| Abstract | Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple (1982) and Rupi Kaur’s collection of poetry the sun and her flowers (2017) seem to be two completely different literary works. Although the former is a novel written in the twentieth century and the latter is a poetry volume written in the twenty-first century, both works represent a woman’s personal growth from subordination to emancipation. This thesis explores the similarities between Walker’s novel and Kaur’s poetry volume in order to show that the emotional responses they convey are representative of female experience in general, regardless of the time and place where one lives. In order to prove that, the two works are analyzed according to five life stages proposed by Kaur in her poetry volume – wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. In each of the five stages of life, the main character of The Color Purple and the speaker from the sun and her flowers experience various struggles, but the emotions that occur out of those experiences are the same. Their initial scare, confusion, and subordination eventually turn into strength, fearlessness, and quest towards independence. Examining their common themes and motifs, such as heartbreak, racism, violence, abuse, and community, the paper argues that despite the time period, the place, or the cause of the trauma, both texts maintain that hardships can be made bearable and meaningful if one finds support in one’s community or resilience within oneself. |
