Abstract: Alice Walker is an outstanding black woman writer in American literature and The Color Purple is her representative work. It successfully depicts how Celie, a 14-year-old black girl, shakes off patriarchal oppression and achieves her individual identity and self-actualization. The success of the novel lies in that it points out to the black women what road to choose to gain their emancipation and how to make the choice. This thesis discusses the symbolic meanings of colors in The Color Purple. Alice Walker uses various colors in the novel to symbolize the mood, environment and different stages of growth of the heroine. In the novel, black symbolizes black women’s humble origin, blue symbolizes black women’s sad feelings, red symbolizes black women’s independent spirit, yellow symbolizes black women’s best hope, and purple symbolizes black women’s dignity and happiness. The author chooses purple as the title and carefully constructs a symbolic color system. This paper attempts to analyze the symbolic meanings of colors by applying Walker’s “womanism” theory and therefore readers will have a deeper understanding of the novel.
Key words: colors; symbol; womanism
摘要:艾丽丝·沃克是美国文学史上杰出的女作家，《紫颜色》是她的代表作。小说成功地描述了一个14岁黑人小女孩西丽如何摆脱父权压迫，追求自我身份和自我实现的心路历程。它的成功在于它为黑人妇女指出了走怎样一条解放之路并在现实面前应做何种选择的问题。本文解读了《紫颜色》中颜色所包含的丰富的象征意义。沃克在小说中运用了丰富的色彩来象征主人公的心境、环境和成长的不同阶段。在小说中,黑象征黑人妇女的低微出身；蓝象征黑人妇女的悲伤情感；红象征黑人妇女的独立精神；黄象征黑人妇女的美好希望；紫象征黑人妇女的尊严和幸福。 作者用紫色做标题,精心构筑一个以紫色为中心色彩的象征体系。本文试图从沃克的独创理论妇女主义的角度出发，解读小说中各种颜色所包含的丰富的象征意义，从而使读者对这部小说有更深刻的理解。
关键词：颜色；象征；妇女主义
