Celie believes she has no power or say against her father and the choices he makes for her. Alfonso begins to talk about choosing a husband for Celie because he has grown tired of her and is ready to get rid of her. Alfonso also gets bored with his wife, and starts to gravitate toward his younger daughter Nettie again. Celie offers herself to Alfonso in an attempt to save her sister. Alfonso accepts her offers and has sex with her instead of Nettie, while his new wife is sick. Alfonso uses Celie for sex tries and in an attempt to turn the other girls against her he badmouths her and says that she’s a bad influence. He says Celie "ain 't fresh" (isn 't a virgin) and that she is “spoiled” Alfonso sees women as objects and once they have been …show more content…
Celie again, accepts this day as a foreshadowing. It seems as if chaos and violence follows her. Celie bandages her head and begins to immediately begin her wifely duties and reveals in her letter that she accepts the life she will have. Later that night, Mr._____ and Celie consummate their marriage. She lied beneath Mr. _______ and allowed him to finish. Celie finds herself thinking of Shug more and more. She wonders if Shug enjoys sex with Mr._____ since they both share the same man. The more Celie thinks of Shug, the more she desires to be like …show more content…
Due to miscegenation, the skin tone among black Americans varies from milky to ebony. Many black people have attached status to being lighter and have avoided darker members of the race. The roots for this colorist distinction come from slavery. Lighter persons who were frequently the offspring of white masters and black women slaves were given the easier work — usually the housework. The rest of the slaves, the darker ones, were given the fieldwork to do. Carrie 's sharp-tongued observation about Shug — "She too black" — means that Shug 's skin tone is probably close to ebony. However, all this prejudice refuses to take root in Celie 's consciousness; she is more intrigued than ever by the illusive Shug Avery. In fact, now that Shug is the personification of adventure and magic and beauty, Celie associates a shopping trip with the glamorous Shug. It also seems that Celie knows that purple is associated with royalty; that 's why she says "purple" aloud when she and Kate are discussing the color of Celie 's new dress. Celie is thinking of Shug and simply utters the color that is synonymous with Shug: purple. But just as there is no Shug Avery in Celie 's life — not yet — there is no color purple in the dress store. Not yet. For the present, Celie has to make do with blue. But Kate utters one of the central ideas in this novel that becomes a part of Celie 's soul. She
In The Color Purple the realities of an abusive upbringing are deeply explained to the reader. Celie, the main character, is taught the importance of being strong and standing up for herself through Shug Avery. She portrays strength and independence that women have. In The Color Purple, Shug Avery teaches characters to hold the vigor and autonomy that is hidden somewhere inside of them.
First, by demonstrating the importance of the color purple, Celie opened her eyes towards God and then became more self-aware of all the small elements that God set to make her feel joyful, like the color purple. Then, many years pass in the book and Celie truly understand what Shug meant by the color purple in the field. She understands that “[her] ability to find a sense of self-worth, is symbolized by her attainment of color purple.” [Kerr, 177]. Celie’s life did not start on the right foot. She lived and saw a lot of things that killed her deep inside. The color purple in the story was not only an original name for a book that Walker wrote. It means something important in the story. This wonderful color, associate with royalty and prestige, follows the total progress of the young black girl who was, in some words, dead inside, that end up being a lady that now lives of freedom, love and happiness. In other words, the small surprises that, according to Shug, God puts in our life, made Celie stronger and increases her
In section three of The Color Purple, the main character is Celie. In this section she gains a little more control over her life, begins to express herself through creativity and also becomes more free and independent. Her decision to leave with Shug to go to Tennessee and begin her own pants business is good examples of these things. This section shows how much progress she has made in herself. We learn about Celie through different situations and dialogues she has throughout this section.
Within The Color Purple by Alice Walker, women are treated as inferior to men therefore they must obey them. Through the strength and wisdoms Celie gains from other women, she learns to overcome her oppression and realize her self worth as a woman. The women she has met throughout her life, and the woman she protected since young, are the people that helped her become a strong independent woman. Sofia and Shug were there for Celie when she needed someone to look up to and depend on. Nettie was able to push Celie to become a more educated, independent person. The main source of conflict in this book is Celie’s struggle with becoming an independent woman who needs not to rely on a man. Throughout the book we see her grow as a person and become independent in many ways through her experiences with the powerful women in her life.
