Womanist Mechanisms of Empowerment:

Abstract

This study is an attempt to examine the womanist mechanisms of empowerment and self-recognition that the protagonist Celie uses in her process of growing up in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982). On the basis of psychoanalysis and womanist strategies, the study attempts to analyze Celie’s satges of metamorphosis as well as the womanist strength that is achieved from three sources. Female solidarity provides her with unity and support with other women and creates a harmounious world that encourages her to ovecome all the obstacles that come into her way. Letter writing, comes as a catalyst for Celie’s breakout for her self-enclosure. Lastly is quilting, which functions as an alternative methodology of speech that enables Celie to break out the silence and speak up for herself. Therefore, the study aims at scrutinizing the central character’s process of rejecting her status as oppressed and a victim woman to adopt after the tragic experiences the role of fully independent woman. Walker believes that the patriarchal evils of racism and sexism are the cause of oppression from which Afro-American women suffer from. Thus Walker quoted the term ‘womanism’ as a reaction to this double oppression as well as to feminism that fails to address black women’s sufferings.