Abstract

In the last three decades of the last century, the development of feminist literature grew vigorously, and pushed the women's liberation movement initiated in the late 19th century to a new climax. African American writer Alice Walker is one of the strong black feminist and her famous work the color purple utters her heart-felt battle cries for the movement. The work reflects African American women’s lives and feelings, suffering and hope from a unique perspective. It reveals the self-awakening process of black women.

This paper studies Celie and Sofia, from the perspective of marital relationships so as to analyze the positions and changes of the two different protagonists in different stages of their marriage. This paper firstly describes the status and the role of the two women in the marriage relationship, followed by changes and the reasons for the changes in the middle stage, then Celie and Sofia’s behavior after they have gained an awareness of self-identity. Lastly, the two heroines succeed through their own struggle. Through this analysis, readers will understand that black women suffer not only from racial discrimination, but also from the oppression of men, and thus achieve a clear and in-depth understanding of the hardships they encounter on their way to seek self-identity and the recovery of the sense of women as independent subjects.

Key words: the Color Purple, marital relationships, awareness of black women, awakening, growth

摘        要

上世纪的最后三十年，女性主义文学迅速崛起，把发起于19世纪末的妇女解放运动再次推向了高潮。美国黑人女作家爱丽丝•沃克则是坚定的黑人女性主义者之一。其成名作小说《紫颜色》是其内心深处的呐喊。作者以独特的视角反映了美国黑人女性的生活和感情，痛苦与希望，揭示了黑人女性从惨遭奴役到自我觉醒的过程。
本文从夫妻关系的角度对小说中主要人物西丽和索菲亚分别的夫妻关系展开研究，探析两位截然不同的女性在婚姻前、中、后期分别所处的地位和生活的变化。文章首先阐述两位女性在婚姻初期的夫妻关系中所处的地位、扮演的角色，其次是中期的一些变化及变化原因，然后是西丽和索菲亚自己意识觉醒后的表现，最后是两位女主人公通过自己的奋斗分别取得的胜利。通过这样的分析，使读者了解黑人女性受到的不仅是来自种族的歧视和压迫还有来自男性的欺压，从而更加清晰、深入地了解黑人女性成长道路上寻求自我身份认同及复苏女性主体意识的艰辛。

关键词：紫颜色；夫妻关系；黑人女性意识；觉醒；成长