The World Has Changed (5 page)
Read The World Has Changed Online
Authors: Alice Walker
In her key to the characters of
The Color Purple
, Walker provides details of the background of characters based on family members and others beyond her kinship group. “The Wife” was Rachel Walker, the wife of Henry Clay Walker, or “Pa Pa,” the “man” in question, who reluctantly married Rachel after the murder of his first wife, Kate Nelson, “who was shot by [a] lover in [a] pasture on [her] way home from church. Died at home after much suffering.”
48
The murdered Kate Nelson was the mother of Willie Lee Walker, Walker’s father, who witnessed his mother’s murder. “The Other Woman” was Estella “Shug” Perry of Ohio: “Lover of Henry. Mother of two of his children. Elegant dresser. Honest woman. Kind and frank.”
49
This ménage à trois involving her grandparents was the “germ,” or rather the gem, of the story that became
The Color Purple
. In correspondence many years later, Walker reveals that the character Celie was based upon her “great-grandmother [Anne
50
]. Raped by white plantation owner when 11. Had grandpa Albert when she was 12.”
51
Yet another character who emerged from family history is Nettie: “My mother’s mother. Died when I was two. Mother of twelve. Black. Color struck. Abusive husband. Married to William Grant, whose name is left out (unconsciously) as statement of—?”
52
Interestingly, in the key Walker also reveals that the character Harpo is a “transliteration of Buree [pronounced Bur-yee
53
], my father’s nickname.”
54
The character of Sofia has her origins in Hollywood and the community of Putnam County: “Sophia. Sophia Loren and Miss Sophie, independent woman I confused with Miss Lillie Orange who had a house on a hill, raised flowers and was husband and child free.”
55
But, more importantly, Sofia is named for Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom. And concerning the character of Squeak, or Mary Agness, Walker records in her key that this character’s name is that of a neighbor in
Boonville.
56
Many of the characters in Walker’s classic novel are composites of her ancestors as well as women who are relations of a different kind.
The Color Purple
, Walker provides details of the background of characters based on family members and others beyond her kinship group. “The Wife” was Rachel Walker, the wife of Henry Clay Walker, or “Pa Pa,” the “man” in question, who reluctantly married Rachel after the murder of his first wife, Kate Nelson, “who was shot by [a] lover in [a] pasture on [her] way home from church. Died at home after much suffering.”
48
The murdered Kate Nelson was the mother of Willie Lee Walker, Walker’s father, who witnessed his mother’s murder. “The Other Woman” was Estella “Shug” Perry of Ohio: “Lover of Henry. Mother of two of his children. Elegant dresser. Honest woman. Kind and frank.”
49
This ménage à trois involving her grandparents was the “germ,” or rather the gem, of the story that became
The Color Purple
. In correspondence many years later, Walker reveals that the character Celie was based upon her “great-grandmother [Anne
50
]. Raped by white plantation owner when 11. Had grandpa Albert when she was 12.”
51
Yet another character who emerged from family history is Nettie: “My mother’s mother. Died when I was two. Mother of twelve. Black. Color struck. Abusive husband. Married to William Grant, whose name is left out (unconsciously) as statement of—?”
52
Interestingly, in the key Walker also reveals that the character Harpo is a “transliteration of Buree [pronounced Bur-yee
53
], my father’s nickname.”
54
The character of Sofia has her origins in Hollywood and the community of Putnam County: “Sophia. Sophia Loren and Miss Sophie, independent woman I confused with Miss Lillie Orange who had a house on a hill, raised flowers and was husband and child free.”
55
But, more importantly, Sofia is named for Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom. And concerning the character of Squeak, or Mary Agness, Walker records in her key that this character’s name is that of a neighbor in
Boonville.
56
Many of the characters in Walker’s classic novel are composites of her ancestors as well as women who are relations of a different kind.
During the writing of
The Color Purple
, Walker remembers, there “were days and weeks and even months when nothing happened. Nothing whatsoever.”
57
During these fallow periods she turned to quilting. The writer was initiated into the tradition of quilting by her mother, Minnie Lou Grant Walker, and the other women of Putnam County. Walker made her first quilt during the writing of
In Love and Trouble
. Seeking to create art out of family history, she turned again to a traditional art form introduced to her by her family. “I knew that in order for me to have the kind of meditative depth to [
The Color Purple
] that I needed, that I had to work with my hands and I asked my mother to suggest a pattern that would be easy, and she said that there was nothing easier than the Nine-Patch. You know, you just get some fabric and cut up the pieces into nine blocks and you sew them together and that’s it. So, I followed her advice.... And as I worked on [the quilt], the novel formed.”
