Philomela And The Color Purple

With Shug’s financial and emotional support in the beginning of her business venture, Celie is able to realize that she has talents that help her connect to others and gives her a sense of control in her life. In fact, she has a huge influence among her employees, who support her and view her as a role model, succeeding in the world despite all odds. In the end, it is Celie’s interest in creating a business that places her firmly in control of herself, her financial well being and a purpose in everyday life, while giving her the ability to connect with women who understand the difficult path to independence. All of these factors, as well as the overwhelming support of friends, help Celie feel proud, confident and happy with what she has achieved in life. With a huge step towards independence, Celie stops writing letters to God. Throughout the novel, Celie writes God to ask for guidance, will to live and help in difficult times, but now that she has interests that empower her, she addresses her letters to someone else. In a powerful letter to her sister, Celie writes, “I don’t write to God no more. I write to you” (Walker, The Colour Purple 192). Now writing to Nettie, Celie expresses she no longer needs a higher power to pray to, all she needs are the people in her life to tell her stories to. Celie connects with others through her business and her everyday life now that she is not

Told through a series of letters to God, Celie shares her story. Impregnated twice by her father, Celie’s children are taken away

When Celie finds her sister’s letters, it unlocks a new world for her. Instead of being submissive and downtrodden, she realizes the full extent of the abuses she has suffered from Mr.__. This knowledge gives her the strength to leave him. Celie heads off to Memphis with Shug to start a new

She says, “men and their religions have tended to make love for anything and anybody other than themselves and their Gods an objectionable thing, a shame”. Smith then begins to transition into activism. Smith explains how Walker ties in her Native American ancestry in one way or another. However, Walker does not only tie in her own background, she stands up for those who are voiceless. In many of her writings Alice Walker dedicates her writing to emotional suffering, the silencing of women, growth and one’s well being, cruelty, decision making, and so much more.

Both novels, Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell, and The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, do a great job of depicting strong female characters. Ree Dolly, from Winter’s Bone, and Celie, from The Color Purple, although characters from totally different novels, have many similarities. Both were raised in very patriarchal societies. This means the males were highly dominant over the females. Women are supposed to be completely subservient to their male counterparts.

Celie discovers all of the letters written to her from Nettie. As the novel progresses, Celie begins to write back to Nettie.

The book talks about Sophia repairing a roof. The women in The Color Purple were also outspoken. Sophia is one of the most outspoken women in the book. For instance, when the mayor's wife asked Sophia to be her maid, Sophia responded, "Hell no" (Walker53). The women have many lovers.

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

Pa told her to only refer to God, Celie only expresses herself to God, bringing the next themein the novel which is creative expression. When Celie is told to keep quiet and not say a word toanyone, Celie figures out a way to express herself by letters referring to God. The third theme thatis presented in the novel is sexual abuse. Celie’s Pa began to abuse her when her mammy did notwant to have a sexual relationship with him because she had just given birth.

In the first paragraph of Celie’s first letter, she introduces herself. Celie tells God that she is fourteen years old, so a teenager, and implies that she has always been a good girl. The reason she implies this is because she is pregnant and does not what is occurring and happening to her body. Celie felt as if God was punishing her by making her pregnant, so she tells him that she has always been a good girl. God is her only hope and wants him to show her a sign that she is about to deliver a baby. Based on the fact that Celie does not know that she is pregnant and her young age, it is safe to assume that Celie has been raped. It is evident that Celie has little knowledge about pregnancy and the process of delivering a baby.

The myth of “Philomela” is an ancient one and finds itself in the contemporary works of many African American female writers, such as texts written by Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. The incidence of this myth within texts supports the image of a powerful archetypical story which unambiguously joins the images of rape, silencing and the complete removal of female subjectivity. In the three specific texts, namely: Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, each main female character experiences a similar fate yet each has a somewhat different outcome. Walker, however, tends to reconfigure her characters fate completely in withdrawing from patriarchal violence, which is present in all three texts.

As a result of these tragic events, Celie writes to an unknown audience, resembling her unknown identity. In the beginning, the only person she can talk to is God. She writes her first letters to God shortly after her so-called father raped her. Each one of the letters is short, choppy and has a similar rhythm. The patterns found in her letters symbolize her state of mind; she feels depressed and weak. "Celie does not think of her letters as anything else than just that, as written documents saying the things she wishes to tell the recipients she cannot speak to in person”, making God the person she has always wished to communicate with (Boynukara). Her letters in the beginning are also mostly written to God and not signed off, illustrating her lack of identity. Her conception of God is a “Big and old and tall and graybearded and white. He wear white robes and go barefooted” (Walker 195). Celie’s first letter proves that she has a low self-confidence when she writes, "Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me." (1). According to Janoff Bulman, “cognitive strategy used to make

In fact, with the repeated occasions of the rapes, she gets pregnant by him, but her babies are taken by him after they are born. Not enough with this, Celie is married to Mr. _, the same happens with this man and Pa, that they are as incognitos. This man is also a bad person that treats in a bad way Celie, but this does not affect to Celie that is only worried about her dear sister Nettie, who wants to save herself from his father because she thinks that can do the same to her that did to her in the past. With all these behaviours, it is remarkable the power of the man in the family, that is imposing his figure, his person to the others: raping his daughter, choosing the husband of his daughter and on and

Celie also values her sister Nettie greatly and protects her when it comes to their step-father, Alphonso raping the girls. Celie says “I ast him to take me instead of Nettie while our new mammy was sick.” the casual tone of the preceding line adds to Celie's lack of self-worth; she is so used to being raped by Alphonso that it no longer makes any difference to her. As Celie transitions to the Mister’s household, she is still treated with disrespect by the Mister himself and even one of his sons. In a letter to God, she writes “I spent most of my wedding day running from the oldest boy… He picks up a rock and laid my head open.” Celie grows older in this household and submits to more abuse from her new husband.

Because Celie seeks to protect her younger sister Nettie from being degraded by Pa, Pa frequently targets Celie to be the subject of his physical and sexual abuse. Pa constantly rapes Celie and eventually impregnates her twice. Pa also physically abuses Celie. In one letter, Celie references an incident where Pa punches her because she accidently winks at a boy in her church (12). On top of the physical and sexual abuse that Celie suffers from, Pa also verbally abuses her. He frequently tells Celie that she its ugly and unwanted. Eventually, Celie internalizes these words and begins to think view herself as though she is ugly and unwanted, so she believes that the things that happen to her must be normal. All of the abuse that Celie suffers from at the hands of Pa causes her to characterize all men as violent and