Critical Lens Essay On The Color Purple

Celie had the same battle, and it is important to examine the similarities and differences in their experiences and responses.Fantasia confesses early on in her autobiography that her self-esteem was terribly low, due to her looks.Self-Esteem is an issue many African-American youth, especially young girls, contend with as they see iconographic images of what it means to be beautiful, with no trace of themselves in these images.

She established a thread from past to present between the themes of self-esteem, generational curses, and illumination of gifts with her recent announcement of Fantasia Barrino, the season three American Idol winner, as the headliner, a pop culture icon who has significance for female youth in our nation, across race and class lines.This is the place where I found my academic and artistic niche that served as the foundation of my teaching practices as a theatre, reading, and now literacy educator.I have been well aware of how performative embodiment cultivates an intimacy with literature that fosters a transcendental and vested understanding of the text.Fantasia Barrino's pursuit of her dream as American Idol was controversial and vindicating.Fantasia's life circumstances that made for such an unlikely road to becoming an American Idol have much in common with Walker's conception of the protagonist Celie.My matriculation through the University of Illinois-Urbana under Joanna Mc Clay and Kay Holley exposed me to a course of study quietly nestled within the college of communications formally entitled Performance Studies.The Performance Studies discipline was also lauded as Literary School of Oral Interpretation.My perusal of both books and The Color Purple film have revealed some critical similarities that I believe my male and female students will have a vested interest in exploring.I will explore these similarities, categorizing them under one of three motifs: Self-Esteem, Generational Curses, and The Illumination of the Gift.Fantasia discloses this in her reference to Oprah Winfrey who, despite being told she could never make it on television because her face was not pretty enough, is now one of the most powerful people in the world, owning the most successful and sustained daytime talk show in American history, coupled with her other successes as producer, actress, and magazine editor.It is also important for my colleagues to recognize this struggle for young African-American girls.