Some womens can’t be beat : An intersectional analysis of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Sapphire’s Push

Abstract

This MA thesis analyses Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple (1982) and Sapphire’s novel Push (1996) through intersectionality’s framework. The aim of the study is to identify and analyse the different types of oppression the protagonists face in both novels, focusing on oppression due to gender, race, and unequal education. Before the analysis I discuss the theories that preceded intersectionality, as it is the latest addition to a series of interconnected theories. I focus mainly on the protagonists Celie and Precious, but I also study other characters in the novels, including Harpo, Shug and Albert in The Color Purple and Mary and Ms. Rain in Push. At the end I discuss my results, particularly the multiple conscious and unconscious ways in which the society oppresses the weaker minorities, and how the oppression still happens to this day a hundred years after the time The Color Purple takes place in. As closing words, I implore that the society should strive to cultivate empathy and embrace equitable treatment as fundamental principles.