the colour purple thesis

The Color Purple

By alice walker.

'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker is a compelling story that exposes the evils of racism, sexism, domestic violence, trauma, and abuse especially as it affects African-American people.

About the Book

Article written by Onyekachi Osuji

B.A. in Public Administration and certified in Creative Writing (Fiction and Non-Fiction)

The novel centers on Celie, a fourteen-year-old African-American girl who is constantly raped by her father but has no one to help her or to confide in and so resorts to writing letters to God as her only outlet. She is later married off to an older widower who continues to rape and abuse her. The abuse and travails Celie suffers render her numb to life but she eventually begins to heal and triumph over her adversities through support from a strong woman named Shug Avery and the loving words of her sister Nettie who shows her different places in the world through her letters.

Key Facts about The Color Purple

• Title : ‘The Color Purple ‘
• Author : Alice Walker
• Publication Year : 1982
• Genre : Epistolary Novel; African-American Literature
• Setting : Early 20th century Georgia and Memphis in the USA; and a fictional village in Africa called Olinka.
• Climax : Celie’s enraged outbursts at Mister at dinner
• Protagonist : Celie
• Antagonists : Mister and Alphonso

Alice Walker and The Color Purple

Alice Walker is a versatile writer who has written and published many collections of poems, memoirs, essays, short stories, and novels. The Color Purple is Alice Walker’s best-known work . It is the third novel written by Alice Walker and it won her a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 and a National Book Award for Fiction also in 1983.

According to Walker, The Color Purple is a manifestation of her desire to bring to the human consciousness the evils of division across gender and racial lines and hopefully liberate humans from these evils.

Although not a true-life story, Alice Walker in The Color Purple reflects some true-life struggles, some of which she experienced directly, and others that she heard were experienced by others. For instance, the character Anna Julia that was murdered by an obsessed lover was inspired by the story of Alice Walker’s grandmother, who was murdered by a man that wanted to be her lover. The character Sofia who gets blinded in one eye, is reminiscent of Alice Walker herself, who is blind in one eye . The character Nettie’s experiences in Africa were inspired by Alice Walker’s time as an exchange student in Africa. In all, Alice Walker makes a wonderful blend of fiction and reality, which makes The Color Purple a captivating and relatable story.

Alice Walker has used the publication of The Color Purple to reinforce her stance on some global political issues . For instance, she declined the translation of The Color Purple into Hebrew as a way to show her lack of support for Israel, a country she claims practices apartheid.

Alice Walker continues to foster the legacy of The Color Purple through her other writings. For instance, one of her subsequent novels, published in 1992 with the title Possessing the Secret of Joy, features characters from The Color Purple like Tashi and Adam.

Related Books to The Color Purple

There are some other books written by renowned black female writers that are similar to The Color Purple in showing the struggles of colored women and in addressing the themes of violence, injustice, violation, and abuse of women and the girl child in society. Let’s take a look at some of these works.

• Possessing the Secret of Joy by Alice Walker . Alice Walker made Tashi, a minor character in The Color Purple, the protagonist of this novel, published in 1992. Tashi is an African girl from a village called Olinka who moves to America after going through the cultural rites of facial scarification and female circumcision as a young woman. She is married to Adam (also a character from The Color Purple ) but their marriage and relationship is tried by the psychological problems Tashi has as a result of the trauma from going through those torturous cultural rites. Along with having related characters and the same author, Possessing the Secret of Joy and The Color Purple are similar in showing the evils of girl child abuse and how culture and societal gender constructs affect individuals.
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston . This novel was written by Zora Neale Hurston, whom Alice Walker calls a genius and credits as one of her literary influences. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a 1937 novel that follows the character Janie Crawford, an African-American woman in her forties, as she recounts her life’s journey. Coming from a line of women who have suffered rape for generations, Janie is forced into marriage by her grandmother called, Nanny. She faces several loveless marriages and abuse from men and goes to trial for murder but eventually emerges a stronger and better woman. Rape and violence against women are things both The Color Purple and Their Eyes Were Watching God have in common, along with racial dynamics and gender solidarity.
• The Bluest Eyes by Toni Morrison . A debut novel from a notable African-American female writer Toni Morrison, published in 1970.   The Bluest Eyes tells the story of a young African-American girl named Pecola who is constantly derided as ”ugly” for having dark skin and so she begins to desire to have blue eyes, which she equates with ”whiteness” and beauty. Pecola’s father rapes her and flees, leaving her pregnant. Pecola gives birth prematurely, and the baby dies. This makes her decline into insanity, where she imagines she has been granted her wish to have blue eyes and that people’s changed behavior towards her is as a result of her newly acquired blue eyes and not as a result of pity and sympathy they feel towards her. Like The Color Purple , The Bluest Eyes exposes rape, incest, domestic violence, and a flawed beauty standard that regards dark skin as ugly.
• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie . Beyond having the word ”purple” in their titles, The Color Purple and Purple Hibiscus are similar in exploring the themes of domestic violence, gender subjugation, religion, and identity . Like The Color Purple, Purple Hibiscus narrates events from the perspective of a subdued teenage girl. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a world-renowned Nigerian writer, in Purple Hibiscus tells of Kambili, a fifteen-year-old girl from a wealthy and devoutly Catholic Nigerian family whose father Eugene physically and emotionally abuses her, her mother Beatrice, and her brother Jaja. Their mother eventually poisons their father to death, and her brother Jaja takes the blame for it and goes to prison while her mother’s mental health declines. The sibling love and camaraderie between Kambili and Jaja in Purple Hibiscus is similar to that of Celie and Nettie in The Color Purple . And Kambili’s gradual discovery of self and voice through the liberal and loving family of Aunty Ifeoma is similar to the liberation Celie and Nettie find through support and encouragement from Shug Avery and Rev Samuel Jackson’s family, respectively.

The Lasting Impact of The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple has made a notable mark in African-American Entertainment and pop culture as a whole. It had a successful reception after its publication, becoming a bestseller and winning its author Alice Walker both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1983. It is a timeless story that inspires both admiration and controversies and brings about conversations on various social issues across the world.

A film adaptation of The Color Purple with the same title was released by Warner Bros Pictures in 1985, directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring a cast of iconic figures in Black Entertainment such as Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, and Oprah Winfrey. The film grossed over a hundred million dollars at the box office and got eleven Oscar nominations in 1985, although it sadly did not win any.

In 2003, The Color Purple was listed on BBC’s The Big Read poll as one of the UK’s most-loved novels. The Big Read is the biggest single survey of public reading taste to date. It was a year-long survey that got responses from over seven hundred thousand members of the public.

A musical adaptation with the same title ‘ The Color Purple’ premiered on Broadway in 2005 and ran through the year 2008 with over nine hundred performances. It was written by Marsha Norman with music and lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allie Willis, and Stephen Bray. It got eleven Tony Award nominations in 2006.

In 2008, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio adaptation of the novel, which ran in ten 15-minute episodes as a Woman’s Hour serial. The radio adaptation won a Silver Drama Award in 2009 at the Sony Radio Academy Awards.

In 2015, there was a Broadway revival of The Color Purple musical, which ran through to 2017. This Broadway revival won two Tony Awards in 2016, a Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical in 2016, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2017.

As an object of controversy, The Color Purple ranked 17 th on the American Library Association’s list of 100 Most Challenged Books of 1990-1999 and 2000-2009. The novel has been banned severally from schools and libraries across America.

