction • 2. Toni Morrison and Alice Walker: The persons and the writers • 3. Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Sula and Beloved • 4. Alice Walker’s Meridian, The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy • 5. A Comparative Study of the Novels of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker • 6. Conclusion

Introduction 1.0 Preliminaries 1.1 African American Novel – An Overview • 1.1.1 Its Emergence • 1.1.2 Slavery Era and Harlem Renaissance • 1.1.3 Great Depression and its aftermath: 1930s, 40s and 50s • 1.1.4 Post Slavery Era and Recent Development • 1.2 Review of Literature • 1.3 Theoretical Conception

Chapter 1. Introduction • Emergence of African American Novel : From Non Fiction to Fiction • Lucy Terry’s Bars Fight(1746) published as a ballad in The Springfield Republican (1854) --- Ballad • Phillis Whitley's Poems on Various Subjectsin 1773. • Jupiter Hammon’s poem “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential Criesin 1761. ----Poetry • Fredrick Douglas’s Narrative of the Life of Frederic Douglass, an American slave (1845) ----Autobiography • Fictional Form • William Wells Brown’sClotel (1853), holds up a mirror to slave life; The Gairies and Their Friends by Frank J. Webb was published in 1857 • Our Nig(1859) by Harnet E. Wilson • Sojourner Truth’s narrative entitled “Narrative and Book of Life” (1878)- Life of a slave woman • and Frances Ellen W Harper’s Iola Leroy; or Shadowsuplifted (1895) emphasizes conflict between black and white culture

Development & Growth of African American Novel • Post-Slavery Era (from 1865 to 1920) • Harlem Renaissance (from 1920 to 1940) Great Depression • Civil Rights Movement Era (1940s to 1960) • Neo-Slave Narrative (From the mid-1960s) • Black Power activism and Recent Development (1970 to the present)

Continue.. Post slavery • Another significant black writer is Sutton .E Griggs whose Imperium in Imperio (1899) was extremely militant and Anti-White. • His masterpieces are overshadowed (1901) Unfettered (1902) and The hindered Hand (1905) which render the theme of humiliation of the blacks by the whites. • Finding disintegrated on the account of race the blacks faced of the dilemma double consciousness. W.E.B. Du Bois has discussed this double consciousness of the American Black in his famous book The Souls of Black Folk. • The Marrow of Tradition (1901) by Charles. W Chesnutt and Colonel’s Dream are the significant novels where militant’s traits are found highlight the ethnic richness of Negro life

Harlem Renaissance • Harlem Renaissance is the period between 1920 to 1940 , a flowering era of African American literature and Art. • Langston Hughes, American poet, social activist, novelist , playwright, and columnist from Joplin Missouri, rightly known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance is considered as one of the innovators of the literary art form called Jazz poetry. In his famous poem “What happens to a dream deferred?” speaks about the dream of the blacks who want to live as human being in American society. • Zora Neal Hurston ‘sTheir Eyes Were Watching God • The other writers from this era are Counte Cullen, Claudey Mc Kay, and Jean Toomer. • Themes : African heritage, racial pride and black cultural consciousness

Great Depression and its Aftermath 1930s ,40s &50s • The 1930s was the period of the Great Depression in America. During this period African Americans confronted many new challenges and obstacles. They suffered from social estrangement, economic alienation and psychological isolation more than ever before. • The early part of the 20th century witnessed the migration of black men and women to the North. • During the Great Depression of 30s in America number of blacks migrated to the Northern urban centers. They needed lucrative jobs at the same time they wanted to escape from violence and racial oppression in the South. In the history of African Americans this mass movement is called the great migration.

Masterpieces in 1930s ,40s and 50s • Nella Larsen’s Quicksand (1928), Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) , Arna Bottom’s Black Thunder (1936) , • George W. Handerson’s Ollie Miss (1935) , Claudey McKay’s Banana Bottom (1933) ,George. S. Schuyler’s Slaves Today: A Story of Liberia. (1931) , Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940), • Anne Petry’s The Street (1946). , Oscar Micheauz’s The Masquerade , Benjamin Quarle’s Frederick Douglas (1948) , Brook’s Maud Martha (1953) etc. • Themes :In this decade racism ,classism, gender discrimination, quest for identity.

