African American Criticism: Marginalization and Eurocentrism in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple

Abstract

This paper discusses The Color Purple by Alice Walker using the lens of African American criticism, with regard to the subject of marginalization and Eurocentrism. With the idea of the concept of two consciousness created by W. E. B. Du Bois and the debate of institutionalized racism, intra-racial discrimination, and hegemony, the article explores how the concept of psychological and social oppression of Black women in the racist and patriarchal systems is presented by Walker. The epistolary form of the novel is construed as a narrative technique enabling the female characters who were silenced by the narrative to express their pain and form identity by writing. The discussion shows different types of marginalization, namely gender-related violence, racism between the black population of the same race, and racial oppression by a white power. In addition, the image of Africa and the Olinka tribe is discussed in the article within a larger context of Eurocentric views and colonialism. The conclusion made in the study is that Walker introduces the concept of marginalization as an outcome of institutionalized racism that creates the effect of double consciousness, and narrative voice is a tool of resistance and self-identification.