Currently, in 2022, over forty years after the novel’s first publication, The Color Purple is trending on social media because of another film adaptation set to be released on 20 th December 2023. It is under work by Warner Bros Pictures and Amblin Entertainment. It has a star-studded cast and crew like Marcus Gradley as screenplay writer, Blitz Bazawale as director, Fantasia cast as Celie, Danielle Brooks as Sofia, Taraji P. Henson as Shug Avery, Corey Hawkins as Harpo,  Colman Domingo as Mister, Halle Bailey as Nettie, Ciara as older Nettie, and H.E.R to make her acting debut as Squeak.

The novel has sold over 5 million copies to date and is an internet sensation as celebrities and media houses keep talking about it. It is a powerful story whose impact has come to stay in the sensibilities of people and sociopolitical conversations in the United States and all over the world.

The Color Purple Review ⭐

‘The Color Purple’ is one of the most famous stories of struggling African-American women told by an African American woman herself. The novel brought the attention of the mainstream world to the struggles of economically disadvantaged black people from the perspectives of those affected directly.

The Color Purple Historical Context 📖

Some of the issues in ‘The Color Purple’ are still relevant in the present day. However, the dynamics of the society in the setting of the novel are different in some ways from the present-day society. The historical context of the setting puts the story into better perspective.

The Color Purple Themes and Analysis 📖

‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker is a great novel with powerful stories and themes that are relevant across continents and generations. The novel also has inspirational symbols like the phrase of the title which symbolizes beauty in nature.

The Color Purple Quotes 💬

Just like the title, ‘The Color Purple’ is a novel that is embellished with colorful quotes and messages.

The Color Purple Character List 📖

From Celie, the protagonist who will have you feel her pain as you root for her; to Tashi, the eccentric African girl who battles with identity; and everyone else in between, ‘The Color Purple’ has an array of characters that will interest every reader.

The Color Purple Summary 📖

The plot of ‘The Color Purple’ is anchored on Celie’s life struggles as a black girl in America who is subjected to abuse and deprivation.

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Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: The Analysis Essay

Introduction, summary of the book, main characters, main themes, reference list.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is an epistolary novel about African-American women in the southern United States in the 1930s. It addresses some crucial issues, such as segregation and sexism. This work was adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1985 (Bay et al. , 2015, p.169). More than that, The Color Purple won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1983.

The novel is written as a series of letters, that are not dated, and has a fascinating and thought-provoking plot. Its name comes from a character’s words, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it” (Walker, 1982, p. 196). Walker writes in an uneducated language and southern style to create the atmosphere of an impoverished area and develop complex relationships between the main characters and the themes mentioned above.

The protagonist of the novel is Celie, a fourteen-year-old abused black girl who lives in Georgia and addresses her letters to God. Her father, Alfonso, repeatedly rapes his daughter and forbids her to tell anybody about what happened, except for God. Then, Alfonso marries Celie off to Mister Albert after her mother’s death. However, married life is also complicated and painful for the girl, as she has to bring up Albert’s children, do all of the housework, and suffer misery and hardship from him.

After Celie’s marriage, her younger sister, Nettie, gets the opportunity to leave her father’s household and move to Mr. Albert’s house. However, Celie’s husband kicks Nettie out after a while as she refuses to satisfy his sexual demands. Nettie promises to write to her older sister, but after she leaves, Celie does not receive any letters from her. The protagonist’s life changes only when Albert’s deathly ill mistress Shug appears in his home so that Celie will take care of her. Soon after Shug’s arrival, they fall in love with each other. For the first time, Celie can enjoy emotions, sex, and friendship.

Celie and Shug manage to find out why there was no news from Nettie for several decades. Mr. Albert appears to hide all of Nettie’s letters in the locked trunk. When the main character reads her sister’s letters, she opens up a new world and realizes all the abuses that she has suffered from her husband. That is why she decides to leave him and start a new life with Shug in Memphis. Furthermore, Celie learns that Alfonso is not her biological father and that her younger sister lives with the Reverend Samuel and his family in Africa. The girl also finds out that now she owns a house where Alfonso lived till his death.

In the end, Celie reunites with her sister, who returns from Africa with her husband Samuel and Celie’s children and maintains a close relationship with Shug. Besides, she keeps in touch with Mr. Albert as he changed a lot. Now Nettie and Celie are inseparable and happy so much that Celie writes that she has never felt so young before, though she is an old woman.

Celie is the protagonist of the book, who the author portrays as a victim through most of the novel. Her father and her husband rape her, she is deprived of any freedom and human rights, and she cannot take care of her children. The only person Celie loves – her younger sister Nettie – is also taken away from her. When she meets her husband’s mistress Shug Avery, a tipping point is reached. Shug encourages Celie to rebel against Mr. Albert and leave him. Celie becomes more self-confident and realizes all the extent of hardships she has suffered. More than that, thanks to Shug, she learns to love, feel emotions, and enjoy her life.

Nettie is Celie’s younger sister, who Mr. Albert is firstly interested in, but then, he agrees to marry Celie. Nettie is an educated and intelligent girl who loves her older sister very much. Nettie escapes from her father’s household to live with Celie. However, later, she has to leave because Mister tries to assault her. Nettie goes to Africa with the Reverend Samuel and his family as a maid. Throughout her travels, she writes regularly to Celie, but her older sister does not receive these letters because of her husband. Nettie returns to America with Samuel and two Celie’s children thirty years later.

Mr. Albert, Celie’s husband, is a character, who also experiences changes in his personality aside from Celie. In the beginning, he considers his young wife only a servant and “exercises socially superior power and gets benefit from the unpaid labor provided by Celie” (Abbasi and Hayat, 2017, p.184).Mr. Albert loves Shug, but he cannot marry her because of the public’s opinion. Besides, Mr. Albert hides Nettie’s letters from Celie and prevents their communication. In the end, he reconsiders his life and views and tries to forge relationships with Celie and other people.

Shug Avery is a famous blues singer and strong woman, who becomes a friend and, eventually, a lover to Celie. She teaches Celie to struggle and be independent and confident. Shug’s biggest problem is that she cannot stay with one person and does not have stable romantic relationships. Though sometimes Shug is also mean and selfish, she inspires people around her, brings entertainment, and becomes the protagonist’s loved one.

Violence, racism, sexism, and femininity are among the central themes of the novel (Lewis, 2017). In The Color Purple, readers can see how differently Afro-American female characters react to hardships and maltreatment. Celie is submissive; she suffers violence from her father and husband repeatedly and shuts down emotionally, while other female characters try to protest against abuse. Alice Walker also emphasizes the role of female relationships and their opportunities to fight for rights and challenge male oppression and dominance.

The novel The Color Purple raises crucial and global issues, such as women’s role and their discrimination by men in the twentieth century. Alice Walker illustrates the harassment a black woman has to go through, but she also demonstrates how a woman can struggle for self-confidence and respectful treatment. The Color Purple is a story about female strength, resistance, and fight, all fueled by love.

The Color Purple is an impressive piece of American feminist literature. Walker tells the readers about the lives of impoverished and humiliated women and considers complex social relationships. She uses different means to depict the atmosphere and the environment of the 1930s, such as the black folk language, and the first-person narrative. Despite being widely criticized for the use of language, The Color Purple has its actual historical background and continues to occupy readers’ minds nowadays.

