Sharrett, Grace and Ren, Michele SISTERHOOD AS A STRATEGY FOR SURVIVAL AND SOLIDARITY IN ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE AND KAI CHENG THOM’S FIERCE FEMMES AND NOTORIOUS LIARS: A DANGEROUS TRANS GIRL’S CONFABULOUS MEMOIR. 2026. Radford University, Thesis. Radford University Scholars' Repository.
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Abstract
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (1982) and Kai Cheng Thom’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir (2016) both depict strong female relationships, whether familial or chosen, and how those relationships become central to the main character’s survival. In The Color Purple, the letters written between Celie and Nettie create the narrative, not only providing Celie with hope, but sustaining a bond of sisterhood even though they are a long distance apart and living their own lives. The epistolary portrayal of the narrative represents a dialogue of survival and resilience; it allows Celie to claim her own voice as time progresses. Similarly, in Fierce Femmes, Thom uses the nameless main character’s letters to her younger sister to drive home the familial bond of sisterhood but also extends these ideas into a broader community of femmes and trans women who become a part of a chosen family. This community gives readers an inside look into how sisterhood plays an important role in the main character’s life not only by depicting the girl gang sharing their stories rather than remaining silent, but by sharing positive and negative experiences that forge bonds between them that are just as strong as if they were biologically related. Together, these two texts show that whether sisterhood is shown through private letters or through the solidarity of communal storytelling, it functions as a lifeline for women; they can use these types of sisterhood to survive, and even to become the best versions of themselves with the help of their sisters. In finding solidarity and sisterhood, Walker and Thom’s protagonists are able to persevere despite enduring violence and the societal silencing of women and their experiences. By placing these works in conversation, this thesis will examine how feminist literature portrays sisterhood as a strategy for survival and solidarity.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PE English |
| Divisions: | Radford University > College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences > School of Writing, Language, and Literature |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Aug 2026 01:49 |
| URI: | http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/1376 |
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