Continue… • The sixties is African American’s most significant decade in the terms of self-consciousness, goals, and achievements. So it is called as the Second Black Renaissance. • The African American writers in this decade handled the themes such as Black pride, self-actualization, Black sexuality, justice and race relations etc. • Richard Wright’s masterpiece The Outsider (1953) in this decade shows the struggle of the blacks in racist America.Richard Wright considers “Negro” as an island that symbolizes the American Negro’s painful confrontation and unavoidable isolation. • “The novels by the black women of the 60s and onwards echo the protagonist’s search of self…” -Rani Devika

Continue.. • James Baldwin Go Tell it on the Mountain(1953) and Giovanni’s Room (1958) are the masterpieces. The former shows the vital force that religion plays in the city of the Blacks whereas the later deals with the problem of same sex relationship as well as racism. • Ellison’s Invisible Man(1952) focuses upon the incompatibility/conflict between two cultures through powerful account of the Black experience. • Gwendolyn Brook’s Moud Martha (1950) is about racial discrimination; while Paul Marshall’sBrown Girl Brown Stones(1959) gives the glimpse of what it is like growing up Black in the United States.

Black Feminism • Black Feminism is a school of thought which argues that sexism, class oppression, gender identity and racism are inextricably bound together emerged as a result of the failure of feminist movement to provide equality to black women in Civil Rights Movement. • The legacy of struggle, the search for voice, the interdependence of thought and action and the significance of empowerment in everyday life are core themes in Black Feminism.” -Khaleghi • From 1970s to 1980s, black feminists formed various groups and addressed the role of black women in Black Nationalism, gay liberation and second –wave feminism. • Angela Davis, Bell Hooks, Kimberle Williams Crenshaw and Patricia Hill Collins are the leading academics on black feminism. • defines the roles of black women in new vision and changed perspectives.

Civil Right Movement • Civil Rights Movement also called as Black Nationalist movement emphasizes Blacks’ return to their roots in Africa, pride in Africa. • Le Roi Jone’s Tale by Le Roi Jones(1967) is composed of sixteen tales emphasizes the physical, mental, and spiritual trauma the Black males go through while living in White America. • John. E. Wideman’sThe Glance Away(1967), • Charles Wright’s The Messenger(1963) and • Sarah. E. Wright’s This Child’s Gonna Live(1969) etc. • The themes in the writing of this decade were same as in the sixties..

Recent Development : Women Literary Tradition • During 80s Maya Angelou was one of the greatest poets of the time. • Her I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1971) ,Gather Togetherin My Name (1974)are the masterpieces • Morrison’s The Bluest Eye ( 1970) Sula (1973) Song of Solomon (1977) • Walker’s The Third Life of Grange Copeland and Meridian (1976) are the masterpieces in this decade. • Most recently, Edward P. Jones won Pulitzer Prize for The Known World (2004) Young African American novelists - David Anthony Durham, Tayari Jones, KalishaBuckhannon, Mat Johnson, ZZ Packer and Colson Whitehead

Continue.. • During 90s Walker’s The Color Purple (1982) is considered as a masterpiece in African American literature which renders the theme of sexism • Later on Ntozake Shange’s Sassafras (1982) and Betsey Brown (1985) focus on the conflicts within the Black community itself. • Gloria Naylor another significant woman writer from the same tradition in her The Women of Brewster Place (1982) delineates the predicament of Black women and their exploitation by Black men “A survey of black women writer’s tradition reveals that women writers could discover the positive self in women and give a true picture of womanhood in all its density and complexity.” Sumana.K.

1.2 Review of Literature 1.3 Theoretical Conception • The scope of comparative literature has broadened by comparative cultural studies. • Comparative literature is a window to look at the national, cultural, linguistic, historical and social boundaries. • The comparatist while studying two texts from completely diverse background will essentially notice some similarities, dissimilarities and development in the respective cultural background.