Abbasi, M. and Hayat, M. (2017) ‘Marxist feminist critique: the socioeconomic position of Afro-American women in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple ’, Journal of Social Sciences , 8(2), pp. 180-200.

Bay, M. et al. (2015) Toward an intellectual history of black women. North Carolina: UNC Press Books.

Lewis, J. (2017) ‘Gender, race, and violence: a critical examination of trauma in The Color Purple ’, Sacred Heart University Scholar, 1(1), pp. 24-38.

Walker, A. (1982) The color purple . San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 31). Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: The Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/alice-walkers-the-color-purple/

"Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: The Analysis." IvyPanda , 31 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/alice-walkers-the-color-purple/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: The Analysis'. 31 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: The Analysis." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/alice-walkers-the-color-purple/.

1. IvyPanda . "Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: The Analysis." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/alice-walkers-the-color-purple/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”: The Analysis." October 31, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/alice-walkers-the-color-purple/.

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An Ecofeminist Study of Alice Walker: The Color Purple

This paper describes the contribution of Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple to the seminal ideas of ecological conscience and environmental protection, using schemes that intertwine ecocriticism with feminist criticism. The methodology involves the discourses on the images of women and nature in The Color Purple, the association between the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature by male dominance, enslaving the female and nature in the commercial market. Through an ecofeminist lens, this paper finds that Alice Walker infuses her novel with a theme of feminine and natural liberation from domination and violence. Alice Walker foresees the establishment of symbiosis, in which there is no male oppression or environment exploitation.

Keywords: domination, ecofeminism, ecological conscience, male oppression, interconnectedness.

Paper submission email: [email protected]

ISSN (Paper)2224-5766 ISSN (Online)2225-0484

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The Color Purple

By alice walker, the color purple essay questions.

Why was this novel titled The Color Purple ?

Think about when purple is mentioned as a color and as an attribute of something worth admiring. Should all colors be admired equally, all being features of things created by God? Does rarity really make something more precious--purple seems rare in nature, but does this make other colors any more or less valuable? Consider the same question with regard to racial majorities and minorities in Africa and in the United States, which also are often distinguished by color.

Can you find Alice Walker as a character in the novel?

Examine the narrative structure employed by Walker. Remember that ultimately the choices in the narration are all really Walker's. Pay particular attention to the last line in the novel: "I thank everybody in this book for coming." Consider also how Walker might play the role of God in Celie's story, being the one who invests this creation with being and meaning.

How important is it that Nettie returns at the end of the novel?

Consider the ways that Nettie is important to Celie and for the whole narrative in terms of female solidarity, communication, and family struggles. Does the novel require a positive ending for it to be a positive story? Does Celie require such an ending to her own story? Is Nettie's return structurally significant in that once Nettie returns, the letter writing stops and so does the novel?

How do the male characters in the novel shape, break, or have other influence over the females?

A good way to approach such a question is to examine how the choices made by Celie and the other female characters might have been shaped by their experiences with the male characters in the novel. Consider their choices, thoughts, and feelings with regard to independence, family, entrepreneurship, and the other matters of value to the women. Note also that both positive and negative experiences with various men should be addressed.

Celie apparently prefers women to men in general, including sexually. In her case, her terrible treatment by men could be a critical factor. What could be going on in her mind?

There is not necessarily a relationship between Celie's social preferences and her sexual preferences, but there might be. Moreover, there may or may not be a link between her life experiences and her preferences. Use evidence from the text to try out a variety of possibilities to understand why Celie is the way she is. If she has different feelings about different men (likewise for different women), does this mean that we cannot even make a generalization about Celie's preferences? Do her views for or against men and women in general change over the course of the novel?

Sofia goes on quite a journey in the novel. How significant is it that Sofia ends up as a maid in a white family?

A good answer to this question will look deeply into Sofia's character. She is a fighter and seems more independent than Celie, but her journey is far less significant than that of Nettie. Consider also Sofia's relationships with her own family members as well as the portrayal of the white community in conjunction with the black community in Sofia's place and time.

What is the significance of the opening line?

Alfonso's words permeate Celie's life and her writing. Think about the narrative structure and why it is significant that we are reading letters written to God. Also consider the place of family and of males in Celie's life as well as the importance of communication with others.

What is the significance of Nettie's life in Africa?

Consider what themes characterize Nettie's life in Africa and why those themes might be important in Celie's life. Remember that what we know of Nettie's life in Africa is based on what Nettie thought she should communicate to Celie. In addition, Walker might be highlighting significant issues relating to the importance of Africa in black American history and culture.

Although Doris Baines only appears for a brief instant in the novel, she is an interesting and weighty character. What does she contribute to the novel?

This question provides an opportunity for a close reading of the section in which Doris appears. Important features here are her identity as an independent English woman who does not have traditional Christian views, her good work in Africa, her desire to leave her home life, her desire to travel, and her African grandson. More generally, consider how her character develops themes about race, gender, religion, and family in the novel.

Discuss the significance of the written versus the spoken word in this novel.

Consider which medium lasts longer, who the audience is or can be, the usual uses of letters versus conversation, the stylistic choices available in each medium, accuracy, spontaneity, and the role of direct versus indirect human interaction (such as voice inflection and gesture in the spoken word, and other kinds of emphasis and subtleties in the written word). Which characters or kinds of characters may make use of each medium, and for which purposes? How does storytelling in each medium function, particularly with regard to self-assertion and ownership over one's language as a proxy for ownership of one's story and one's life?

The Color Purple Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Color Purple is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

How are Shug and Nettie role models for Celie?

In the letter, Celie notes that she sees Nettie as a moral and intellectual role model, whereas, Shug serves as a sexual and emotional mentor. Both characters act as role models, though they do so in completely different ways.

How does Celie betray Sofia?

Celie betrays Sofia when she tells Harpo to beat her.

How does the author present female relationships?

At the start of the novel, the young, black female is presented as about the most vulnerable person in society. Celie epitomizes this female: she is abused and denied a voice by her (supposed) father and then by her husband. Along with the racial...

Study Guide for The Color Purple

The Color Purple is a book by Alice Walker. The Color Purple study guide contains a biography of Alice Walker, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Color Purple
• The Color Purple Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Color Purple

The Color Purple is an epistolary novel by Alice Walker. The Color Purple literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

• The Color Purple: Literary Techniques Employed by Alice Walker to Develop Celie's Character
• Female Marginalisation Embodied in The Color Purple and The Yellow Wallpaper
• Edith Wharton, Alice Walker, and Female Culture
• Internalization and Externalization of Color in The Bluest Eye and The Color Purple
• Reconciliation Between Public and Private Spheres: Mrs. Dalloway and The Color Purple

Lesson Plan for The Color Purple

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Color Purple
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Color Purple Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for The Color Purple

• Introduction
• Critical reception
• Adaptations
• Boycotting Israel

• Bibliography
• More Referencing guides Blog Automated transliteration Relevant bibliographies by topics
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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'The Color Purple'

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Williams, Bobby. "Purple Identity : A study of identity changes in the novel The Color Purple." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk och litteratur, SOL, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-13652.

Sundqvist, Sofia. "The Emancipation of Celie : The Color Purple as a womanist Bildungsroman." Thesis, Karlstad University, Karlstad University, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-890.

