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【摘要】本文通過对爱丽丝·沃克的《紫色》和汤亭亭的《女勇士》的简要评论，挖掘小说的主题，比较研究了两部小说的相似之处：即两者都以作者及其亲属的真实生活经历为背景，再现女主人公在种族和性别双重压迫下寻求自我身份与价值的艰辛历程，鼓励女性，特别是黑人妇女挑战旧俗，打破沉默，自信独立。希望本文能够给美国族裔文学研究以启示和借鉴。
【关键词】《紫色》；《女勇士》；比较研究；相似
I. Introduction
Alice Walker is an outstanding Afro-American woman writer who concerns about the fate of black women in America， who are under the double oppression of racism and sexism. In her masterpiece， The Color Purple， she shows her understanding of the process that black women must undergo to achieve their vision. Through the experience of Celie， Alice Walker provides a role model for women all over the world； While Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior is another influential book in the 20th century making a thunder of voice in the world to accuse the stereo type of patriarchy and racism， which also shows the Chinese Americans’ difficulty of being edged to the cultural cliff. Though Alice Walker and Maxine Hong Kingston come from different ethnic groups， have dissimilar experience in their life and write with distinct techniques， their masterpieces， The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior respectively， have great similarities. Based on a brief review of the two novels， this paper tries to exemplify these similarities between the two works， and the author hopes that this comparative work could give some positive implications to the ethnic-American literature studies.
II. Generalization of The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior
Generally speaking， The Color Purple describes Celie’s growth in her self-awareness and her struggles against the sexist and racist oppression in the patriarchal society.
As an epistolary novel， The Color Purple composes of 92 letters. The first half are written by Celie to God and the latter half are letters between Celie and Netie， her younger sister. The story takes place in a rural area of South America， beginning from the 19th century to the end of the World War Two. As a teenager Celie is repeatedly raped and beaten by her stepfather， then forced by him into a loveless marriage to Albert， a widower with four children， to whom， Celie is merely a servant and an occasional sexual convenience. With her kindheartedness and effort， Celie leaves Albert eventually and moves to Memphis where she starts a business of designing and making clothes. Meanwhile she becomes independent in economy and strong in character， and sets up a positive model for all the black women around her.
The Woman Warrior focuses on the stories of five women. It begins with “No-Name Woman”， which starts with a talk-story， about an aunt Kingston never knew she had；“White Tigers” is based on another talk-story about Fa Mu Lan. The story is told through Kingston’s first-person narrative； “Shaman” focuses on Kingston’s mother， Brave Orchid， and her old life back in China； “At the Western Palace” tells about Brave Orchid’s sister—Moon Orchid’s situation； The final chapter—“A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” is about Kingston herself. This section focuses mainly on her childhood and teenage years， depicting her anger and frustration in trying to express herself and attempting to please an unappreciative mother. These five chapters integrate Kingston’s life experience with a series of talk-stories told by her mother. III. Similarities between The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior
1.Stories based on the experience of the authors’ relatives or themselves
Both Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior are based on the authors’ own experience or their relatives’.
Walker once reveals that， Celie was based on the story of her great-grandmother who at twelve was raped and abused. Her work shows the blacks’ sense of double consciousness. On one hand， African Americans want to preserve independence of their identity， establishing cognitive system according to the blackness； on the other hand， they have to integrate African culture and American culture. Yet African-American women have to deal with the situation of being both black and female. Being a black woman herself and believing that the black women are the most oppressed people in the world. Walker always has endless empathy for the black woman. Therefore she has not only examined the external realities of poverty， exploitation and discrimination facing the black women in her writing， but also focused on the inner lives of the black women. This may be closely related with Walker’s own feeling because at a young age， she lived through the feeling of being an outcast. When she was eight years old， she lost the sight of an eye when one of her older brothers shot her with a gun. The disfigurement made her feel ugly， and for years， she felt alienated from others and the society. This experience caused her to notice the relationship between social forces and personal development.
Similarly， many talk-stories in The Woman Warrior either by Maxine Hong Kingston or her mother are based on their own experience. For example， Kingston tells that she has encountered a Chinese American girl slightly younger than herself who never utters a single word， except when reading aloud. She traps her in the girls’ lavatory at the school one day and tries to force her to speak， pinching her cheeks， pulling her hair， offering bribes， and making threats： “If you don’t talk， you can’t have a personality，” she keeps saying， “You’ll have no personality and no hair” （Kingston 210）. She ends up joining the little girl in her tears， though， and spends the following year and half in bed with a mysterious sickness.