58
After a long gestation, Walker committed herself to several years of writing the novel: “I had planned to give myself five years to write
The Color Purple
. . . But . . . less than a year after I started writing, I wrote the last page.”
59
The Color Purple
, Walker remembers, there “were days and weeks and even months when nothing happened. Nothing whatsoever.”
57
During these fallow periods she turned to quilting. The writer was initiated into the tradition of quilting by her mother, Minnie Lou Grant Walker, and the other women of Putnam County. Walker made her first quilt during the writing of
In Love and Trouble
. Seeking to create art out of family history, she turned again to a traditional art form introduced to her by her family. “I knew that in order for me to have the kind of meditative depth to [
The Color Purple
] that I needed, that I had to work with my hands and I asked my mother to suggest a pattern that would be easy, and she said that there was nothing easier than the Nine-Patch. You know, you just get some fabric and cut up the pieces into nine blocks and you sew them together and that’s it. So, I followed her advice.... And as I worked on [the quilt], the novel formed.”
58
After a long gestation, Walker committed herself to several years of writing the novel: “I had planned to give myself five years to write
The Color Purple
. . . But . . . less than a year after I started writing, I wrote the last page.”
59
Walker wrote
The Color Purple
in her favored spiral notebooks; the first few pages of the novel were written in longhand in green ink, her homage to Langston Hughes, who wrote for much of his life in green ink. As the novel assumed a definite form, Walker continued to write in longhand in the multiplying spiral notebooks, choosing more often to write in black ink. It was out of these simple materials, the unassuming props of the writer, that she elevated to the level of art aspects of a family history possessing universal power and significance.
The Color Purple
in her favored spiral notebooks; the first few pages of the novel were written in longhand in green ink, her homage to Langston Hughes, who wrote for much of his life in green ink. As the novel assumed a definite form, Walker continued to write in longhand in the multiplying spiral notebooks, choosing more often to write in black ink. It was out of these simple materials, the unassuming props of the writer, that she elevated to the level of art aspects of a family history possessing universal power and significance.
On April 18, 1983, the world changed again for Walker when she became the first African American woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. When members of the press began calling her for interviews she was disbelieving, as she had not been contacted by the fiction jury for the Pulitzer Prize: “I thought it was a joke and a mean-spirited one at that. I was completely stunned.”
60
After receiving confirmation of the award, Walker confided the news of this historic achievement in American letters to fellow activist Belvie Rooks, who had dropped by her San Francisco co-op on Galilee Lane for a visit: “Well . . . I just
won the Pulitzer for
The Color Purple
. The phone’s been ringing all day and good news can be just as stressful as bad.”
61
Ever the independent daughter of sharecroppers who tolerates no limits on her autonomy and who is generally indifferent to awards from strangers, Walker declined to attend the award ceremony for the Pulitzer Prize. She instead requested that the award money, $1,000, and the citation be mailed to her. “Actually, I think life is the award,” observes Walker. “I love being a black Southern woman. All three add incredible enlargements to being a writer.”
62
In the weeks to come,
The Color Purple
also would be awarded the National Book Award.
60
After receiving confirmation of the award, Walker confided the news of this historic achievement in American letters to fellow activist Belvie Rooks, who had dropped by her San Francisco co-op on Galilee Lane for a visit: “Well . . . I just
won the Pulitzer for
The Color Purple
. The phone’s been ringing all day and good news can be just as stressful as bad.”
61
Ever the independent daughter of sharecroppers who tolerates no limits on her autonomy and who is generally indifferent to awards from strangers, Walker declined to attend the award ceremony for the Pulitzer Prize. She instead requested that the award money, $1,000, and the citation be mailed to her. “Actually, I think life is the award,” observes Walker. “I love being a black Southern woman. All three add incredible enlargements to being a writer.”
62
In the weeks to come,
The Color Purple
also would be awarded the National Book Award.
