Color Purple Patriarchy

Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Color Purple, tells the story of a young black woman in rural Georgia over thirty years in the first half of the twentieth century. Through her letters to God and her sister Nettie, the protagonist, Celie, shares her struggles against physical, sexual, emotional and verbal abuse. Through Celie’s story and the stories of the other people in her life, the novel explores the themes of racism, sexuality, spirituality, and gender roles. Walker enriches the story and advances these themes through the use of symbols such as the sewing of quilts and pants; music; and the use of colors.

In the movie, Celie was one who had very low self-esteem since childhood. She felt worthless within her first marriage which was forced on her because she was sold to a man she called Mister who only needed someone to care for his kids. Perhaps if she would have had the opportunity to address those issues within her life with these few stages she might have thought more of herself. One article listed some stages that should be examined in one’s life to determine where to find one’s self. It stated,”

In ultimately finding herself at the end of the novel, Celie had to overcome the internal prejudices against herself. With the use of Shug Avery in the novel, Walker displays the hardships Celie must face with her new found sexuality. Because this relationship uses different and new feelings it “evokes so profound an erotic awakening that Celie believes she was "still a virgin" prior to it” (Hankinson). When Celie begins to have feelings for Shug, they start out innocent and then become more serious. She describes a night that they spent together when she says, “Me and Shug sound asleep. Her back to me, my arms round her waist” (Walker 116). Celie begins to allow her feelings with Shug to become reality and shows that she does not have the shy personality that everyone thinks she does. Celie breaks out of her inner prejudices again when she confides in her sister, Nettie. Celie begins to yell at the dinner table one night when she could no longer take

Celie’s world of gender roles and stereotypes was shattered by these women and many more in the novel. By the end of the book, she herself broke the cultural mode. She left her husband and moved to Tennessee with her girlfriend Shug. She started her own clothing business and became very successful. Celie becoming an independent woman, starting a relationship with another woman, being poorly educated, being African American, and becoming a successful entrepreneur breaks so many cultural modes. I was smiling by the end of the novel because of what Celie had

Alice Walker wrote ‘The Color Purple’ in order to capture and highlight the hardship and bitterness African-American women experienced in the early 1900s. She demonstrates the emotional, physical and spiritual revolution of an abused black girl into an independent, strong woman. The novel largely focuses on the role of male domination and its resulting frustrations and black women’s struggle for independence. The protagonist, Celie’s, gain of an independent identity, away from her family, friends, work, and love life, forms the plot of the novel.

In the beginning of this novel, Celie is a young and naive adolescent. She is

Celie is mostly uneducated until her sister helps her learn how to read and write so she can write her letters when she is absent as she suspects she will need to send her away from Albert. This displays Celie’s will to improve herself even through the harsh times she goes through and is able to keep her composure. Celie protects her sister Nettie from the fate she had and allows for Nettie to have a better life compared to hers. Celie in the novel evolves into a character that is strong, caring, and the ability to

The abuse that Celie suffers for so many years has changed her, making her into a submissive young woman who can’t stand up for herself, even when she is not at fault; “He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church.

In the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Color Purple, there is one constant occurrence throughout this fictional masterpiece: abuse. The protagonist, Celie, endures chronic physical, emotional, mental, verbal, and sexual abuse almost her entire life. Celie's constant endurance of multiple types of abuse displays the damaging physical and psychological effects of the average African-American woman in the early 1900s. Alice Walker tells the miraculous story of a young African-American woman's survival in addition to the narrator's journey to discover her individuality through romantic and platonic relationships during a time of racial segregation and female oppression.

“I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me.” Celie is trying to understand why her father, Alphonso, is starting to rape her repeatedly, however, convinces herself to believe it is her fault Alphonso is abusing her. She thinks that this horrible thing happening to her is because she herself is bad. In Celie’s second letter a year later her mother has passed away angry at Celie for father has impregnated her. After Celie had her children, her father gave them away; however, she believes that her father killed one of her children. Although all this is happening to Celie, she only hopes her father finds himself a new wife so that he does not advance towards her younger sister, Nettie, and rape or mistreat her like he did to Celie. Eventually, her father does get remarried and Celie serves as a maid for him and the kids he had with his new wife as well as a protector for Nettie.

As the book progresses, the reader is able to see how Celie evolves into a

Celie is able to accept her past and establish a clear vision of herself and fulfillment through the acts of love. She meets other women who tell her that she should stand up for herself and fight, but Celie feels that it’s better to survive than to fight and risk not surviving. However, there are certain triggers that lead Celie to stand up. Like a true fighter, Celie proves herself to be willing to stand up for the people she loves. Even as a downtrodden victim of her Pa, Celie sacrifices herself and offers herself to her father so that he keeps his hands off of Nettie. As mentioned in this quote, where Pa is sexually abiding Celie, “First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold my titties. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. ” (Walker, 4). Celie has the potential by putting her efforts into other people, but not realizing she is able to stand up for herself the same ways he does for Nettie. Relating it back to the novel, “Beloved”, Sethe does the same representation when she is trying to save Beloved even though the idea is bizarre of her killing her own child, but she only does it so that she would not have to suffer the way Sethe did. Celie is introduced with Shug Avery a blues singer, who she was first found “rude”, but as the story moves along, Shug Avery becomes the reason Celie learns to love herself. Because Celie is finally opening herself up by loving someone, Celie becomes more lovable. Through Shug’s love, Celie begins to realize her own self-worth, from the minute when Shug Avery wrote a song for Celie, as said in this quote: “This song I'm bout to sing us call Miss. Celie's song.”(Walker, 73).By the end of the novel, Celie loves more

Alice Walker’s 1982 Novel, The Color Purple, captivates readers with its unique structure and moralizing themes. This fictional novel is written over several decades in the form of letters from Celie, a black woman in the south, and discusses many of the issues that she faces throughout her life. Most of the letters are written to God, while others are written to Celie’s sister, and some are addressed to Celie from her sister. Through writing these letters, Celie must face extreme adversaries, which forces her to question what kind of person she wants to be, and eventually reach her own self-actualization. Walker’s novel thoroughly expresses the value of communication in finding oneself, whether it be through confiding in other people, own

<br>We observe Celie's gradual spiritual development throughout the book from the point when Shug arrives to the very end when Celie first addresses her letters "Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear everything. Dear God." Her journey can be

Walker introduces the reader to the protagonist, Celie, through a series of letters. In these letters the reader finds Celie amidst her mother’s death. The author chooses to address her letters to God, giving Celie a greater willpower to survive. Celie’s upbringing gave her maternal authority; as seen through the multiple maternal roles she played through the novel. Her mother’s death forces her to step up and fill a, painful role revealing her inner strength and ability to remain optimistic.The full