Continue… • Their fictional works certainly offer the different stories of the same people. Although their works bear a strong number of similarities, to some extent, the issues they focused on are different. • There are certain other things such as the form, language, style of narration, characterization etc. are also different. Accordingly, the researcher has made a sincere effort in the present research work to compare the select novels by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. • Any two texts can be compared, if they bear “a strong number of similarities . . . which allow us to isolate particular striking, revealing, informing, epiphanic and ultimately untranslatable differences.” Gregory Reid

Chapter 2.Toni Morrison and Alice Walker : The Persons and The Writers Chapter 2 Toni Morrison and Alice : The Woman and the Writer Toni Morrison (b. 1931) is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning Afro-American novelist

2.1.1 Life, Education and Career • Childhood : Born in a working-class family as Chloe Anthony Wofford on February 18, 1931, the daughter of George Wofford and Ramah Willis Wofford. She was the second of four children born to the Woffords. • As a child, she experienced enough poverty, hatred and racism. • Her early years in Lorain created within Toni sensitivity towards the struggling masses in general and the African people in particular. • Education & Career • Toni Wofford was educated from Lorain ; High School with honors in 1949 and graduated from Howard University in English in 1953, received a master’s degree from Cornell University in 1955. From 1984 -1988: worked as Professor of Humanities, at the University at Albany, the State University of New York. • From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, worked as the Robert F. Goheen Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. • Now member of the editorial board of magazine, The Nation

Continue… • Influences : • Her parents’ positive influence is seen throughout in her works. • The depression in America Morrison came across in her childhood created sensitivity in her towards the struggling masses and the African Americans in particular. • It was from her father who believed that all African people were morally superior to Europeans she gained true perspective Towards White people • Married life • In 1958 she married Harold Morrison, a Jamaican architect and fellow faculty member at Howard University. They had two sons, Harold Ford and Slade Kevin. But relationship ended in divorce in 1964.

Morrison’s Developing Ideology • Morrison considers black community- a life giving sustaining compound that is neighborhood. In one of her interview with Robert Stepto she tells how people take care of the community people. • The consciousness towards the Blacks made her to discover the complexity and subtlety in their lives which is reflected in the form of Black Aesthetics in her novels. • The influence of Zora Neal Hurston is clearly seen on the writings of Morrison. • Morrison gained social consciousness by reading and editing historical works of pan-African writers such as Ralf Ellison, Alex Haley, Toni Cade Bambara, Henry Damas and Jean Paul Sartre.

2.1.2: Morrison as a Writer • The Bluest Eye ( 1970) • Sula (1973) • Song of Solomon (1977) • Tar Baby (1981) • Beloved (1987) • Jazz (1992) • Paradise (1997) • Mercy (2008) • Home (2012) • For her gigantic contribution to literature she is awarded the highest literary Award Nobel Prize in 1993.

Continue… • Morrison’s third novel Song of Solomon (1977) which won her both the National Books Critics Circle Awards and the Friend of America Writers Award and established her as a major American writer. • Beloved (1987) which won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction expanded her place • Plays - Dreaming Emmett (1986), a song cycle, Honey and Me (1992) (written with André Previn), and the Libretti (an opera), Margaret Garner (2003) • Short Stories or Short fiction - Recitaff (1983) • Books for children (with her youngest son, Slade Morrison, who works as a painter and musician) – The Big Box (2002) and The Book of Mean People (2002) • Non-fictional works The Black Book (1974), Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992), Race-ing Justice, En-gendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, and the Construction of Social Reality (editor) (1992), Birth of a Nationhood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O.J. Simpson Case (co-editor) (1997), etc.

2.1.3 Fictional World of Toni Morrison • a pioneer of African American protest literature who attacks on the age-old ideology of racism in her very first novel The Bluest Eye. • As a black female writer she has successfully portrayed a very complex and ostracized lives of the blacks. She covers the vast picture of African American society. • She probes into the lives of the black women as well as raised her voice against the multiple oppression to which the black women have been subjected to. • Racism, • Classism, • Sexism, • Feminism, • Slavery, • quest for identity, human relationship ,motherhood etc.

2.2 Alice Walker ( 9th Feb. 1944)

2.2.1 Her Life Education and Career • Alice Walker was born in Eatonton Georgia, on February 9th, 1944, just before the end of World War Two. Walker completed her schooling and left for Spellman College, an institution dedicated to the education of the black women. During much of her time at Spellman College, Walker was an active participant in the fight for Civil Right Movement. • participated in the march to Washington, where she heard Dr. Martin Luther King’s speech. • In 1963 she accepted a scholarship to the liberal Art’s Institution, Sarah Lawrence College in New York. • After completing her B.A. in 1965 she worked in voter registration in Georgia, as well as with the Welfare movement in Georgia. • awarded her first writing grant in 1966. • She held a number of academic appointments: as both a literature/black studies instructor and a writer in residence, at Jackson State College (1968-69), at Tougaloo College (1970-71), and simultaneously at Wellesley College and the University of Massachusetts at Boston (1972-73). • She is awarded American Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for her literary contribution in 1983

