The Color Purple

  In E. Yvette Walters' Women and Literacy in Alice Walker's The Color Purple, she talks about five major epistemological categories from which women view themselves as well as reality.  She says that we as women use these major categories to "draw conclusions about truth, knowledge, and authority" (138). The categories are:
a) silence
b) received knowledge
c) subjective knowledge
d) procedural knowledge
e) constructed knowledge

  "The simplest form of knowing is silence" (140).  A lot of times people know something and do not speak up for whatever reason.  I recall several times my professors would ask a question and no one would raise their hand, but deep down everyone would know the answer.  The reason behind this maybe because we are intimidated and lack confidence in our answers.  We often times keep quiet for fear of embarrassment.  Celie was silent  because she had been voiceless from the start.  She was always threatened not to speak and she felt that she did not know anything, and she did not mind.
  Walters also highlights the subjective woman.  According to Walters, the subjective woman forges new rules and establishes boundaries for herself and her relationships. She has negative attitudes towards specific men due to her past experiences and she feels that she can do without one.  We all know women who are like this if not ourselves.  In BET's The Game, we see Tasha Mack.  When we were first introduced to Tasha Mack, she was single, bitter, and unhappy.  She had been bitter because she was a teen mother and the father of her son had walked out on her leaving her to raise her son, Maliek, by herself.  She could not go to prom or any other events a high schooler would have the chance to endure.  She holds on to that bitterness towards men until she confronts the father of her son.  Yes, I am going somewhere with this.  In the new season we see a new Tasha Mack.  A confident, fierce, successful Tasha Mack.  She is a lot happier and she is dating again.  I wanted to make the connection that from the way I see it, subjective women tend to be unhappy deep down inside.  She may walk around with a smile on her face like she is Ms. Independent, but she is suffering inside.  Now I know all subjective women are not like this, but I am simply stating my opinions and interpretations.