Analyse the ways in which Alice Walker uses sewing, quilts and pants in the colour purple.
Through out the novel the colour purple Alice Walker uses such symbols as pants, sewing and quilts. The relevance to these symbols used relate greatly to the books historical context, of which Alice Walker herself claims to be ‘Womansim”
We see Celie the protagonist of the novel progress from a weak, repressed bullied woman blossom into an assertive, strong character that by the end of the novel is able to speak her own mind due to the help of other women in the novel. Pants and trousers are used by Alice walker to symbolise the freedom Celie gains eventually. As the wearing of trousers or pants was very unusual still in the period that Walker sets the novel in, pants seem to symbolise liberation for women. Women rarely wore pants so this supports Alice Walkers idea’s for Celie’s character to develop throughout the novel as she becomes more daring and adventurous. Shug first introduces Celie to pants, when she criticizes Celie for working in the garden whilst wearing a dress. Shug tells Celie she should be wearing pants for gardening as she’d have more freedom to move around. Shug also reveals that she in the past has worn Albert’s pants and Albert has worn Shug’s clothes which Celie feel’s is quite odd at first. However pants give freedom to a woman as they are physically able to move around freely while completing tasks, which go hand in hand with the idea that Celie becomes liberated. Pants may also represent a woman taking on a male role, as we find out later in the novel Celie prefers women to men, however she feel’s comfortable wearing pants. This can also link into the fact that Celie is not to be seen as a sex object after she becomes to seem gradually liberated. Linking back to the books historical context, as the novel was written in the 1980’s, generally in the peak of the feminism movement, pant’s send a universal message that women should be able to feel...