The Emancipation of Celie: The Color Purple as a womanist Bildungsroman

The purpose of this essay is to study The Color Purple as a Bildungsroman, focusing on the development of the protagonist, Celie. The Color Purple is related to both the traditional Bildungsroman and to the female Bildungsroman, but the essay shows that it can also be seen as a womanist Bildungsroman. Initially, Celie believes that being a woman inescapably means that she has to serve and obey men and she is oppressed by patriarchy. She is eventually introduced to another way of living by the strong female characters of Sofia and Shug who embrace her in a kind of sisterhood, which is vital for Celie as she has nothing else to help her liberate herself from the patriarchal values that keep her down. In conclusion, this essay shows how Celie has developed from being a young girl, forced to act in an adult way, into a woman who displays signs of all the criteria for having achieved a womanist development: she is grown up (not just acting as though she is), she is in charge of a business, a house and, in short, her life. She is serious, she has a universalist perspective, and most importantly, she loves. Furthermore, the essay highlights which characteristics of her development can be linked to the traditional and the female Bildungsroman and which characteristics can be seen as typical of a womanist Bildungsroman.

Boer, Raphael Albuquerque de. "Representations of women in the movies The Color Purple and Monster." Florianópolis, SC, 2008. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/91365.

Janusiewicz, Anna. "A Product of Womanism: Shug Avery in Alice Walker's The Color Purple." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-19243.

Grüdtner, Carla Denise. "Sewing and quilting in alice walker the color purple "and everyday use"." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 2014. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/129515.

Veronesi, Raquel Barros. ""A Reescritura das Personagens 'womanistas' de The Color Purple para o Cinema"." www.teses.ufc.br, 2015. http://www.repositorio.ufc.br/handle/riufc/11178.

Vila, Roa Eva Graciela. "Evaluation of Pigments from a Purple Variety of Atriplex hortensis L. for Use in Food Applications." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2018. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/7436.

Lee, Tzu-yi Elaine. "Translators as gatekeepers : gender/race issues in three Taiwan translations of The color purple." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/1015.

Calabre, Roberta Ventura. "Fighting the Strai(gh)tjacket: black women bonding in Loving Her and The Color Purple." Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, 2010. http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/tde_busca/arquivo.php?codArquivo=2812.

Firth, James Dawrant. "A study of a dominant suppressor of the purple eye-color mutant in Drosophila melanogaster." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/24663.

Zhang, Kai. "Evaluating the Effect of Selected Soaking Pretreatments on the Color Quality and Phenolic Content of Purple Potato Chips." The Ohio State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1492612442758859.

Lao, Fei. "Purple Corn (Zea mays L.) Cob Anthocyanins: Extraction, Quantification, Spray Drying and Complexation with Proteins." The Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1469116741.

Navarro, Elisa P. "Healing in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Gloria Naylor’s The Women of Brewster Place, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved." The Ohio State University, 1990. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1389173993.

Navarro, Elisa. "Healing in Alice Walker's The Color Purple, Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place, and Toni Morrison's Beloved." The Ohio State University, 1990. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392391720.

Peterson, Tamalyn L. "An examination of gender roles in Alice Walker's The Third Life of Grange Copeland and The Color Purple." DigitalCommons@Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center, 2001. http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/dissertations/2580.

Nodari, Janice Inês. "The construction of identity in Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Florianópolis, SC, 2002. http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/83954.

Lundin, Ingela. "Double Oppression in the Color Purple and Wide Sargasso Sea : a Comparison between the main characters Celie and Antoinette/Bertha." Thesis, University of Gävle, Ämnesavdelningen för svenska språket och engelska, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-5008.

Nguyen, Catthuan L. "A Joint Reading of the Color Purple and the Awakening: From Feminism to Womanism and the Significance of Authentic Feminine Space." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2010. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_theses/87.

Rudraraju, Anusha. "Circular Dichroism of the Laser‐Induced Blue State of Bacteriorhodopsin, Spectral Analysis and New Insights into the Purple→Blue Color Change." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1438100055.

Keaton, Hetty. "Whole because of, not in spite of, our fragments: holistic survival in Walker's The color purple and The temple of my familiar." Scholarly Commons, 1991. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2223.

Nako, Nontsasa. "Possessing the secret of black womanhood : reading African women in Alice Walker's Possessing the Secret of Joy, The Color Purple, and Warrior Marks." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6747.

Hale, Gwendolyn Nicole. ""'Tis Hard to Dance with One Shoe": The Failure of the Fathers in Walker's The Color Purple and McCourt's Angela's Ashes ." [Johnson City, Tenn. : East Tennessee State University], 2001. http://etd-submit.etsu.edu/etd/theses/available/etd-0329101-103725/unrestricted/hale0412.pdf.

Barry, Andrew Michael. "Encapsulation, Color Stability, and Distribution of Anthocyanins from Purple Corn (Zea mays L.), Blueberry (Vaccinium sp.), and Red Radish (Raphanus sativus) in a Cold-Setting Pectin-Alginate Gel." The Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366273463.

Gras, Claudia Christine [Verfasser]. "Investigations into the natural variability and color stability of anthocyanins from black carrot (Daucus carota ssp. sativus var. atrorubens Alef.) and purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) / Claudia Christine Gras." Aachen : Shaker, 2018. http://d-nb.info/1161312498/34.

Gras, Claudia C. [Verfasser]. "Investigations into the natural variability and color stability of anthocyanins from black carrot (Daucus carota ssp. sativus var. atrorubens Alef.) and purple sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) / Claudia Christine Gras." Aachen : Shaker, 2018. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:101:1-2018061708272819787135.

Lim, Soyoung. "Anthocyanin-enriched purple sweet potato for colon cancer prevention." Diss., Kansas State University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2097/13719.

Roberts, Abby. "The politics of visuality in Beloved and The Colour Purple." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/25521.

Hammonds, Rebecca K. "Bookish Women: Examining the Textual and Embodied Construction of Scholarly and Literary Women in American Musicals." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1561199459898891.

Fenger, Julie-Anne. "Les anthocyanes acylées en tant que colorants naturels : réactivité en solution aqueuse, complexation métallique et stabilisation pour des applications alimentaires The chemical reactivity of anthocyanins and its consequences in food science and nutrition The influence of acylation and metal binding on the thermal stability of red cabbage anthocyanins The fate of acylated anthocyanins in neutral solution." Thesis, Avignon, 2020. http://www.theses.fr/2020AVIG0278.

Bernsmeier, Jordan. "From Haunting the Code to Queer Ambiguity: Historical Shifts in Adapting Lesbian Narratives from Paper to Film." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1386011853.

Loupekine, Feodor. "Approaches to the four colour theorem." Thesis, Open University, 1992. http://oro.open.ac.uk/57394/.

Walsh-Blair, Lynn Y. "Armored with strength: Sense of purpose, critical consciousness, and social support among college students of Color." Thesis, Boston College, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104570.

Hedenström, Hanna. "The Set-Up of a Foundation Colorant File for the Purpose of Color-Matching Foundations, With a View to Improving the Current Foundation Color-Matching Process in the Future." Thesis, KTH, Skolan för kemivetenskap (CHE), 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-40908.

Iborra, Bernad María del Consuelo. "Comparison of vacuum treatments and traditional cooking in vegetables using instrumental and sensory analysis." Doctoral thesis, Universitat Politècnica de València, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/32953.

McKee, David. "Nuclear Transparency and Single Particle Spectral Functions from Quasielastic A(e,e'p) Reactions up to Q2=8.1 GeV2." Washington, D.C : Oak Ridge, Tenn. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Energy Research ; distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2003. http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/824828-CBQre3/native/.

