The Color Purple The Color Purple, written by Alice Walker illuminates the struggles African-American women face in the early twentieth century. They are all joined together through love, hatred and hard times in life. The narrator and one of the main characters, Celie, age fourteen lives in Georgia. Celie lives with her mother, father, siblings, and her own children. Celie has a hard home life, she is raped by her father and has given birth to his children. Her father sexually assaults her and abuses her, this even continues once her mother dies. Now she feels the burden of protecting her sister from her father's sexual ways not wanting her to have the same life she had. Throughout this whole time of living a horrible life Celie writes …show more content…
As she goes through life Celie marries to a man who abuses her like her father did. So Celie is living with her husband and takes care of his children while being abused by him, she gives them loving care yet she feels nothing for them and neither do they for her (Walker 5). Through her whole life Celie is at the bottom of the food chain. The African American males treat her badly. All she is to them is a sexual toy and a punching bag. She is expected to take the abuse and harassment they send her way, and continue cleaning their house, caring for the children, and feed the men. Women at this time are not allowed to defend themselves and talk back to the men. Celie kept quiet about everything that happened to her especially when she was young and was being raped by her father, mainly because he had told her “You better not never tell anyone but God. It’d kill your mammy” (Walker …show more content…
Celie now has the courage to yell at her husband about the situation and he tries to abuse her like he use to but she no longer has the low self esteem she did before he no longer can hurt her like he use to. She has become a happy woman who is now looking forward to life. Since during the time era black women were the lowest class of people, Celie was to respond to men and do whatever they wanted. White folk, and men were in control. She was expected to please men, she did this with her father, she allowed him to rape her and abuse her. She allowed it because she knew if she did not let her father do it to her, he would do it to her sick mother. It made her happy he was not abusing her mother. By the end of the book Celie appears as a strong independent woman. She found her voice and she fights back no longer taking anything from men. This can relate to a lot of African American women in this time period, right after slavery was done with. Many of the African American women were not really seen as people. They were the lowest of the low, then eventually they spoke up and fought for equality. This book and the way Celie responds to her life, growing as a person, really relates to real life women who found their voice and started fighting for
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,”
Another important woman in Celie’s life was Harpo’s wife Sofia. Sofia wasn’t as important to Celie as Shug Avery or her sister Nettie, but it was Sofia’s actions that I believe helped inspire Celie. For when Harpo tried to beat Sofia, thanks to Celie’s advice to Harpo to beat his wife, Sofia would always fight back. Not only emotionally but physically as well, for one day when Celie was going to Harpo’s house she saw Harpo and Sofia fighting like twos mens (P. 44). And I think Celie was really shocked when Sofia confronted her on why Celie told Harpo to beat Sofia. I say it cause I’m a fool, I say it cause I’m jealous of you. I say it cause you do what I can’t. What that? She say. Fight I say. … She say all my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers … cousins … uncles. A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men. But I never thought I’d have
Told through a series of letters to God, Celie shares her story. Impregnated twice by her father, Celie’s children are taken away
Celie's transformation from Mr. ____'s slave into an independent women is successful thanks to two strong women that become role models for Celie in her everyday life; Shug Avery and Sofia. Sofia is a role model in a more unconscious way for Celie then Shug is. Sofia's whole appearance and behaviour is proud, she lets no one sit on her and Celie is, at first, jealous of Sofia's self-confidence and tries to destroy it by giving her husband Harpo the advice to beat her to make her obedient; "I think about this when Harpo ast me what he ought to do to make her mind. [---] I think bout how every time I jump when Mr. _____ call me, she [Sofia] look surprise. And like she pity me. Beat her. I say"2. When this does not work, Celie realises that Sofia is someone to become more alike, not someone to destroy.
Celie is abused and raped by her Pa, who takes away her children after they’re born. Eventually, Pa marries Celie off to a man who is just as abusive as Pa. Celie’s new husband, Mr.__, simply marries Celie to take care of his four children, look after of his house, and work in his fields.
In the beginning, the girl's mother was very sick. Their step-father took charge of the household and he began abusing Celie. Celie, being the oldest, accepted the abuse as a duty and attempted to stand her ground. She wanted to remain strong in order to insure the safety of her
As Nettie receives opportunities Celie could never fathom, their relationship comes to a halt. Celie stops receiving letters from her sister and is left to take care of her husband’s obnoxious children from a previous marriage, and is verbally/physically abused on a daily basis by both her husband and his children. Celie’s husband has a torrent affair with Shug Avery, a blues singer with a practical mentality who does not endure any mistreatment from anyone, regardless of their gender. When Shug Avery falls into Celie’s care, Shug Avery teaches Celie a thing or two about self-confidence and the strength she must find within herself to stand up to her husband. Towards the end of the novel, Shug Avery encourages Celie to leave her husband and move with her to Memphis, where she can escape the pain of her past and for once in her life be happy.
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
Similarly, Celie’s father gave her to Mr.__ to be a wife who will clean his house and care for his children. Both women go through their lives being told what to do and how to do it. They both disagree with their respective standards, and try to overcome
Celie began her life in a desperate situation, her father lynched and her mother terminally ill which left Celie as the oldest caretaker. To the detriment of the family's fate, in this time of vulnerability Alphonso assumed the fatherly role left open by Celie's father's early death. Unfortunately, Alphonso was not satisfied with the companionship Celie's mother could offer and his eyes fell on the maturing Celie. Alphonso sexually took advantage of Celie, then to protect his reputation he threatened her, "You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy" (Walker 1). Terrified to further the destruction of her already dilapidated family, Celie turned to God to hear the outpourings of her sorrowful heart. Alphonso was the first to strip Celie of her opportunity for friendship, denying her the opportunity to speak with another person that could console her in a time of pain and confusion. This forced isolation molds Celie into a timid, censored woman; even her letters to God are short and muddled in the transcription of her memoir. After years of confessing the tribulations of her life to God, Celie loses faith in her friend, God, upon reading the letters from Nettie that convince her she will never lay eyes on her sister again, she declares
Life is a rollercoaster filled with ups and downs. Left turns, right turns, and sometimes completely upside down loop de loops. The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a story about a colored woman named Celie who writes letters to God while living through extreme oppression and abuse. Celie eventually overcomes her oppressors by finding her purpose in life through friendship, love, hope, and change in faith. Discovering hope, love, and faith leads to a fulfilling life through difficult times.
Being a black female in the south during the early 1900’s, at a time when white and blacks were socially segregated and women were absolutely inferior to men, was one of the many challenges Celie would be faced with in her lifetime. Born in 1895, Celie was raised on a farm in a small town in Georgia where formal education took a back seat to physical labor and household maintenance, and the Church was the main focal point of socialization among local town members.
After 20 years of marriage, Celie finally gets the courage to leave her husband, begin a lesbian relationship with Shug and start her own trouser making business. This journey of constant abuse throughout her adolescence to a strong, independent woman with her own business seems typical of a novel to have a happy ending, but the novel has raised many questions about her portrayal of black female character and about where it fits in her other work in her
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
Celie’s relationship with her sister Nettie, one of protection and unconditional love, evolves in a way that allows Celie to see her own worth and gain her independence, even though they are not physically able to be together. Throughout the novel, Nettie provides Celie with hope. Celie obviously thinks the world of her younger sister, as she is smart, beautiful, and sweet. Celie and Nettie both understand that education is the only way they can better their situation, but as Celie is mentally behind and slower, she puts her faith into Nettie. As life’s circumstances become worse, Celie always tries to protect Nettie. This is evident in one instance where, still as children, Celie dresses up in order to entice her Pa solely so that he will