Grebstein theory helps the writer to understand the character described by the authour clearly by seeing how the style of writing of the author through hisher
work. Andrews 2001 : 414 states, “Written in epistolary form, Walkers third novel exposses the internal turmoil parenting the spiritual decay of African
American woman who, like the novel’s protagonist, silently endure abusive male- dominated relationships.” In the novel, Alice Walker as an author seems to
convey something to the reader about the characters inside by her style of writing.
2.3 Character and Society
To make it easier in understanding the characters in a literary work, it is better to know the background of the character itself, because character in the
literary work represents society. As quoted from 1988: 105 says, “character. The people in a novel are referred to as characters. We asses them on the basis of what
the author tells us about them and on the basis of what they do and say. This is important: we must avoid loose conjecture about a character and establish
everything from the evidence of the text. Another point to remember is that the characters are part of a broader pattern: they are members of society, and the
author’s distinctive view of how people relate to society will be reflected in the presentation of every chapter. Details are not included just for their own sake but
relate to the overall pattern of the novel.” It shows that the relationship between character and society.
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As the novel is written by African-American woman, The color purple represents African-American society. The majority of African-Americans descend
from slaves who were either sold as prisoners of war by African states or kidnapped directly by Europeans or Americans. The existing market for slaves in
Africa was tapped into by European powers in need of labor for New World Plantation. Through this background, African-Americans face the racial
discrimination, alienation, and marginality. it is meant that African-Americans were not welcome. Langley 1999 : 6 says, “perhaps the most significant recent
violations of human right are in the area of discrimination based on race, sex, and religion, among other categories.”
Racial discrimination or racism denotes prejudice, appression, and atrocities. It has been one of the biggest evils daced by mankind. It is belief that
inherent racial differences among people is the reason for superiority of a particular ethnic group or religion. Racism acts as a justification for non-equal
treatment of members of that race. In social sciences, alienation is the feeling of estranged or seperated from
one’s milieu, work, or self. The idea of alienation remains an ambiguous concept. They are powerlessness and meaninglessness. Powerlessness, the feeling when
one’s destiny is not under one’s own control, but it is determined by external agents, fate, and luck. While meaninglessness, referring to the lack of
comprehensibility or consistent meaning in any domain of action or to a generalized of a purposelessness.
Marginality or marginalization is the social process of being made marginal. It results in an individuals exclusion from meaningful participants in
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society. Marginalised people might be socially, economically, politically, and legally ignored, ecluded or neglected, and are therefore vulnerable to livelihood
change. Besides, African-American women has to face gender problem, they are
suffering. They have to deal with discrimination in two levels: being black and female. African-American woman have numerous issues to deal with on a daily
basis. Many of them are single parent that do not receive support from their child’s father. It makes them getting deppressed. They are the victims of the
society and black men too. The problems of black men’s violence against black woman raises sensitive issues of gender and race
As a result of all African-Americans’ suffering, the literature produced tends to focuss and explain on the freedom, equality, democracy, racism, religion,
gender, and culture.
2.4 Prose