2.2.2 Alice Walker as a Writer • The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970) – her novel about three generations of domestic violence renders the theme of racist victimization of Blacks “This novel exposes an oppressive sharecropping system that has its origin in seventeenth century colonial beginnings.” -Gerri Bates • Her novel Meridian (1976) too handles the themes like womanism, quest for identity, racism, female solidarity, etc. • The Color Purple (1982) -gender discrimination and women’s attempt to liberate themselves through female solidarity.

Continue… • Walker published her autobiography In Search of Our Mother’s Gardensin 1983 and her attitudes towards the female circumcision rituals in Africa led her to co-produce the shocking documentary Warrior Marks with Pratibha Parmar. • To advocate the problems of the black women she created the term womanism. She followed the book up with two volumes of poetry called Horses Make A Landscape More Beautiful and Goodnight Willie Lee I’ll See You in the Morning. • Her second book of essays entitled Living by the Word and her epic novel The Temple of My Familiar followed in 1988 and 1989 respectively. • Her novel The Temple of MyFamiliar took eight years approximately to complete. In 1988, the short story that Alice Walker had written in college, “To Hell WithDying” was released as a children’s book at the same time her second collection of essays entitled as Living Bythe World was published.

Continue… • In 1991 she released her second children’s book finding the Green Stone • Walker’s fifth novel Possessing the Secret of Joywas published in 1992 which attacks upon the evil social custom of female circumcision. • Within three years she has written a further three books, By the Light of My Father’s Smile [1998], The Way Forward is with a Broken Heart [2000] and A Long Walk of Freedom [2001]. • Her Recent books • Now is the Time to Open Your Heart (2004). • We are the Ones We Have Been Waiting: Light in a Time of Darkness (2006).(collection of essays) • There is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me

2.2.3 Fictional World of Alice Walker • Being an African American writer she has investigated the root causes behind the oppression of black people • The portrayal of womanist ideology gave a new vigor and vitality to her writing. Her thematic world comprises Gender discrimination Feminism, Womanism, Racism, Quest for identity, Motherhood and Female solidarity ,etc.

Chapter3Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye , Sula and Beloved 3.0 Preliminaries 3.1 Morrison’s The Bluest Eye , Sula and Beloved : A Study in Content • Morrison’s debut novel, The Bluest Eye (1970) centers upon the falsehood of the myth of white standard of beauty which crippled the psychology of African American women in general and a black girl child in particular. It depicts the reality in the life of the blacks in the era of Great Depression • Sula (1973) challenges African American notions of marriage and motherhood as well as patriarchy which deny freedom to women. The novel realistically portrays the experience of a black woman Sula and her rising black consciousness in the era of Harlem Renaissance • Beloved (1987) unfolds the horrible reality of blacks on the account of slavery, a byproduct of racism. The novel successfully exposes the evils of capitalist ideology in the era of Post -Slavery of America and brings a solution of collective class struggle.

Morrison’s Portrayal of Characters • Morrison’s characters are multidimensional and varied .They stand for the large canvass of African American reality. She has portrayed the character types such as :flat ,dynamic ,complicated ,rogue and developing etc. Her single character stands for many different ideologies and they reveal many things in different situation. • Oppressed: Cholly, Pauline, Pecola, Sammy in The Bluest Eye ;Eva, Hannah, Sula, Helen ,Nel, Jude, Shadrack and Plum from Sula; Baby Suggs, Sethe ,Denver, the ghost Beloved ,Stamp Paid, Paul D ,Halle in Beloved are all portrayed as sufferers. • Oppressors : The male patriarchs who are termed as ‘ oppressors’ like Cholly, Ajax, Jude, BoyBoy and the school teacher do wrong with the women. They do not value women’s existence and exploit them in every way possible. • Survivors: The Mac Teers, Sula ,Sethe and Denver are the survivors.

