Language

"The Color Purple" is an epistolary novel. That means that the author adapted the language to the person who is writing the letter. Celie, uneducated and opressed, lives in the rural Georgia. So, you find a "simple" language and the "southern accent" in her letters. Whereas her sister, Nettie, who is better educated and has been travelling to Europe and to Africa, has another style in her writing.


e.g. ,,Harpo want to know what to do to make Sofia mind. He sit out on the porch with Mr.____. He say, I tell her one thing, she do another. Never do what I say. Always backtalk. … You ever hit her? Mr___ ast. … Well how you spect to make her mind? Wives is like children. You have got to let’em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating." (Alice Walker; 2003; 36)

Cultural aspects of the novel seen through Byrams five saviors

To acquire intercultural ability according to Byram, it is important to have the following five elements at hand:

Attitudes, the awareness of other cultures give you the ability to change ones mind. ''The Color Purple” gives the reader a picture of what life in the United States was like for many African Americans before the Civil Rights Act.

Knowledge, ways of learning how to obtain insight into one’s own culture along with other cultures.

Skills to guide the learner, which enhances their ability to relate to it as well as relate their own culture.

Skills to discover and interact. The learner is given transnational information and can use it in interaction with others.

Education, knowledge and critical cultural awareness. “The Color Purple” helps the learner to achieve a critical awareness.

The language in the book is very colloquial and it reflects very uneducated people

The colour purple is a royal colour

Themes

• Female African-American life during the 1930s in the Southern United States
• Male dominance/violence
• Colonialism/Missionary in Africa at the Beginning of the 20 th. Century
• Religion Music

Alice Walker is the author of 'The Color Purple'.

See an interview with her here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uALf_v0zxgE