Logan, Joshua Warren-Louis Britnell Richard E. "Guidelines for the proper application of color and light in the health and fitness industry for the purpose of improving user experience and performance." Auburn, Ala., 2005. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/2005%20Summer/master's/LOGAN_JOSHUA_19.pdf.

Li, Gang. "Organic Light-Emitting Devices (OLEDS) and Their Optically Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR)." Washington, D.C. : Oak Ridge, Tenn. : United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Science ; distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy, 2003. http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/822052-lwZpPL/native/.

Railing, Patricia Ann. "Kazimir Malévitch : le suprématisme comme sensation pure." Thesis, Paris 1, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013PA010565/document.

Mattsson, Nils-Göran. "Den moderata rationalismen : Kommentarer, preciseringar och kritik av några begrepp och teser som framlagts av Laurence Bonjour i dennes In Defense of Pure Reason." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Religion and Culture, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-4543.

The paper contains comment, clarification and criticism, even constructive criticism, of some theses that have been put forward by Laurence Bonjour in his In Defense of Pure Reason.

It presents a concept of experience that deals with the relation between cognizer and object of experience that has a great similarity to that of Bonjour. Through analysis it is shown that the concept of a priori entails that Bonjour has two concepts of a priori, a narrow and a broad one. The narrow one is, in my own words: According to moderate rationalism a proposition p is a priori justified if and only if you apprehend that p must be true in every possible world. This doesn’t mean that Bonjour doesn’t believe in an epistemological, metaphysical and semantic realm. The broad one does not mention anything about possible worlds.

Casullo in his A priori justification rejects Bonjour’s argument against Quine’s coherentism. A defense is put forward with the concept ‘an ideal of science for apparent rational insights’. The concept of axiomatic system and foundationalism is used. If we assume that the colour proposition ‘nothing can be red all over and green all over at the same time’ has the meaning that we, in this very moment, are representing a property in the world, thus we have an argument of superposition for the correctness of the proposition. The ground for this argumentation relies on the identification of colours with superposing electromagnetic waves.

Oliveira, Janisse Martinelli Borges de. "Avaliação da influência do envelhecimento artificial acelerado e armazenamento em fluorfosfato acidulado a 1,23% na rugosidade superficial e na alteração de cor de cerâmicas odontológicas de ultra-baixa fusão para titânio comercialmente pur." Universidade de São Paulo, 2007. http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/58/58131/tde-28032008-094618/.

Oliveira, Júnior Jarbas Jácome de. "Sistemas Interativos de Tempo Real para Processamento Audiovisual Integrado." Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 2007. https://repositorio.ufpe.br/handle/123456789/2636.

Zhong, Wu-nan, and 鍾武男. "Purple Redeemed in The Color Purple." Thesis, 2004. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/70935733766420584999.

YAN, JIN-MEI, and 顏金美. "Differences:the color purple & black feminism." Thesis, 1990. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/19822819757936520871.

Weng, Yi-fang, and 翁藝芳. "Women’s Creativity in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple." Thesis, 2007. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/65366220612793882159.

Hoai, Do Thi, and 杜氏懷. "Celie’s Liberation Process in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple." Thesis, 2013. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/49335845326544248136.

Kuo, Chia-Yun, and 郭佳韻. "Reconstructing Self-identity in Alice Walker's The Color Purple." Thesis, 1999. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/17442118909455810760.

Shih, Yin-ju, and 施盈如. "Intersection of Gender and Race in Alice Walker's The Color Purple." Thesis, 1998. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/09261767135754193133.

Chung, Pei-Te, and 鍾培德. "From Nadir to Zenith:Alice Walker’s The Color Purple as Celie’s Initiation." Thesis, 2013. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16268714855160701995.

Lin, Shou-hsiang, and 林秀香. "A STUDY OF ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE AS A WOMANIST NOVEL." Thesis, 2002. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/95545543957001758676.

Yang, Tsai-Ching, and 楊采晴. "Development of Self-Identity: A Reading of Alice Walker''s The Color Purple." Thesis, 2007. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/31657728081543798461.

The Color Purple

Alice walker, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The novel takes place in two distinct settings—rural Georgia and a remote African village—both suffused with problems of race and racism. Celie believes herself to be ugly in part because of her very dark skin. Sofia , after fighting back against the genteel racism of the mayor and his wife , ends up serving as maid to that family, and as surrogate mother to Eleanor , who does not initially recognize the sacrifices Sofia has been forced to make. In general, very few career paths are open to the African Americans in the novel: for the men, farming is the main occupation, although Harpo manages to open a bar. For women, it seems only possible to serve as a mother, or to perform for a living, to sing as Squeak and Shug Avery do.

In Africa, the situation Nettie , Samuel , Corrine , Adam , Tashi , and Olivia experience is not that much different. Nettie recalls that the ancestors of the Olinka, with whom she lives, sold her ancestors into slavery in America. The Olinka view African Americans with indifference. Meanwhile the English rubber workers, who build roads through the village and displace the Olinka from their ancient land, have very little concern for that people's history in Africa. The British feel that, because they are developing the land, they "own" it, and the African people who have lived there for centuries are merely "backward" natives. It is only at the very end of the novel, after Samuel, Nettie, and their family have returned from Africa, to Celie's home in Georgia, that Celie and Nettie's entire family is able to come together and dine—a small gift, and something that would be considered completely normal for the white families of that time period, whose lives had not been ripped apart by the legacy of slavery and poverty.

Race and Racism ThemeTracker

Race and Racism Quotes in The Color Purple

Sofia look half her size. But she still a big strong girl. Arms got muscle. Legs, too. . . . She got a little pot on her now and give you the feeling she all there. Solid. Like if she sit down on something, it be mash.

What that song? I ast. Sound low down dirty to me. Like what the preacher tell you its sin to hear. Not to mention sing. She hum a little more. Something come to me, she say. Something I made up. Something you help scratch out my head.

I don't know, say Sofia. Maybe I won't go. Deep down I still love Harpo, but—he just makes me real tired. She yawn. Laugh. I need a vacation, she say.

I don't know, say the prizefighter. This sound mighty much like some ole uncle Tomming to me. Shug snort, Well, she say, Uncle Tom wasn't call Uncle for nothing.

Sofia say to me today, I just can't understand it. What that? I ast. Why we ain't already kill them off. … Too many to kill off, I say. Us outnumbered from the start.

She singing all over the country these days. Everybody know her name. She know everybody, too. Know Sophie Tucker, know Duke Ellington, know folks I ain't never heard of. And money. She make so much money she don't know what to do with it.

But God, I miss you, Celie. I think about the time you laid yourself down for me. I love you with all my heart.

Did I mention my first sight of the African coast? Something struck in me, in my soul, Celie, like a large bell, and I just vibrated. Corrine and Samuel felt the same. And we kneeled down right on deck and gave thanks to God for letting us see the land for which our mothers and fathers cried—and lived and died—to see again.

Today one of the boys in my afternoon class burst out, as he entered, The road approaches! The road approaches! He had been hunting in the forest with his father and seen it. Every day now the villagers gather at the edge of the village near the cassava fields, and watch the building of the road.

Now the engineers have come to inspect the territory. Two white men came yesterday and spent a couple of hours strolling about the village, mainly looking at the wells. Such is the innate politeness of the Olinka that they rushed about preparing food for them . . . And the white men sat eating as if the food was beneath notice.

