"All he think about since us married is how to make me mind. He don't want a wife, he want a dog," (Walker, 64). For centuries the fight for equality has been a non-stop battle, beginning with white women's rights and slowly transforming to women's rights for all, including queer and colored women. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, the main character, Celie, deals with not only being a women who is seen as being next to worthless, but also has to figure out what being a women means to her sexually. It is through Celie's crude upbringing and troubling adult relationships that Walker is able to show Celie's transformation from a complacent servant to a woman with her own voice and identity.
From the first letter that Celie writes, it
…show more content…
Even on her wedding day, when her new step-son bashes a rock into her head, she doesn't show any signs of protest- she simply gets up, cleans off the blood, and returns to business as normal. When her stepchildren act rotten and lay hands on her, she doesn't respond, she simply goes on with her house duties. Accepting physical and sexual abuse from her spouse is one thing, but when she allows his children to physically assault her whenever they wish, it suggests that she truly doesn't see herself as fully human; at least not human enough to believe that she should be treated better than a punching bag or 'blow up doll'. This shows what little self-esteem she has for herself and how low she views herself. If she had higher self-esteem or a higher value of self-worth, she would show just a little bit less of a dog-like obedience to male authority. However, even though Celie does view herself low enough that she will allow herself to be misused in such a way, she does show some hint of resistance to her, even if it's the smallest …show more content…
It was mentioned earlier how Celie claimed that she never looked at men in a sexual way, but did women. However, Celie doesn't think about the fact that she might be a homosexual, due to the absence of a LGBTQ+ community in her life. Hamamsy said that "Although Celie's love for Shug performs the redemptive role of making her a whole person... Celie's feelings are so complicated and difficult to grasp that she feels burdened by them." This is both confusing to Celie because not only does she have zero exposure to the Homosexual community, but she also receives the same treatment from Shug that she would a man. Shug calls her names and complains about the way Celie takes care of her, treating her the same way that the men in her life seem to, but it doesn't change how Celie feels and has felt about Shug since the first time Celie looked at her picture. With all the men that have abused her, she holds a discomfort with them, sometimes going as far as to call it anger, but doesn't feel any of that resentment towards Shug. Society had taught her that she was just property for men to mishandle, which is why there was a lack of true anger throughout most of the novel; but she does know enough to not have any discomfort with being around Shrug, no matter how rude Shrug treats her. This could be because of the fact that there
Celie and the women surrounding her struggle for bondage. Celie finds a bond with many females. Walker introduces the hint of Celie's sexual attraction to women in church. Afraid of men because of the cruel treatment by her father, Celie turns more and more towards the company of women, who represent love, warmth, and feelings of solidarity to her. Celie affirms her sexual identity in her relationship with Shug Avery. For now, it is manifested merely as what men cannot offer.
Although Celie talks about her relationship with Shug in a very positive way, and seems to have benefited from it very much, there is a disturbing aspect of the relationship between Celie and Shug: Celie says that Shug kissed her in a man-woman sort of way, therefore there is some form of homosexuality involved. Celie has never been intimate with any other man or woman other than her abusive husband who was more like a slave master, and his
Because Shug is not a man, Celie does not fear her and the women become lovers. Celie is not attracted to women, but because she is afraid of men she can only find nurture and love in a female
Her entire life Celie had been taught that a man was an impenetrable force. Near the beginning of her book when Celie is describing her abusive step father she states that she “couldn’t be mad at my daddy, cause he my daddy. Bible say, honor father and mother no matter what” (Walker 43) Being raised in a catholic home reinforced the harmful message, leaving her at the will of any man in her life. As Hankinson states “It is Celie’s interpretation of the biblical God and his commands that breeds her compliance to these abusive patriarchal conditions.” (325) The “god’s command” in this case being that a woman must be subordinate to a man.