Plot ,Structure and Setting Plot Setting • Morrison develops the plot of her novel using the traditional plot development as : • Rising action • Conflict • Complications • Climax • Falling action • Denouement • The Bluest Eyeis set in the year 1941,.It is set in Morrison’s hometown of Lorain, Ohio. Morrison opens the novel in the autumn of 1941which is a very significant period in the history of America. • Sula is in Medallion in the historical time of 1919. • The novel Beloved is set in Kentucky, 124 Blue Stone road outside of Cincinnati with her family. The time of the action happened is 1873.

3.2 Thematic Study of Morrison’s The Bluest Eye , Sula and Beloved 3.2.1Racism : The Bluest Eye attacks upon the ugly reality of racism and its evil effects upon the life of blacks. • Pecola is fascinated with the American white standard i.e blue eyes, blonde hair ,white skin and pursues it. Pecola’s attempt of getting the blue eyes turns into a disaster when it gives her nothing but madness. Her mother Pauline too pursues the whites joining the Fisher family. Pecola’s father Cholly does not find any hope and the novels shows his meaningless existence. . . . racism is ultimately transformed into an ideological instrument that separates human beings from their own species .” T. Sarada. • Sula opens with the idea of white people’s domination over the blacks and how they exploit the black slaves under the name of racism. The prologue of the novel informs how the white farmer has fooled the black slaves telling them that the soil of the location where the blacks inhabit is fertile. The male characters like Shadrack, Plum ,Jude and Ajax are the victims of racial discrimination in America. • The school teacher in Beloved is the advocate of racism and age old slavery who exploits and oppress the blacks in the novel. The black male and females are victimized on the account of their color.

3.2.2 Slavery • Pauline, her daughter Pecola and Cholly in The Bluest Eye are the victims of age old slavery. Both Pecola and Pauline are treated like slaves. Cholly being black does not find his existence meaningful. • Pauline’s work as a maid servant at White family and Pecola’s desire of obtaining the blue eyes is a type of mental slavery that has inflicted upon her mind. • Shadrack and Plum the war veterans in Sula appear just like slaves. They don’t have their own identity. • Beloved discusses slavery as a central theme of the novel and shows the devastating effects of slavery on the life of the blacks. Being slaves Sethe ,Denver, Paul D, Baby Suggs ,Halle and Stamp Paid are humiliated, exploited and marginalized. Sethe’s mother-in-law Baby Sugg’s humiliation shows the worst side of racism in America where all her children had been sold to the plantation owners. • “ The worst atrocity of slavery, the real horror of the novel exposes is not physical death but a psychic death.” Barbara Schapiro

3.2.3 Gender Discrimination • “Humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but in relation to him, she is not regarded as an autonomous being…” Simon de Beauvoir • Cholly ,a male patriarch from The Bluest Eye exploits his wife Pauline. His rape of Pecola is the most poignant incident. The sufferings, pain and victimization of Pauline and Pecola prove not only their marginalization but of the Black women community in America. • Sula too discusses the plight of women. “ Sula explores the theme of twin atrocities of race and gender further even though her main focus is mainly on gender.” Kavita Arya • Sula falls a victim of the male desire of Jude as well as Ajax who consider her as a playful thing. Sula is deserted by her lover Ajax and Nel is betrayed by her husband Jude. Sula’s mother Hannah and grandmother Eva too did not find their existence meaningful in male dominated society. • Slave women Sethe ,Baby Suggs and Amy Denver from Beloved are the victims of male power. Their life indicates gender discrimination in African American society.

3.2.4 Class Exploitation • The Breedlove family suffer on the account of class .They live at the outskirt of Lorain ,Ohio in one small apartment because they are poor.. • Sula ,Eva and Hannah from the Peals family in Sula live at the margin of the society due to poverty. (Bottom) It is the class exploitation of the blacks. Ajax Jude are the unemployed youth and belong to the downtrodden class. • The characters Baby Suggs, Sethe, Denver, Paul D ,Halle in Beloved are humiliated and exploited because they are poor. They have to follow their white masters because they pay them. 3.2.5 Quest for Identity • Both Pauline and Pecola in The Bluest Eye pursue white standard of beauty which shows their quest for identity. • Sula’s denial of marriage and motherhood ,her attempt to live life in her own way against the set norms of the community in Sula is a kind of quest for identity. Her grandmother Eva’s life too shows black woman’s attempt of identity formation in male dominated society. • Sethe’s act of infanticide can be defined as a form of resistance to slavery, Sethe’s daughter Denver in Beloved completes her education and takes it as a tool for the reformation of the black community .