2.Stories centering on the theme of ethnic-Americans’ double consciousness and female assertiveness
Both their works show the ethnic Americans sense of double consciousness. On one hand， they want to preserve independence of their identity， establishing cognitive system according to their own ethnic culture； on the other hand， they have to integrate their own culture and the American culture. Female assertiveness is Walker’s way of delimiting women’s space. She liberates Sofia from submissiveness， making her a mouthy free spirit， a challenge to a powerful systems constructed by white people. Shug is a adventurous blues singer with fine tastes and without limits on her sexual preferences. Nettie， too， asserts herself by escaping her stepfather’s house rather than succumbing to his unwanted advances. Her escape takes her all the way to Africa to seek for knowledge. Although Celie used to endure a slave-like existence and accept all the negative treatment that comes her way， she became nothing less than a womanist at last by fighting against her husband’s beating and reclaiming the matrilineal creative art of sewing.
Kingston， unlike the lunatic women who plague her， in the end does not succumb to the silence that imperils her childhood and adolescence. As an adult， she eventually discovers her voice and the courage to articulate her own ambivalence by creating the autobiography out of family stories， Chinese myths， and her own memories. Besides， in Kingston’s narration， she also accounts her mother finding of independence and success at the To Keung School of Midwifery. Away from the New Society Village， she is responsible for no one but herself， and quickly makes herself known as one of the more brilliant students in her class. She also impresses her classmates when she fights and destroys a malicious ghost and then hunts down the ghost and destroys it. When she returns to her village， she is treated like a magician or shaman， with an amazing ability both to heal the sicknesses of others and to destroy or scare away ghosts.
3.Stories concerning female relationships
Female relationships are another important theme in Walker’s novel. A tender sisterhood establishes a secure bond that holds even through years of separation between Nettie and Ceilie. When Celie reads Nettie’s letters， she is able to summon the courage to endure Albert’s brutality. Sofia and Celie share a familial connection， and Sofia is instrumental in arousing Ceilie’s curiosity about being assertive. “Shug and Celie share a relationship that crosses over into many levels?—sisterhood， girlfriends， host and guest， teacher and student， caretaker and patient and even lovers” （Bates 96）. Celie’s circle of friends save her from silence and help her escape from a man’s world.
In The Woman Warrior， Kingston reflects the dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship through various kind of narrative movement. The first three stories move toward defining the mother， thereby distinguishing her from the daughter； the latter two stories go on to define the daughter， distinguishing her from the mother. Although the mother creates her relationship with her daughter through the kinds of stories she tells her， the daughter is not satisfied with her mother’s account all the time. “My mother has told me once and for all the useful parts. She will add nothing unless powered by Necessity， a riverbank that guides her life” （Kinston 6）. 4.Stories reflecting women’s change from keeping silence to self-expression
Both the two novels stressed the necessity and importance of breaking silence to voice. In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple， Celie initially entombs herself in years of silence. She is submissive to Albert’s dominance， and becomes a defeated soul， a victim of abusive patriarchal power. With the assistance of Sofia and Shug， she finally overcomes her passivity and uses her voice to transform herself； Maxine Hong Kingston begins The Woman Warrior with the tale of her nameless aunt， a woman engulfed by defeating silence. She concludes her memoir with the legend of Ts’ai Yen， a female poet who triumphs in dong. As an American heiress confounded by a legacy of Chinese language and culture， Kingston records her own struggle for self-expression. The mute schoolgirl who smeared paper with opaque black paint， the incommunicative adolescent who could not voice her sorrow to her mother， the inarticulate young adult who could only peep in protests to her racist employers eventually becomes the adult artist who “talks-story” in high and clear voice.
Both Walker and Kingston work their way from speechlessness to eloquence not only by covering the historical stages from suffering patriarchy， to rebelling against its convention， to creating their own ethos， but also by developing a style that emerges from their respective cultures.
5.Stories searching for the cultural roots
The culture of black women is one indispensable part in the history of culture and has its own unique tradition. The search for black women’s self-confidence should start from the search for the culture of black women. In The Color Purple Nettie’s journey to Africa represents the direction for black women to search for their own culture. In this sense， a pursuit of the culture and tradition of black women is an important weapon against racial and sexual discrimination. In The Color Purple， pants-making and blues singing are black women’s own peculiar activities. They are not only the expression of black women’s creativity and imagination， but also the approach to find their roles in the community. Black women’s songs have been a particularly radical site of feminist and African American resistance and self-affirmation， a discourse that articulates a cultural and political struggle over sexual relations （Chen 33-36）.