Alice Walker reading from
The Color Purple
The Color Purple
The Color Purple
and the recognition the novel garnered from the American literary establishment dramatically elevated Walker’s status as an American writer, or to summon again her own language, as a southern, black woman writer. By extension, the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to Walker also elevated and legitimized the literary renaissance among African American women writers of which she was a pioneering figure. A deep believer in the importance of creating councils, circles, and other methods of support in a society that encourages isolation and competition, Walker had established with her friend and fellow writer June Jordan the Sisterhood in the late 1970s. At Jordan’s Brooklyn home, Walker prepared gumbo for the first meeting of the Sisterhood, which included Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, Vertamae Grosvenor, and Audrey Edwards. “I remember wanting us black women writers not to be strangers to each other and felt after a couple of gatherings that we weren’t,” remembers Walker, who at that time had published a significant number of works in both fiction and poetry that heralded a new generation of black women writers. “It was like a council. Being together was the medicine.”
63
Among those writers of the Sisterhood, Walker was the first to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; in 1988 she was succeeded by Toni Morrison, who was awarded the Pulitzer for
Beloved
(1987), and who also would become the first African American and the first American-born woman writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
and the recognition the novel garnered from the American literary establishment dramatically elevated Walker’s status as an American writer, or to summon again her own language, as a southern, black woman writer. By extension, the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to Walker also elevated and legitimized the literary renaissance among African American women writers of which she was a pioneering figure. A deep believer in the importance of creating councils, circles, and other methods of support in a society that encourages isolation and competition, Walker had established with her friend and fellow writer June Jordan the Sisterhood in the late 1970s. At Jordan’s Brooklyn home, Walker prepared gumbo for the first meeting of the Sisterhood, which included Toni Morrison, Ntozake Shange, Vertamae Grosvenor, and Audrey Edwards. “I remember wanting us black women writers not to be strangers to each other and felt after a couple of gatherings that we weren’t,” remembers Walker, who at that time had published a significant number of works in both fiction and poetry that heralded a new generation of black women writers. “It was like a council. Being together was the medicine.”
63
Among those writers of the Sisterhood, Walker was the first to be awarded a Pulitzer Prize; in 1988 she was succeeded by Toni Morrison, who was awarded the Pulitzer for
Beloved
(1987), and who also would become the first African American and the first American-born woman writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
Alice Walker and The Sisterhood. Back row, left to right: Vertamae Grosvenor, Alice Walker, Lori Sharpe, Toni Morrison, June Jordan; seated, left to right: Nana Maynard, Ntozake Shange, and Audrey Edwards. The blues singer Bessie Smith, pictured in the photograph, was an example for the Sisterhood of fearlessness and independence.
After the publication of
The Color Purple
, Walker needed the support of the Sisterhood more than ever. While she had always been attacked by critics, black and white, male and female, for her alleged negative portrayal of African American men, she could not have anticipated the new wave of attacks that came even as the accolades for
The Color Purple
rolled in. Following the release of Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the novel for film in 1985, along with its eleven Academy Award nominations, the naysayers redoubled their efforts. Breaking a long-held silence in the mid-1990s, Walker describes in full detail the impact of the criticism on her:
The Color Purple
, Walker needed the support of the Sisterhood more than ever. While she had always been attacked by critics, black and white, male and female, for her alleged negative portrayal of African American men, she could not have anticipated the new wave of attacks that came even as the accolades for
The Color Purple
rolled in. Following the release of Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of the novel for film in 1985, along with its eleven Academy Award nominations, the naysayers redoubled their efforts. Breaking a long-held silence in the mid-1990s, Walker describes in full detail the impact of the criticism on her:
The attacks, many of them personal and painful, continued for many years, right alongside the praise, the prizes, the Oscar award nominations. I often felt isolated, deliberately misunderstood and alone. This too is the writer’s territory; I accepted it with all the grace and humor I possessed. Still, there is no denying the pain of being not simply challenged publicly, but condemned. It was said that I hated men, black men in particular; that my work was injurious to black male and female relationships; that my ideas of equality and tolerance were harmful, even destructive of the black community. That my success, and that of other black women writers in publishing our work, was at the
expense of black male writers who were not being published sufficiently. I was “accused” of being a lesbian, as if respecting and honoring women automatically discredited anything a woman might say. I was the object of literary stalking: one black male writer attacked me obsessively in lecture, interview and book for over a decade, to the point where I was concerned about his sanity and my safety. In the country north of San Francisco, where I had always sought peace and renewal, I regularly found myself the target of hostile, inflammatory comments by the editor and publisher of the local paper. Because I was the only black woman resident in the community, I was highly visible and felt exposed and vulnerable. This feeling prevented my working at the depth of thought at which I feel most productive. I eventually sought temporary refuge in Mexico, where I was able to work in peace. By then I had grown used to seeing my expressions taken out of context, rearranged, distorted. It was a curious experience that always left me feeling as if I had ingested poison.