3.2.6 Human Relationship • Morrison has portrayed the different human relationships in her novels viz. relationship between husband and wife, father and daughter, mother and daughter, and between two friends • The Bluest Eye throws light upon the weak mother daughter relationship which is responsible for Pecola’s downfall. The relationships viz, husband-wife, father-daughter are completely disturbed. The portrayal of the MacTeers family is a model of matured human relationship • Sula’s relationship with her mother ,grandmother and even with her friend Nel and lover Ajax was not matured one. The males in the novel do not understand the value of husband –wife relationship • The black women in the community come for the rescue of Sethe and Denver in Beloved symbolizes the strong social bonding which is necessary for the survival of the community as a whole. Such strong human relationship is found neither in TheBluest Eye nor in Sula.

3.3 Summing up • To conclude, Morrison has nourished the African American literary tradition. Her use of folk tales, oral tradition, myths gives new identity to African American literature. She strongly attacks upon the Western ideology of racism, sexism and classism and initiates the idea of feminism, equality and brotherhood. She has uncovered the lost identity of the blacks and has strengthened the muted voices of the blacks in general and black women. Her novels have provided a significant platform for the black community to follow the legacy of African American literary tradition.

Chapter 4. Alice Walker’s Meridian, The ColorPurple & Possessingthesecretof Joy • 4.0 Preliminaries • 4.1 Meridian, The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy : A Study in Content • Mrs. Hill, Meridian, Truman and Tommy Odds, Wild Child, Lynne of Meridian; Celie, Nettie, their father and mother, Sofia, Squeak of The Color Purpleand Tashi, her sister Dura of Possessing the Secret of Joyare the oppressed/sufferers. • The black males like Truman, Tommy Odds and Celie’s father became the victims of racism. The black female characters are suffered on the account of race, gender and class. • Major and Round Type : Meridian, Truman, Celie, Nettie, Tashi • Minor and Flat : Tommy Odds,Wild Child,

Plot and Structure Setting • Meridian is divided into 3 sections and in those sections there are other episodes. These episodes are loosely connected to each other. • She is better known for her epistolary novel The Color Purple. It is written in the form of letters. She has used the tradition method of plot development • The novel PSJ is written in a fragmented narratives .It is written in various episodes. • Walker’s Meridian puts forth the history of the Civil Rights Movement. • The Color Purple is set in rural Georgia. Walker has shown shifting of the female characters from their homes. • Walker Possessingthe Secret of Joy is set in Olinka village as well as the action of the novel shifts from Olinka to America and vice versa.

Walker’s Narration Symbolism Narrative Technique • In Meridian, Walker has used different symbols like Sojourner tree, The Serpent mound, as well as some of the characters as Wild Child has symbolic significance in the novel. Saxon college which symbolizes the dominance of white racist society. • The title The Color Purple symbolizes freedom, courage and transformation. The other symbols are quilt-making, tree, blues etc. • Tashi’s painting on the wall, The image of Dnynada (signifies the idea of female sexual freedom. ) have symbolic significance in Possessing the Secret of Joy. • Meridian is written in a flashback technique with the third person narration. The story is told using the third person point of view. • Effective handling of the epistolary style • The story of Possessing the Secret of Joy is narrated with multiple voices of Tashi, Olivia, Adam, MZee, Lisette etc.

4.2 Thematic Study of Meridian , The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy • 4.2.1 Womanism • Walker has coined the term womanist in her book In Search of Our Mother’s Garden: A Womanist Prose. As she writes: “A womanist is responsible. In charge. Serious …A woman who loves other women…Appreciates and prefers women’s culture, women’s emotional flexibility…loves the spirit…Loves herself regardless.(xi-xii) Her Meridian, The Color Purpleand Possessing the Secret of Joycelebrate the theme of womanism. • The journey of protagonists, Meridian, Celie and Tashi is from ordinary females to self-conscious individuals who find out their own path as well as identity. These novels truly depict Walker’s ideology concerning womanism. • “Womanism is a movement to value the bonds between black women, their culture and their spirit to fight for identity wholeness and independence’’ Krishnamohan Mishra

4.2.2 Gender Discrimination • Celie of The Color Purple , a poor uneducated black girl is raped by her stepfather Alphonso and gets pregnant twice. Her marriage with Albert is also a failure who turns to be a patriarch. Sofia too is exploited by her husband Harpo. • Meridian too depicts the panorama of gender discrimination where Meridian at the stage of adolescence is seduced by one white man.Her mother Mrs. Hill too feels , “ Her personal life is over.” The white girl Lynne is raped by one black man Tommy Odds . • In Possessing the Secret of Joy exposes the horrible reality of the female genital mutilation 4.2.3 Racism • In Meridian the protagonist Meridian, the white girl Lynne, Truman and Tommy Odds,Louvine and Wild Child are the victims of racism. • Celie’s father in The Color Purpleis a victim of racial discrimination who is killed by the white merchants.

