Like Alice Walker's The Color Purple, sentimental novels are developed on the readers' ability to sympathize and cry with the characters. Highlighting this topic, the author of “Narrative Produces Gender: Femininity as Affect and Effect in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple” – Robyn R. Warhol analyzes the novel’s narrative techniques to produce a “good cry.” The author proposes that the novel effectively deals with "internal focus", which allows the patient's perceptions to stand out. She also intends to use the novel to further explore the culture's feminine mythologies and the idea of ​​sentimentalism. Lacking exclusive examples, Warhol's approach has several weaknesses: the emphasis on the "bon cri" novel as having a "feminine narrative" and the culture's ideas about femininity, and the lack of discussion on the evolution of the characters and their contribution to the sentimental level of the novel. In order to improve Warhol's concept of "feminine narrative," factors related to character development, foreshadowing, and the weight of the culture's femininity on the novel's sentimentality must be thoughtfully evaluated. In her essay, Robyn R. Warhol first explains the ideals of the "feminine narrative" culture that it contains "the affirmation of community, the persistence of hope and will, the belief that everyone matters, [ and] the feeling that life has a purpose which can be traced to the bonds of affection between and among people” (186). These cultural models help create the idea of ​​femininity, which The Color Purple was established using narrative techniques. She states that this idea “is produced and reproduced” frequently; therefore, these motifs were absorbed... middle of paper... God, […] the stars, […] the trees, […] the sky, […] the people” (185, 186, Walker ). The value of this ending lies in the fact that it surprises readers' usual expectation of a brutal ending to a sentimental novel. The “good cry” factors include Célie’s union with her loves and the impression of a promising future for all the characters. Addressing readers as “Dear People” reconnects with the emotional connection between the narrator and the audience of the novel. After the long journey, no one was left behind in this celebration of happiness. Work cited Walker, Alice. The color purple. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2003. Print.Warhol, Robyn R. “How Narrative Produces Gender: Femininity as Affect and Effect in Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple.” » Story 9.2 (May 2001): 182-187. JSTOR. Internet. April 23. 2014. .