You may have guessed that I loved him all along; but I did not know it. oh, I loved him as a brother . . . but Celie, I love him bodily, as a man! I love his walk, his size, his shape, his smell, the kinkiness of his hair.

But guess what else . . . When the missionaries got to the part bout Adam and Eve being naked, the Olinka peoples nearly bust out laughing . . . They tried to explain . . . that it was they who put Adam and Eve out of the village because they was naked. Their word for naked is white. But since they are covered by color they are not naked.

And I see they [the children] think that me and Nettie and Shug and Albert and Samuel and Harpo and Sofia and Jack and Odessa real old . . . But I don't think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt.

Everything you need to know about The Color Purple

From left: Taraji P. Henson , Fantasia Barrino, and Danielle Brooks in The Color Purple

The Color Purple has had a fascinating journey through popular culture over the past four decades. Ever since Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was published in 1982, the story of a young Black woman struggling to find her voice in the Deep South during the early 20th century has been like a magnet for talented creatives looking to put their own spin on the tale.

Steven Spielberg was the first to adapt the novel into a film, just three years after its publication, earning widespread acclaim and 11 Academy Award nominations (though it didn’t win any). In 2005, The Color Purple was turned into a Broadway musical, which received 10 Tony Award nominations in its initial run and picked up a few more after a successful revival in 2015. Now, a new movie based on that musical is set to be released on Christmas Day. Unsurprisingly, given the source material, it’s already inspiring enthusiastic reactions in preview screenings and building momentum as awards season gets fully under way.

With each iteration, The Color Purple has gained more fans and found renewed cultural relevance as each generation brings a fresh perspective to the story. What will the upcoming film add to the conversation? Who’s involved? How is it connected to the earlier versions? And what can audiences expect from the theatrical experience this time around? We’ve done our best to track down the answers to those questions, and more.

What’s it about?

Set in rural Georgia in the early 1900s, the story centers on a young Black woman named Celie (originally played by Whoopi Goldberg in her breakout film role), who grows up under the control of a physically and sexually abusive father but takes comfort in her close relationship with her sister, Nettie. Celie is forced to leave home, though, after an arranged marriage to another abusive man called Mister, who has grown children of his own. Despite the hardships of her new life, she eventually forms a connection with his headstrong daughter-in-law Sofia, and his mistress, a glamorous nightclub performer named Shug Avery. With the help and support of these women, Celie begins to find her own identity and learns how to stand up for herself.

Who’s in the cast?

American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino makes her feature-film debut in the lead role of Celie. She’s no stranger to the part, having played Celie on stage during the show’s original Broadway run. But Broadway fans are most hyped for Danielle Brooks, who received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Sofia (she lost to Hamilton’s Renée Elise Goldsberry). Brooks found out she’d be cast in the role from none other than Oprah Winfrey herself, who played Sofia in the 1985 film. Winfrey is a producer on the new film, along with Spielberg, Quincy Jones, and Broadway producer Scott Sanders. You can watch Winfrey surprise Brooks with the exciting news in this clip.

The strong supporting cast includes Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson as Shug, Tony nominee and Emmy Winner Colman Domingo as Mister, The Little Mermaid’s Halle Bailey as Nettie, Corey Hawkins as Harpo, and recording artist H.E.R. as Squeak. David Alan Grier, Jon Batiste, Elizabeth Marvel, Louis Gossett Jr., and Ciara also appear in featured roles.

Who directed it?

The film is directed by Blitz Bazawule, a 41-year-old filmmaker, musician, novelist and artist from Ghana. Bazawule wasn’t originally on the producers’ short list, but after he pitched his vision to Spielberg, Winfrey and the rest of the team in a virtual meeting he became the frontrunner. What really got them excited, Bazawule told The Wall Street Journal in an interview , was his concept of making Shug’s performances feel like the 1920s equivalent of a Beyoncé concert. And Bazawule should know, having co-directed Queen Bey herself in the feature-length visual album Black Is King. Spielberg called the pitch “visual magic” and said, “It made the choice to engage him on this the easiest choice we made when the project got under way.”

Bazawule, sometimes known as Blitz the Ambassador, made his feature debut with the critically acclaimed Afrofuturist film The Burial of Kojo. He’s also recorded four albums and written a book, The Scent of Burnt Flowers, which is set to be adapted into a six-episode TV miniseries for FX.

Taraji P. Henson and Fantasia Barrino with director Blitz Bazawule

How closely does this film follow other versions of The Color Purple?

As Winfrey put it, in the most Oprah way possible, this is “not your mama’s Color Purple, but your mama’s gonna love it, too.” The screenplay, written by Marcus Gardley, weaves in elements from the book, the original film, and the stage version in a synthesis of all previous versions of the story. The new film brings back the Oscar-nominated song “Miss Celie’s Blues,” sung by Shug in the 1985 film but not used in the Broadway adaptation, and eliminates other numbers and reprises from the stage show. The new film also includes original numbers by Bazawule, cast member Halle Bailey, songwriting duo Nova Wav, and Alicia Keys.

Who else is involved?

Joining director Bazawule behind the camera is a deep roster of acclaimed below-the-line talent, including Oscar-nominated director of photography Dan Laustsen (Nightmare Alley, The Shape Of Water), Oscar-winning production designer Paul Denham Austerberry (The Shape Of Water), editor Jon Poll (Meet The Parents), costume designer Francine Jamison-Tanchuck (Glory, One Night In Miami...) and choreographer Fatima Robinson (Dreamgirls). Oscar-nominated composer Kris Bowers (King Richard, Green Book) also worked on the musical score.

What are the early reactions to The Color Purple?

Those who have already seen the film have been effusive about its success as a musical and optimistic about its potential to score more than a few Oscar nominations. The A.V. Club contributor Courtney Howard called it a “rapturous musical” buoyed by “powerhouses” Barrino and Brooks, while film critic Scott Menzel said , “This bold and fresh new take on the Alice Walker novel pays homage to the original film as well as the broadway musical while still standing out on its own.” Scott Mendelson, box office analyst at Puck News, also praised it as, “a showstopper of a high order.”

Meanwhile, film critic Valerie Complex hinted that this version may be the first adaptation not to downplay the queer aspects of Celie and Shug’s relationship as depicted in Walker’s novel. “Add it to the queer movies of 2023 list,” she wrote on social media. “Three performances bout to shake up your Oscar Ballots. This movie about to make a lot of $.”

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ESL Classes Offered to BU Dining Services Workers

Dining Services worker Carlos Surillo (left), with his completion certificate, alongside instructor Gina Giamei, a CELOP senior lecturer. Photo by Jake Belcher

Recent graduation ceremony celebrated their hard work and commitment

Amy laskowski.

For the last 12 weeks, during the lull between the lunch and dinner shifts at Warren Towers, BU Dining Services employee Kerrine Tang has been working hard to improve her English. Tang, a native Cantonese speaker from Hong Kong and a 16-year Dining Services employee, enrolled in the relatively new BU Center for English Language & Orientation Programs (CELOP) course English for Dining Services.

The program is designed to teach Dining Services employees the essential English language skills they need to do their jobs more efficiently. These skills include writing, vocabulary around cleanliness and sanitation, enhanced communication about allergies and dietary restrictions with customers (i.e., students) and other staff, and understanding written recipes and instructions, as well as a tutorial in the quirks and rules of the English language.