64
expense of black male writers who were not being published sufficiently. I was “accused” of being a lesbian, as if respecting and honoring women automatically discredited anything a woman might say. I was the object of literary stalking: one black male writer attacked me obsessively in lecture, interview and book for over a decade, to the point where I was concerned about his sanity and my safety. In the country north of San Francisco, where I had always sought peace and renewal, I regularly found myself the target of hostile, inflammatory comments by the editor and publisher of the local paper. Because I was the only black woman resident in the community, I was highly visible and felt exposed and vulnerable. This feeling prevented my working at the depth of thought at which I feel most productive. I eventually sought temporary refuge in Mexico, where I was able to work in peace. By then I had grown used to seeing my expressions taken out of context, rearranged, distorted. It was a curious experience that always left me feeling as if I had ingested poison.
64
While Walker remains for many a polarizing figure, the naysayers are far outnumbered by those who admire and respect her unwavering commitment to “honor [art’s] sacred function.” Among those admirers is Scott Sanders, the lead producer of the musical adaptation of
The Color Purple
. After a careful courtship, as it were, of Walker, he was granted permission to adapt her novel for the stage. The musical premiered in September 2004 at Atlanta’s Tony Award–winning Alliance Theatre, in a collaboration with Susan Booth, the theater’s artistic director. After a successful, critically acclaimed run in the capital of Walker’s native Georgia, Sanders brought the musical to New York, where it opened at the Broadway Theatre in December 2005. At both venues, the actors performed in theaters filled with diverse and enthusiastic audiences. Nominated for eleven Tony Awards,
The Color Purple
earned a Tony Award for LaChanze as best leading actress for her portrayal of Celie. The return of
The Color Purple
as a musical, a fact that coincided with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of the novel, was not stained by controversy. Through his intelligently and sensitively conceived musical, Sanders introduced Walker’s most well-known work to a new generation of readers.
The Color Purple
. After a careful courtship, as it were, of Walker, he was granted permission to adapt her novel for the stage. The musical premiered in September 2004 at Atlanta’s Tony Award–winning Alliance Theatre, in a collaboration with Susan Booth, the theater’s artistic director. After a successful, critically acclaimed run in the capital of Walker’s native Georgia, Sanders brought the musical to New York, where it opened at the Broadway Theatre in December 2005. At both venues, the actors performed in theaters filled with diverse and enthusiastic audiences. Nominated for eleven Tony Awards,
The Color Purple
earned a Tony Award for LaChanze as best leading actress for her portrayal of Celie. The return of
The Color Purple
as a musical, a fact that coincided with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of the novel, was not stained by controversy. Through his intelligently and sensitively conceived musical, Sanders introduced Walker’s most well-known work to a new generation of readers.
The Color Purple
is an important, pivotal work in Walker’s corpus
because it established her as a canonical figure in American letters and an iconic figure in American culture. This epistolary novel based upon aspects of her family history is also important because it marks a shift in her work. The writings between
Once
and
The Color Purple
, from 1968 to 1983, constitute the first phase of an impressive artistic career. In them Walker explores the impact of a region—the South in general and her native Georgia in particular—with its peculiar history, its race-based, race-privileging structures of dominance, its cultural traditions, its complex, evolving racial and gender formations, and the social justice movement that in large part transformed it. In exploring these questions, Walker also endows with artistic significance the impact of region and social change upon the individual.
is an important, pivotal work in Walker’s corpus
because it established her as a canonical figure in American letters and an iconic figure in American culture. This epistolary novel based upon aspects of her family history is also important because it marks a shift in her work. The writings between
Once
and
The Color Purple
, from 1968 to 1983, constitute the first phase of an impressive artistic career. In them Walker explores the impact of a region—the South in general and her native Georgia in particular—with its peculiar history, its race-based, race-privileging structures of dominance, its cultural traditions, its complex, evolving racial and gender formations, and the social justice movement that in large part transformed it. In exploring these questions, Walker also endows with artistic significance the impact of region and social change upon the individual.
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