Reading Order
Possessing the Secret of Joy Reading Order
Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992) by Alice Walker is her fourth novel — one of the most direct and politically charged of all her works, an explicit protest against the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), told through the story of Tashi, a character first introduced in The Color Purple and The Temple of My Familiar, an African woman from the fictional Olinka tribe. Tashi, now living in the United States and married to Adam (Celie's stepson from The Color Purple), returns to Africa as an adult to undergo the mutilation as an act of cultural identity — a choice she makes under political and cultural pressure — and the novel follows the devastating psychological and physical consequences of that choice, including Tashi's breakdown, her murder of the woman who performed the mutilation, and her subsequent trial. Possessing the Secret of Joy is Walker's most overtly polemical novel and the one that most directly confronts the reader with a specific political argument: that female genital mutilation is a form of violence against women that should be named and opposed regardless of its cultural context. The novel includes an afterword with resources on the subject, and it helped bring wider attention to FGM in the English-speaking world. The novel is also a continuation of the fictional universe of The Color Purple, and readers familiar with those characters will find new dimensions in Tashi's story. The title comes from a decorative motto visible in a painting: 'RESISTANCE IS THE SECRET OF JOY.'
Where to start
Read The Color Purple (1982) first — Tashi is a character from that novel and from The Temple of My Familiar (1989), and the emotional weight of Possessing the Secret of Joy depends on knowing who Tashi is. Any Harcourt paperback.
Complete Possessing the Secret of Joy Book List
- 1Buy
Possessing the Secret of Joy
Alice Walker·1992·The novel — Tashi's choice to undergo female genital mutilation as an act of cultural identity, its devastating consequences, her murder of the practitioner, and her trial; Walker's most explicitly political novel and her direct protest against FGM; the continuation of The Color Purple's characters. - 2Buy
The Color Purple
Alice Walker·1982·Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — the essential predecessor; Tashi is a character from The Color Purple, and the emotional weight of her story in Possessing the Secret of Joy depends on knowing who she is. - 3Buy
The Temple of My Familiar
Alice Walker·1989·Walker's companion novel — Tashi appears here as well, in a broader canvas of African and African American women's lives; the intermediate novel between The Color Purple and Possessing the Secret of Joy. - 4Buy
Meridian
Alice Walker·1976·Walker's second novel — the companion in her fiction about the political commitment of African American women; Meridian Hill's civil rights work and Tashi's political martyrdom are companion portraits of the cost of political commitment for Black women. - 5Buy
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini·2007·Hosseini's novel about Afghan women — the companion in fiction about women's bodies, cultural violence, and the structures that imprison women in the name of culture, tradition, or religion; Mariam and Laila's Afghanistan is the companion to Tashi's fictional Olinka. - 6Buy
Infidel
Ayaan Hirsi Ali·2007·Hirsi Ali's memoir — the companion in non-fiction about female genital mutilation and the experience of an African woman who underwent it and who became a public advocate against the practice; Hirsi Ali's Somalia is the non-fictional companion to Tashi's fictional Olinka. - 7Buy
Beloved
Toni Morrison·1987·Morrison's Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — the companion in African American women's fiction about the acts women commit to protect themselves and others from violence; Sethe's killing of her daughter and Tashi's killing of the circumciser are companion acts of terrible love and resistance. - 8Buy
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston·1937·Hurston's masterpiece — the essential predecessor in African American women's fiction; Walker championed Hurston and the connection between Janie Crawford's quest for selfhood and Tashi's damaged quest for cultural identity runs through Walker's fiction.
Possessing the Secret of Joy — Frequently Asked Questions
What is Possessing the Secret of Joy about?
Possessing the Secret of Joy follows Tashi, an African woman from the fictional Olinka tribe, who was introduced as a minor character in The Color Purple. As an adult living in America with her husband Adam (Celie's stepson), Tashi returns to Africa to undergo female genital mutilation — a choice she makes under intense cultural and political pressure, as an act of tribal identity and solidarity. The novel then follows the devastating psychological and physical consequences: Tashi's breakdown, her obsessive questioning of what was done to her and why, and ultimately her murder of M'Lissa, the old woman who performs the mutilation in her tribe. Tashi is tried and executed, and the novel is partly told from her perspective in prison before her execution. The novel is also told from the perspectives of Adam, their son Benny, and a Jungian psychiatrist named Raye.
What is Walker arguing in Possessing the Secret of Joy?
Walker is making an explicit political argument: that female genital mutilation is a form of violence against women and girls that should be named and opposed regardless of its cultural context. The novel refuses cultural relativism — it does not accept that the practice is acceptable because it is traditional or culturally significant. Walker includes an afterword with information about organizations working against FGM, and the novel contributed to broader public awareness of the practice in the English-speaking world. The title — from the motto 'RESISTANCE IS THE SECRET OF JOY,' seen in a painting — states the argument: that resistance to oppression, even when it costs everything, is itself a form of joy and liberation.
How does Tashi relate to The Color Purple?
Tashi is a minor but important character in The Color Purple — an African girl from the Olinka tribe whom Adam, Celie's stepson, falls in love with and eventually marries. In the earlier novel, Tashi undergoes the scarification of her face as a tribal rite, and Adam scars himself in solidarity with her. Possessing the Secret of Joy takes that relationship and Tashi's subsequent life as its subject, following Tashi's decision to undergo female genital mutilation as an adult and the consequences of that decision. Readers familiar with The Color Purple will find new dimensions in Tashi's story; the novel can be read without the predecessor but is significantly enriched by it.
Why is the novel controversial?
Possessing the Secret of Joy is controversial for its explicit political argument against female genital mutilation and its refusal of cultural relativism. Some critics have argued that Walker, as an American writer, is imposing Western values on African cultures; others have argued that the novel stereotypes African traditions. Walker's response, implicit in the novel and explicit in its afterword, is that female genital mutilation causes severe physical and psychological harm to the women who undergo it and cannot be protected from criticism by appeals to cultural tradition. The debate the novel provoked is itself part of its importance: it brought the practice to wider attention and forced a conversation about the limits of cultural relativism when physical harm to women and girls is at stake.
What should I read after Possessing the Secret of Joy?
After Possessing the Secret of Joy, The Color Purple (1982) is Walker's Pulitzer-winning masterpiece and the essential predecessor in her fictional world. The Temple of My Familiar (1989) is the companion intermediate novel. For fiction and memoir about violence against women in the context of cultural traditions, Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns and Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel are important companions. Toni Morrison's Beloved is the companion in African American women's fiction about the acts women commit to resist violence.
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