Women and Literacy in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple 137

Alice Walker portrays the struggle of an oppressed woman in The Color Purple. Her main
argument basically states that by having your own voice and not allowing someone to
speak for you is a key element in freedom. By letting another person control you,  you
are placing your freedom in their hands. Ceily was controlled by her husband for many
years and when she became tired and realized that she in fact was oppressed, she
decided to do something about it i.e deciding to leave her husband and move out their
home.


A woman should be able to think and voice out for themselves. I believe
that by not having a voice is an oppression of itself. By not having a voice one is stuck
into a state of vulnerability to whomever is controlling that persons life, and once into
that state it is extremely hard to break from it. In order to be able to read and write you
must have a voice of your own before hand therefore: you are able to analyze and and
portray the literacy from your own point of view and knowledge.