Celie is fragile in her perspective showed that it is better to just accept life as it is so there isn’t any more consequences. Nevertheless, if only she showed fearless, she would have prevented things like Nessie leaving,being tortured by her father and Mr.,and possibly getting her children
Celie accepts her position of being an object which makes her unable to assert her thoughts and thus puts her in a position of subordination. Celie’s same level of subordination recurs in her relationship with Mr.____.There is an instance where Celie musters up the courage to talk back to Mr.____ by stating that “Until [he does] right by [her], everything [he touches] will crumble. ”(Walker, pg75). Celie’s insubordination is quickly shut down by Mr.____ as he verbally abuses her by saying that “[she] can’t curse nobody. Look at you.
She thinks about her sister, who is reportedly dead, about her children who are growing up without her, and Shug not coming back after six months like she promised (267). Since Celie does not have anyone close to her at the moment whom she can talk to, she is forced to deal with these thoughts and feelings on her own. This strengthens her character and relinquishes her dependency on others to ask them for advice on her
Thrown into young adulthood at the early age of 14, at 21 years old Celie now begins the true process of developing intimacy with an unlikely character for the time. A long lasting friendship and mutual love affair between Celie and Shug has begun, and will later prove to be her saving grace as her confidence, identity, purpose, and will increase. Shug plans to leave
One of the characters that respects Celie is Shug. Shug’s respect adds to Celie’s strength because Shug is Mister’s girlfriend even though he and Celie are married. Celie’s strength is the fact that she does not care that they are together and still makes friends with Shug and to still have the ability to have Shug respect her. The other character that respected Celie is Sofia as Celie helped her when she needed it most. This shows Celie’s strength because Sofia was once mad at Celie for telling her husband to beat her and for Celie to be able to make up for it and get respect from Sofia shows that Celie is a trapped individual with spurts of life and getting out of her confinement.
However, the pair forms a nurturing relationship in which they take care of one another. These days Shug is all about love, and touch and feeling. As Shug says of her love of cuddling, "I love to hug, period, she say. Don't need nothing else right now" (Walker 152). Celie learns from Shug how to care about people once more, including caring for herself. Celie begins this journey to independence and love of self and others through her relationship with Shug. At one point she and Shug have physical relations, but it is Walker's purpose to show this as a means of providing each other comfort, nurturing, and humanity - not as a display of homosexuality. The entire episode is treated in the novel as a nurturing act, akin to a mother compassionate mother nursing her needy child, "Then I feels something real soft and wet on my breast, feel like one of my little lost babies mouth. Way after a while, I act like a little lost baby too" (Walker 118). We can see in
Celie practically struggled for happiness her whole existence. Her father sold her to a man who had no intent of loving or caring for her. Celies’ husband whom she refers to as Mr. physically and verbally abused her. Mr. felt that the only way to keep a woman in check was to beat her and he did just that throughout the movie. Like any woman would though the abuse Celie lost herself and respect for herself. Living with Mr. was a life full of darkness and hatred. Life with her husband was no better life than life with her stepfather. It took years for Celie to become brave enough to fight back for what she accept as true and gain understanding of how to convey amusement and have little outlook on life. After years of abuse, Celie no longer was afraid of Mr. She no longer cared for her husband or the
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.
To achieve freedom Celie needs to find who she wants to be and how she wants to live her life. Right now in the story Celie is just watching what everyone is doing. She isn’t taking a stand of who she really
The relationship between Celie and Shug is not a good one at first, but then through out the movie, The Color Purple, their relationship grows into a friendship, then a sisterhood. In the beginning of the movie, when Mr. is going to town often, it is obvious it is to go see a woman because of his excitement, then the audience finds out who the woman is when Celie notices the flyer for Shug Avery’s performance on the mirror of the dresser. When the audience first meets Shug Avery, it is when Mr. brings her home in the back of the wagon and has Harpo carry her inside. The first impression of Shug is not a good one because of her attitude. When Shug first sees Celie, she called her ugly and laughed in her face. Then Shug told Mr. to have “that
Told repeatedly that she is ugly and stupid, she hardly knows better" (Cheung 165). Cheung understands Celie to believe lies told to her face about herself, causing her to have no voice in her own life.