Consider the “th” sound, which exists in virtually no other language, or how certain English nouns (eyeglasses, salmon) are the same whether they are singular or plural. Although English is the most spoken language in the world , it is also considered one of the toughest to learn.

“I took an English class over 20 years ago at my church, but it was all old ladies,” Tang says during a recent break in the class. She wanted to enroll in this class because she knew it could help her better communicate with her manager at Warren Towers. “And my grandchildren,” she says with a smile.

To date, the free twice-a-week program has graduated nearly 50 students in three cohorts—with more eager to start in the fall. There are also talks about creating a second level of the class during future semesters. Dining Services managers, the CELOP team, and perhaps most important, its students, say the program has been a resounding success. 

When course instructor Gina Giamei , a CELOP senior lecturer, designed the program last year, she shadowed Dining Services workers to see what language skills they needed. The answer was “everything,” she says: listening skills, speaking, reading, writing, building confidence, and new this semester, a digital literacy component. “I’m cocreating these classes with the students, getting the information from them about what they need,” says Giamei, who has been at CELOP for 18 years and teaching ESL courses for 13 years prior to that. “It’s been a joy to teach them. They are so motivated and so grateful. It makes my job easy.”

It’s been a joy to teach them. They are so motivated and so grateful. It makes my job easy. Gina Giamei

“To learn a language while also working at the same time, as well as managing families and personal lives? It’s really difficult,” says Maria Arruda , CELOP managing director. “Some [students] even have two jobs. It’s an amazing accomplishment.” Arruda says that CELOP would love to offer similar ESL workplace programs to other staff departments at BU in the future. 

Increasing confidence

The program’s spring cohort had 18 Dining Services employees, whose native tongues included Spanish, Burmese, Cantonese, French, Haitian Creole, and Amharic. Many of the students, who need their manager’s approval to enroll, say they found out about the program through word-of-mouth.

CELOP’s placement tests are usually digital, but while designing this high beginner–low intermediate level course, Giamei realized many students had issues with digital literacy, so she incorporated some lessons into the classes. These included topics like how to write an email and set up voicemail, using digital menus, and using a translation app on a phone.

She says she’s been impressed with the workers’ dedication (some even asked for extra homework) and their commitment to building community and helping each other. “Their managers have said how they have noticed increased confidence,” says Giamei, beaming. “That was really important to me.”

In one recent class, they talked about shopping, covering topics like when to use the articles “a” or “an,” the difference between the verbs “need” and “want,” and how to use color as an adjective. Giamei says that sometimes students are more challenged by language points (like grammar and pronunciation) in English that vary only slightly in their native tongues. For instance, in Spanish, an adjective usually follows a noun (“a dress blue”), but in English, the adjective comes first (“a blue dress”). 

Giamei reads the phrase “a purple skirt” out loud. “Skerrrrrt,” she says, and the class repeats. “That’s better,” she replies.

They then review the differences between “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those.”

“What is that ?” she asks.

“ That is a blue dress,” a student calls out.

“Good!” Giamei says. “He used ‘that’ because it is far away.” 

Now, the lesson gets trickier. “What are these?” she says, pointing to pants, a plural noun, although in this case the word refers to only one item. “Aye-aye-aye,” a student responds, and the class laughs. They move on to practicing conversational English—asking and answering questions, handling money, how to talk about receipts. 

Pomp and Circumstance

CELOP and Dining Services organized a small graduation ceremony for the employees on May 3 to celebrate the end of the course. The organizers invited students’ families, managers, and supporting staff to attend. 

Jon Webster, director of Dining Services, says the ceremony is one of his favorite things his team does during the year. “I think lowering the barrier of communication so that we can all talk to each other is a great way to make friends, and a way to make a great and more productive work environment,” he said at the ceremony. “It’s not necessarily the most comfortable thing to learn a new language. So we’re really celebrating you guys taking the opportunity to do that.” 

“We’re delighted this program is here,” says Paul Riel, associate vice president of Auxiliary Services, which oversees Dining Services. “We love the results of this program and like the way that people are able to do their work and get the opportunity to also study,” and take full advantage of the fact that BU is an educational institution. 

Mark Yates, food service director at Warren Towers, says he’s seen a “tremendous improvement” in the English skills of his employees who’ve taken the class. “It’s not just a benefit to me as their manager, it has helped them communicate with students. For example, they can answer questions about the menu. They’ve also told me it has helped them feel a lot more comfortable in their daily lives, like at the grocery store.”

Graduate Witney Chow, who is from Myanmar, says she learned about the class from her manager and wanted to sign up to improve her English. Before, she says, “I was nervous, afraid to speak. Now, people can understand me more.” 

Classmate Tang volunteered to deliver a short speech at the ceremony and worked with Giamei to help translate it. “This course is a turning point in my life,” Tang said, as she read carefully from a piece of paper in front of the audience. “Now, I dare to speak. I learned English grammar, and I am confident to take further steps to improve my English skills. Thank you for opening doors.”

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im glad that dinning services and celop helped the workers learn english, hopefully the program will be offered to dining service workers who wish to continue to learn further english will continue

How wonderful to read about BU’s effort to make learning English available to the staff. It was so exciting to see the confidence in the faces of these graduates after feeling more at home in their environment. CONGRATULATIONS to all for their effort and accomplishment!

This is a terrific service provided by BU! Learning languages late in life can be intimidating, but is possible in a welcoming, caring environment. Congratulations to the students and to the CELOP team for opening this door for our BU co-workers. This should be offered to all BU employees interested in developing their English proficiency.

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Making life easier for students with learning differences

Fourth-year students yash dhir and rahul nambiar were awarded the president’s innovation prize for their web-based education management tool, jochi, to help middle and high school students..

Since the initial days of his first year at Penn, fourth-year student Yash Dhir has been steadily working on an idea that came to him as he was studying remotely from his home in London during fall of 2020: how to enable students to structure their time outside of class with the same level of support they have inside of school.

Named Jochi , the idea has evolved into a web-based education-tech management platform for middle and high school students who have learning differences, like ADHD, to help them keep track of their school assignments and outside activities. Schools that license Jochi integrate the management tool into their system, giving access to educators so they can better provide the students support.

“I had learning differences in high school, and I had gone through a lot of obstacles to get to Penn,” Dhir says. “A lot of what we’re doing with Jochi, it’s really resonated with me.”

Dhir’s partner is fourth-year Rahul Nambiar, who is from Dubai. Both are in the School of Engineering and Applied Science : Dhir a systems science and engineering major, and Nambiar a computer science major, who is submatriculating for a master’s degree. They have been friends since they met on campus in January of 2021, during a pandemic-delayed student Move-In, both of them living in the Quad, Nambiar in Riepe and Dhir in Fisher. They were roommates in Harrison Hall their second year, and by the third year they were business partners.

Now the pair are recipients of the President’s Innovation Prize . They will receive $100,000 for Jochi, and a $50,000 living stipend each. In addition, Jochi will have a workplace in the Pennovation Center , Penn’s business incubator.

Awarded annually, the President’s Innovation Prize and President’s Engagement Prize empower Penn undergraduate students to design and undertake post-graduation projects that make a positive, lasting difference in the world. The Prizes are the largest of their kind in higher education.

“Inventors at their core, Yash Dhir and Rahul Nambiar identified a gap and a solution to support students with learning differences. They have used their creativity and determination to turn an ambitious vision into a very useful product,” says Interim President J. Larry Jameson . “While balancing the academic demands of college, they’ve imagined—and reimagined—Jochi, a project we are pleased to award this year’s President’s Innovation Prize.”