Many traditional customs like feet-binding， common practice among midwives of killing baby girls at birth， suffocating them in a box of clean ashes， and the prearrangement of marriage by parents are mentioned by Maxine Hong Kingston in The Woman Warrior. Also the Chinese traditional tales about Fa Mu Lan and Ts’ai Yen are used in the narration， and Kingston becomes a talk-stories teller as her mother. V. Conclusion
From the above detailed analyses， we can see that in The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior alike， breaking silence， acknowledging female assertiveness and female influence， together with preserving cultural and national characteristics are a coordinated art applied by both Alice Walker and Maxine Hong Kingston. Without doubt， both the two works are outstanding for they are rich in its contents and full of realistic and social significance. Walker exposes the fact that racial and sexual discrimination have historically persecuted black women’s survival. She not only reveals the tragic conditions black men and women， especially the latter， have to face， but also figures out a solution to conquer the oppression， that is， to establish a harmonious womanist society. Kingston， a Chinese American writer， with dual ethnic identity and cultural background， has been struggling for the cultural psychological balance through her novels. Her efforts to achieve cultural psychological balance in her writing are not only the real reflection of the whole Chinese American ethnic group but a struggling process of everyone in the world.
參考文献：
[1]Bates， Gerri. Alice Walker[M]. A Critical Companion. London： Greenwood Press， 2005. 95-97.
[2]陈锡麟（ChenXi-lin）. 虚构与事实：战后美国小说的当代性与新现实主义[J].外国文学研究，1992 （3）： 33-38.
[3]Kingston， Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior： Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts [Z]. New York： Alfred A. Knopf， Inc. 1976.
[4]Christian， Barbara. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple[M]. New York： Barnes & Noble Books， 1998.
[5]Walker， Alice. The Color Purple [M]. London： Phoenix， 2004.
[6]艾丽丝·沃克，《紫色》（ 杨仁敬译） [M]. 北京：十月文艺出版社，1987。
基金项目：本文系2015年辽宁省社科基金 “西方女性主义文学批评及其对中国女性写作的影响” （项目编号：L15CWW001）的阶段性成果。
作者简介：曲巍巍（1982—），女，辽宁沈阳人，渤海大学大学外语教研部讲师，从事大学英语教学研究，英美文学研究。
【关键词】《紫色》；《女勇士》；比较研究；相似
I. Introduction
Alice Walker is an outstanding Afro-American woman writer who concerns about the fate of black women in America， who are under the double oppression of racism and sexism. In her masterpiece， The Color Purple， she shows her understanding of the process that black women must undergo to achieve their vision. Through the experience of Celie， Alice Walker provides a role model for women all over the world； While Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior is another influential book in the 20th century making a thunder of voice in the world to accuse the stereo type of patriarchy and racism， which also shows the Chinese Americans’ difficulty of being edged to the cultural cliff. Though Alice Walker and Maxine Hong Kingston come from different ethnic groups， have dissimilar experience in their life and write with distinct techniques， their masterpieces， The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior respectively， have great similarities. Based on a brief review of the two novels， this paper tries to exemplify these similarities between the two works， and the author hopes that this comparative work could give some positive implications to the ethnic-American literature studies.
II. Generalization of The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior
Generally speaking， The Color Purple describes Celie’s growth in her self-awareness and her struggles against the sexist and racist oppression in the patriarchal society.
As an epistolary novel， The Color Purple composes of 92 letters. The first half are written by Celie to God and the latter half are letters between Celie and Netie， her younger sister. The story takes place in a rural area of South America， beginning from the 19th century to the end of the World War Two. As a teenager Celie is repeatedly raped and beaten by her stepfather， then forced by him into a loveless marriage to Albert， a widower with four children， to whom， Celie is merely a servant and an occasional sexual convenience. With her kindheartedness and effort， Celie leaves Albert eventually and moves to Memphis where she starts a business of designing and making clothes. Meanwhile she becomes independent in economy and strong in character， and sets up a positive model for all the black women around her.
