IDENTITY AND RELIGION IN ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE
IDENTITY AND RELIGION IN ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE

Summary/Abstract: This article is an attempt to show the concepts of identity and religion in The Color Purple. Alice Walker tries to reveal the position of Afro-American people in the contemporary world. The issues facing the African-American race in regards to their racial, national, and sexual identities seem innumerable. The multiplicity of the guidelines by which this race of people seeks to identify itself becomes an almost confusing jumble of multiple threads attempting to form one unified strand. Men and women within the race struggle with their identities, seeking to understand how to be men, women, American, Black, and a variety of other things at once while remaining true to their true “selves.” Through the examination of and battle with these continuously warring elements, the African-American race has defined and redefined the standards of “being Black.” Among the greater debates and long-lasting identity struggles lies the issue of religion. Alice Walker believes that The Color Purple remains for her “the theological work explaining the journey from the religious back to the spiritual.” In the “Preface” to The Color Purple, Walker reveals her religious development as the motivation for her novel and believes that religion and spirituality are the major themes of this novel. The author in this article tries to focus on both identity and religion and believes that the issue of identity must be taken into consideration when assessing Walker's success in delivering her theological message to her readers.

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