Relationships in "The New Dress" and "The Color Purple"

Paper Summary:

This essay compares and contrasts the roles of the female relationships in Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" and Virginia Woolf's "The New Dress". The paper explains that, for Woolf, the relationships serve to ignite the main character's own insecurities about herself, her appearance, her nature, and her background, whereas Walker's female relationships are used almost as a buffer between the male-dominated, white-dominated world and an autonomous sphere where women can understand and explore themselves.

From the Paper:

"Black women in The Color Purple are afforded a form of sovereignty from the tumultuous events and people surrounding them: they maintain their identity despite the forms of oppression they are forced to face. By these means, the women in The Color Purple earn their right for happiness; they can only enjoy their outward lives through accepting their inner emotional states. Although these women are prepared to fight if the need arises, and laugh and cry as they feel the need, it is truly through their capacity to love that they achieve anything in the external world. Essentially, female companionship is what gives Walker's characters the strength to continue through their chaotic lives. Pain, sorrow, hopes, and dreams are all shared and made communal in The Color Purple; in this way, they borrow from each other's strengths in times of weakness, and give their strengths to those who need them."

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