The Color Purple brought on it's self a storm of controversy upon it's publication.

Critics charged Walker with focusing on the sexual oppression of black women at the expense of dealing with the overall oppression of blacks. However, Walker's novel is a complex analysis of race relations and racial identity. Celie's letters to God are the sole narrative for the first half of the novel. Celie is a poor, uneducated, Southern black woman. Her experiences are limited to a small geographic area. However, when she discovers her sister Nettie's letters after years of separation, Walker situates Celie's narrative at the crossroads of a complex discourse on racial identity.

Samuel, Nettie, and Corrine travel to Africa as missionaries. They naively expect Africans to identify with them on the basis of their race. However, Africans often associate them with other foreigners. They are not welcomed as long-lost brothers and sisters. The Olinka village where they work regards them with a mixture of contempt and indifference. They s

When English colonists rob her people of their land in order to start rubber plantations, Tashi is torn between her individual desires and the threat of annihilation facing Olinka culture. She chooses to undergo the traditional Olinka facial scarring ceremony as well as the traditional female circumcision. In order to aid the Olinka in the preservation of their cultural identity, Tashi accepts both the indelible Olinka facial scars and the castration of Olinka women. She gives up her clitoris in the name of consolidating Olinka identity. Her sacrifice is a remarkable contrast to Celie's liberating sexual awakening.

Walker's novel portrays racial identity as a complex, varied discourse. However, black woman in America and Africa suffer the same problems of male violence and control. In a sense, the novel suggests that it is impossible to explore black racial identity without dealing with the status of black women. Her novel is unapologetic in its attacks on sexism, and it is equally unapologetic in its attacks on racism, even the racism of American blacks toward Africans. If

Some common words found in the essay are:
Shug Avery, Nettie Corrine, Olivia English, Color Purple, America Africa, Samuel Nettie, racial identity, black women, samuel nettie, traditional female circumcision, samuel nettie corrine, celie's narrative, unapologetic attacks, cultural identity, nettie corrine, female circumcision, status black, traditional olinka,
Approximate Word count = 729
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)