The Woman Warrior focuses on the stories of five women. It begins with “No-Name Woman”， which starts with a talk-story， about an aunt Kingston never knew she had；“White Tigers” is based on another talk-story about Fa Mu Lan. The story is told through Kingston’s first-person narrative； “Shaman” focuses on Kingston’s mother， Brave Orchid， and her old life back in China； “At the Western Palace” tells about Brave Orchid’s sister—Moon Orchid’s situation； The final chapter—“A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe” is about Kingston herself. This section focuses mainly on her childhood and teenage years， depicting her anger and frustration in trying to express herself and attempting to please an unappreciative mother. These five chapters integrate Kingston’s life experience with a series of talk-stories told by her mother. III. Similarities between The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior
1.Stories based on the experience of the authors’ relatives or themselves
Both Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior are based on the authors’ own experience or their relatives’.
Walker once reveals that， Celie was based on the story of her great-grandmother who at twelve was raped and abused. Her work shows the blacks’ sense of double consciousness. On one hand， African Americans want to preserve independence of their identity， establishing cognitive system according to the blackness； on the other hand， they have to integrate African culture and American culture. Yet African-American women have to deal with the situation of being both black and female. Being a black woman herself and believing that the black women are the most oppressed people in the world. Walker always has endless empathy for the black woman. Therefore she has not only examined the external realities of poverty， exploitation and discrimination facing the black women in her writing， but also focused on the inner lives of the black women. This may be closely related with Walker’s own feeling because at a young age， she lived through the feeling of being an outcast. When she was eight years old， she lost the sight of an eye when one of her older brothers shot her with a gun. The disfigurement made her feel ugly， and for years， she felt alienated from others and the society. This experience caused her to notice the relationship between social forces and personal development.
Similarly， many talk-stories in The Woman Warrior either by Maxine Hong Kingston or her mother are based on their own experience. For example， Kingston tells that she has encountered a Chinese American girl slightly younger than herself who never utters a single word， except when reading aloud. She traps her in the girls’ lavatory at the school one day and tries to force her to speak， pinching her cheeks， pulling her hair， offering bribes， and making threats： “If you don’t talk， you can’t have a personality，” she keeps saying， “You’ll have no personality and no hair” （Kingston 210）. She ends up joining the little girl in her tears， though， and spends the following year and half in bed with a mysterious sickness.
2.Stories centering on the theme of ethnic-Americans’ double consciousness and female assertiveness
Both their works show the ethnic Americans sense of double consciousness. On one hand， they want to preserve independence of their identity， establishing cognitive system according to their own ethnic culture； on the other hand， they have to integrate their own culture and the American culture. Female assertiveness is Walker’s way of delimiting women’s space. She liberates Sofia from submissiveness， making her a mouthy free spirit， a challenge to a powerful systems constructed by white people. Shug is a adventurous blues singer with fine tastes and without limits on her sexual preferences. Nettie， too， asserts herself by escaping her stepfather’s house rather than succumbing to his unwanted advances. Her escape takes her all the way to Africa to seek for knowledge. Although Celie used to endure a slave-like existence and accept all the negative treatment that comes her way， she became nothing less than a womanist at last by fighting against her husband’s beating and reclaiming the matrilineal creative art of sewing.
Kingston， unlike the lunatic women who plague her， in the end does not succumb to the silence that imperils her childhood and adolescence. As an adult， she eventually discovers her voice and the courage to articulate her own ambivalence by creating the autobiography out of family stories， Chinese myths， and her own memories. Besides， in Kingston’s narration， she also accounts her mother finding of independence and success at the To Keung School of Midwifery. Away from the New Society Village， she is responsible for no one but herself， and quickly makes herself known as one of the more brilliant students in her class. She also impresses her classmates when she fights and destroys a malicious ghost and then hunts down the ghost and destroys it. When she returns to her village， she is treated like a magician or shaman， with an amazing ability both to heal the sicknesses of others and to destroy or scare away ghosts.
3.Stories concerning female relationships
Female relationships are another important theme in Walker’s novel. A tender sisterhood establishes a secure bond that holds even through years of separation between Nettie and Ceilie. When Celie reads Nettie’s letters， she is able to summon the courage to endure Albert’s brutality. Sofia and Celie share a familial connection， and Sofia is instrumental in arousing Ceilie’s curiosity about being assertive. “Shug and Celie share a relationship that crosses over into many levels?—sisterhood， girlfriends， host and guest， teacher and student， caretaker and patient and even lovers” （Bates 96）. Celie’s circle of friends save her from silence and help her escape from a man’s world.