4.2.4 Quest for Identity • In Meridian the protagonist Meridian, Mrs. Hill, Truman, Tommy Odds are the African Americans who struggle for their own existence in the community. • Meridian’s objective is to establish her own identity in the male dominated society and she does not want to be a victim like her mother. • Celie’s and Sophia’s sewing business, Shug’s role as an artist too indicate black women’s quest for identity. • Being a victim of the age-old tradition of FGM, Tashi in PSJraised her voice against this cruel and inhuman practice. She takes a decision to kill M’ Lissa, the circumciser. Her act is against the ill practice of FGM which is destructive for the whole community of women.

4.2.5 Female Solidarity • Walker’s portrayal of female solidarity is a significant tool for the survival of women in general and black women in particular. Meridian in Meridian helps not only the black girl Wild Child but also the white Lynne which shows her sisterly feelings towards all women. • Celie, of The Color Purple too like Meridian has solidarity with her sister Nettie . Both Sofia and Celie sew together which show the connectedness. Celie who later becomes an independent woman in the novel is a product of sisterly love that has been shown by the other females like Sofia, Shug towards her. All the women portrayed in the novel Celie, Nettie, Sofia, Shug, Squeak stand for female solidarity which is the only option that Walker suggests for the survival of the black women. • Tashi in Possessing the Secret of Joy stands against the evil custom of female genital mutilation for the well being of the community in general and black women in particular.

Summing Up • Walker’s ideology of Womanism that has been developed into her writings makes her position unique in the women literary tradition of African American literature. Like her contemporary African American women writers, Walker’s novels too probe into the lives of African Americans realistically. • However, the specialty lies in her varied themes. She talked about racism, gender discrimination, humiliation, marginalization, quest for identity, female solidarity, female sexuality, human relationship, motherhood, incest, domestic violence etc. in her novels. • Walker’s intention in her Meridian, The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy is to provide new pathways for women for their survival and Womanism is one among them. Her ideology of ‘Womanism’ establishes a new kind of platform for not only the black women but for all to follow the strategy for their survival. The attempt is to initiate the idea of empowerment. The journey of protagonists, Meridian, Celie and Tashi is from ordinary females to self-conscious individuals who find out their own path as well as identity. These novels truly depict Walker’s ideology concerning Womanism.

Chapter 5 Novels of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker A Comparative Study Toni Morrison Alice Walker • Morrison’s primary concern is racism and therefore she has poignantly attacked upon the white standard of beauty in her The Bluest Eye. She identifies the follies of the black women that how they consider the whites superior to them and accept their beauty standard.(Pecola,Pauline) • Sula too depicts racial discrimination of the blacks though the mail focus is on gender • Morrison has provided the tool of collective class struggle for survival. • Walker does not give that much attention on racial discrimination of the blacks. However a few characters suffer on the account of racism ( Celie’s father ,Squeak, Tommy Odds,Truman, the white girl Lynne,Camara) • Whereas Walker provides new pathways for women to survive and come out of the cycle of oppression in the form of womanism and female solidarity.

5.1 Gender Discrimination Morrison Walker • Secondly ,she discusses humiliation and exploitation of the black women on the account of gender.( Pecola,Pauline,Nel,Sula,Eva,Hannah) • Walker’s primary concern is on gender and she has exposed humiliation ,exploitation and marginalization of the black women on the account of gender. Walker considers patriarchy as a culprit for victimization of women • Tashi herself narrates about her physical condition after the circumcision, “I am like a chicken bound for market. The scars on my face are nearly healed, but I must still fan the flies away. The flies that are attracted by the odor coming from my blood, eager to eat at the feast provided by my wounds.” (44)

A Comparative Study of the Select Novels of Toni Morrison and Alice Walker