The Innovation Prize is one of several Penn awards Jochi and its founders have earned in recent weeks. Together this funding totals nearly $300,000, including the $50,000 Draper Bridge Fund Award from Penn’s Venture Lab and $30,000 for the Startup Challenge . They also were named semifinalists in the international 2024 Milken Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition .

The Innovation Prize will allow the pair to accelerate their already-ambitious goals, in part because of the financial backing, but also because of faculty support. “We’re in an education market, so having Penn’s name behind this, validating our product, and validating us as student founders, is so important,” Dhir says.

The company is generating revenue and currently is in nine schools, reaching about 900 students, they say. The goal is to reach 20,000 learners by May of next year.

Their faculty mentor is Amanda Antico , who teaches the Education Entrepreneurship course in the Graduate School of Education . Dhir took the class last spring and Nambiar this spring, undergraduate exceptions, and two of the most promising students she has taught in her nine years at Penn, she says. She is “thrilled” they were chosen for the Innovation Prize.

“They deserve it. They’ve earned it. And they’re ready to hustle,” says Antico, founder of the firm EvolvED . “They are going to change a lot of young people’s lives with this product. And they’re going to help educators be focused on what neurodiverse students need. It’s all very real-time and very data-driven, and it’s easy to use. That’s really a special combination.”

What is Jochi?

Jochi is an integrated management solution for students with learning differences who attend traditional schools. The tool comes in two components: a planner for students and a management tool for learning specialists and educators.

Students using Jochi have a personal interface to a digital planner that connects to their school computer systems, assisting them to manage their time. “A student basically manages their entire life outside the classroom on our tool,” Dhir says.

Educators similarly have an interface and can provide support based on the real-time information. “What we’ve built is a dashboard that consolidates everything they need to know about a student,” Dhir says. The tool tracks grades and assignments, how long it takes them to do an assignment, and extracurricular activities and responsibilities. “We’ve painted a complete picture for these educators to really understand how their students are doing inside and outside the classroom so that the support that they provide to them is as resource-efficient as possible.”

The name Jochi stems from a Korean word for “it’s good,” Dhir says. “But it also means in an abstract way productivity and organization that are embedded into your day-to-day life. It’s like a way of living.”

And Dhir says he and Nambiar liked the “funkiness” of the name, different from something like “daily planner.” “We wanted something that says, ‘We’re taking this new approach, this new energy, to ed tech.’” The signature color is an eye-popping purple. “That was symbolic to how we wanted to be known in this space,” Dhir says.

The beginning

Dhir was born in London, lived in New Delhi for nine years, and then returned to London for high school. He wanted to study engineering but was also interested in business. In high school, he started an ice cream company, a clothing brand, and a design agency for tennis academies and athletes. “I had a lot of these different passions,” he says. “I was very entrepreneurial from a young age. The one thing tying all of these passions together was the social-impact oriented mission.”

Penn was his first choice, Dhir says, because he could see the interdisciplinary possibilities of having access to the Wharton School . “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to be in a place where you could have these different types of conversations,” he says. “And I liked that it was a very international place. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.”

Like other Penn students, Dhir was taking classes remotely that first fall semester. “High school ended on a pretty low note,” he says. And that experience was the origin of Jochi.

“The project has evolved significantly, but it started with this simple thesis that students weren’t being supported outside the classroom in the same way that they were inside the classroom,” Dhir says. “I really don’t think that kind of realization or urgency would’ve come if we hadn’t had the pandemic.”

Building the product

Dhir says his first Zoom with his Penn email was with one of the directors of the Venture Lab, now in Tangen Hall , a hub for entrepreneurship, to get started on his project. Dhir worked with students and educators at an alternative-learning school in Philadelphia, the Revolution School, to help create the product and features to meet the needs of the students and educators.

The summer of 2022 Jochi was chosen for the Pennovation Summer Accelerator, a six-week program designed to help students build their entrepreneurial projects. “I started relying on Rahul quite a lot. I would come home every night and get his insights, his technical experience,” Dhir says.

“We were talking about it every day. I used to work out of the Pennovation Center with him some days, and I watched him pitch. That’s when I really started getting excited about the project,” Nambiar says. “He pitched me on the idea of me coming on and dealing with the product and the technical side of things.”

“We are both originally Indian, both international, both engineering, so we quickly became really good friends. We like to say that before all this we used to be best friends and then we started a company together,” Dhir says, both of them laughing.

Dhir convinced Nambiar to become a founding partner in Jochi, with the task of creating the computer software, and moved ahead to forge partnerships with five schools.

But in spring of 2023, Jochi faced a major setback: The company that provided the technical capabilities to connect the product to schools canceled the contract, and their partnerships came to an end. “It was a really tough moment because we had done all this work and felt like nothing had worked out,” says Dhir.

Betting on them

However, one school, La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, stayed with the project. “They just really took a bet on us,” Dhir says. The reason? Because Kristy King, director of the school’s Learning Resource Center for students who have learning differences, believed in the product, Dhir says. “She really liked the idea of how the tool could be used specifically for them,” he says.

It was a turning point. Taking her suggestion, Dhir and Nambiar decided to retool Jochi specifically for students who have learning challenges, starting with the 100 students at La Jolla.

“We spent last summer building a product directly for this group of students who have learning differences, and their learning specialists,” Dhir says. “The whole idea was how do we help these specific students with their time management organizational skills, while also helping the educators support these students better.”

The connection to La Jolla was through Ryan Song, a 1999 graduate of Penn’s College of Arts and Sciences , who previously worked at the school. Song, who graduated from Penn GSE with a master’s degree in 2000, was one of the nearly 800 Penn alums Dhir emailed to ask for advice. Now Song is on Jochi’s board of advisors, along with Antico, and Patti Boyle, who has her Ph.D. from Penn GSE.

In a recommendation letter in support of the Prize, King wrote that Jochi “has the capability to simplify everyday functions which would save learning specialist and administrator time that can then be directed toward individual attention to the students.” And that she’s been “most impressed by the professional delivery and responsiveness of Yash and Rahul to our school’s individual needs,” meeting to demonstrate features of the Jochi program, answer questions, and solve problems.

“I’ve learned so many different things in school, in the classroom, which are so helpful to apply to the real world,” Nambiar says. “But we are jumping into something that they don’t really teach you. I’m a computer science major; I learned how to code in this specific language. But if something needs to be fixed, if the product fails, I have to force myself to figure it out.”

It’s just the two of them as partners, but they have also had undergraduate fellows, three this year, all first-years. They meet once a week. “They’re all passionate about entrepreneurship and want to start their own thing,” Dhir says. “It’s been cool to share with them our experience and be mentors and have them also be involved in our journey.”

Marketing to schools has been a priority this year. The pair have been going to educational conferences around the country—Boston, Atlanta, St. Louis, Villanova—setting up a booth and attending sessions. And they are meeting directly with schools, for now independent, but with a plan to go into public schools in the coming year.

“We finally have the product to a point where it is solving a real problem,” Dhir says. “People see it as a need, and they are paying for the product.”

The President’s Innovation Prize and other Penn awards fuel and accelerate their plans, they say. “It’s rewarding to end our four years at Penn on this high where we’ve got funding from such great organizations,” Dhir says. “Everything we are has come from Penn, from the ground up.”

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