Self and Identity in The Color Purple and The Bluest Eye.

In African-American texts, blacks are seen as struggling with the patriarchal worlds they live in order to achieve a sense of Self and Identity. The texts I have chosen illustrate the hazards of Western religion, Rape, Patriarchal Dominance and Colonial notions of white supremacy; an intend to show how the protagonists of Alice Walker's The Color Purple as well as Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, cope with or crumble due to these issues in their …

…story to show how it does not work, Walker proves that it degenerates into meaninglessness under any kind of scrutiny. But in the descent into senselessness, it also parallels Pecola's descent into madness - a sharp contrast to the similarly Euro-influenced and patriarchal epistolary form used by Walker - a sharp contrast because, Walker's protagonist uses this... the only form available for her, the voiceless, to overcome the patriarchal oppression and gradually find her 'Self'.