In The Woman Warrior， Kingston reflects the dynamics of the mother-daughter relationship through various kind of narrative movement. The first three stories move toward defining the mother， thereby distinguishing her from the daughter； the latter two stories go on to define the daughter， distinguishing her from the mother. Although the mother creates her relationship with her daughter through the kinds of stories she tells her， the daughter is not satisfied with her mother’s account all the time. “My mother has told me once and for all the useful parts. She will add nothing unless powered by Necessity， a riverbank that guides her life” （Kinston 6）. 4.Stories reflecting women’s change from keeping silence to self-expression
Both the two novels stressed the necessity and importance of breaking silence to voice. In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple， Celie initially entombs herself in years of silence. She is submissive to Albert’s dominance， and becomes a defeated soul， a victim of abusive patriarchal power. With the assistance of Sofia and Shug， she finally overcomes her passivity and uses her voice to transform herself； Maxine Hong Kingston begins The Woman Warrior with the tale of her nameless aunt， a woman engulfed by defeating silence. She concludes her memoir with the legend of Ts’ai Yen， a female poet who triumphs in dong. As an American heiress confounded by a legacy of Chinese language and culture， Kingston records her own struggle for self-expression. The mute schoolgirl who smeared paper with opaque black paint， the incommunicative adolescent who could not voice her sorrow to her mother， the inarticulate young adult who could only peep in protests to her racist employers eventually becomes the adult artist who “talks-story” in high and clear voice.
Both Walker and Kingston work their way from speechlessness to eloquence not only by covering the historical stages from suffering patriarchy， to rebelling against its convention， to creating their own ethos， but also by developing a style that emerges from their respective cultures.
5.Stories searching for the cultural roots
The culture of black women is one indispensable part in the history of culture and has its own unique tradition. The search for black women’s self-confidence should start from the search for the culture of black women. In The Color Purple Nettie’s journey to Africa represents the direction for black women to search for their own culture. In this sense， a pursuit of the culture and tradition of black women is an important weapon against racial and sexual discrimination. In The Color Purple， pants-making and blues singing are black women’s own peculiar activities. They are not only the expression of black women’s creativity and imagination， but also the approach to find their roles in the community. Black women’s songs have been a particularly radical site of feminist and African American resistance and self-affirmation， a discourse that articulates a cultural and political struggle over sexual relations （Chen 33-36）.
Many traditional customs like feet-binding， common practice among midwives of killing baby girls at birth， suffocating them in a box of clean ashes， and the prearrangement of marriage by parents are mentioned by Maxine Hong Kingston in The Woman Warrior. Also the Chinese traditional tales about Fa Mu Lan and Ts’ai Yen are used in the narration， and Kingston becomes a talk-stories teller as her mother. V. Conclusion
From the above detailed analyses， we can see that in The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior alike， breaking silence， acknowledging female assertiveness and female influence， together with preserving cultural and national characteristics are a coordinated art applied by both Alice Walker and Maxine Hong Kingston. Without doubt， both the two works are outstanding for they are rich in its contents and full of realistic and social significance. Walker exposes the fact that racial and sexual discrimination have historically persecuted black women’s survival. She not only reveals the tragic conditions black men and women， especially the latter， have to face， but also figures out a solution to conquer the oppression， that is， to establish a harmonious womanist society. Kingston， a Chinese American writer， with dual ethnic identity and cultural background， has been struggling for the cultural psychological balance through her novels. Her efforts to achieve cultural psychological balance in her writing are not only the real reflection of the whole Chinese American ethnic group but a struggling process of everyone in the world.
參考文献：
[1]Bates， Gerri. Alice Walker[M]. A Critical Companion. London： Greenwood Press， 2005. 95-97.
[2]陈锡麟（ChenXi-lin）. 虚构与事实：战后美国小说的当代性与新现实主义[J].外国文学研究，1992 （3）： 33-38.
[3]Kingston， Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior： Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts [Z]. New York： Alfred A. Knopf， Inc. 1976.
[4]Christian， Barbara. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple[M]. New York： Barnes & Noble Books， 1998.
[5]Walker， Alice. The Color Purple [M]. London： Phoenix， 2004.
[6]艾丽丝·沃克，《紫色》（ 杨仁敬译） [M]. 北京：十月文艺出版社，1987。
基金项目：本文系2015年辽宁省社科基金 “西方女性主义文学批评及其对中国女性写作的影响” （项目编号：L15CWW001）的阶段性成果。
作者简介：曲巍巍（1982—），女，辽宁沈阳人，渤海大学大学外语教研部讲师，从事大学英语教学研究，英美文学研究。