On the contrary, The Color Purple, signifies upon the idea of the head rag by only having Celie wear it while performing domestic tasks in the home. The purpose behind such a change is to demonstrate that Janie’s oppression stemmed from the view of others, while Celie’s oppression come from within the home. Celie, unlike Janie, is not forced to wear the head rag, however, it is all she has ever known. Walker uses the head rag to show the oppression of women within the home through signifying on Hurston’s symbol of oppression. It is not until Celie gains the courage to stand up to Mr. _____ and speak her opinion at the dinner table that she no longer feels the need to wear the head rag in her own home. Therefore, she was finally able to overcome her oppression and free herself from the social norms of what was expected of women during that time. However, Walker signifies on Hurston by allowing Celie an outlet to express her frustrations to female companion, Shug. Shug is crucial in motivating Celie to stand up to her oppressive husband through offering her to an escape and an opportunity to be cared
In the book The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker, the main character Celie develops from an abused, shy and browbeaten teenage girl into a strong, mature and self-confident woman. This metamorphisis is due to five major factors: Celie observes other successful women, she receives love and appreciation, changes in Celie’s view of God, Celie’s maturation and a bit of luck.
In 1982 Alice Walker titled her Pulitzer Prize Winning novel, The Color Purple, which is symbolically meant to reflect radiance and majesty (Columbia). It is a story, entirely conveyed through letters, of one young black girl’s struggle to escape the brutal and degrading treatment by men, which had become a constant part of her life. Instead of focusing on race throughout the novel Walker accords “greater importance to power, the power to be, to concretize one’s self, as to mold others” (Dieke 102). This completely unbalanced power ultimately leaves Celie feeling alone and controlled, which affects her relationships with men and influences her relationship with women, mainly Shug Avery. The horrifying effects of rape and what Celie thought was incest so greatly scarred her for the rest of her life that she lost the ability to love, became confused about her sexuality, and subconsciously denied her right to an identity.
She is later raped by her step-father and gives birth to two children that were conceived from the rapes. The step-father pawns her off on a man that Celie calls Mr. throughout her letters. Her marriage is loveless. She’s not only mistreated by her husband, but also by the children. Celie married this man only to save her sister Nettie from having to.
Celie is an innocent person who is misfortunate throughout her life until she sees hope through her women friends. She learns to stand up for herself against Mr. ______ and discover her own beauty. When Shug tells Mr.______ that Celie is leaving with them, he says he thought Celie was happy and wanted to know what was wrong now. Celie responds by saying, “You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong. You took my sister Nettie away from me and she was the only person who loved me in the world.
Most of all, without Shug, Celie would have never been reunited with her beloved sister Nettie. The Color Purple is a tale of epic proportion and is beautiful, tear-jerking, passionate, and suspenseful. Even after all of the abuse that Celie received and after all of the struggles that she faced, she found it in her heart to forgive and move on. Her life was truly remarkable, and she was a brave woman who defied the odds in a time of division and hatred. The love that was shared between Celie and Shug was extraordinary and went against all customs of the time period.
Events leading to Celie taking control of her life began with Celie’s relationship with Shug Avery. Shug Avery embodied confidence and what it looked like for a person, particularly a woman to use their voice and defend themselves. Celie desired to inherit traits like Shug and realized how great it would be if she took control of her own life and writes, “My life stop when I left home, I think. But then I think again. It stop with Mr. ______ maybe, but start
The second most important relationship that develops in Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”, is the relationship between Celie and Shug. Even before Celie meets Shug, she is envious of her; she starts with just word of mouth, then a picture, until finally they meet. Shug represents everything that is frowned upon in the patriarchal society. She is fatherless, sexually promiscuous, and a very talented singer. She is a strong, independent, and free woman, and because of this she is outcast from society.
The relationship between Shug and Celie cuts very deep. Both of them help each other become what they really need to be. Both Celie and Shug were very oppressed people. Celie was oppressed by her lack of caring, and by her lack of self esteem. Shug is caught in other people's image of her. She is not free to become what she really wants to be, which is a loving member of a loving family, which she never really had. This is shown by the quote on page 125-6. "(Mama) never love to do nothing had to do with touching nobody, she say. I try to kiss her, she turn her mouth away. Say, Cut that out, Lillie." Celie freed Shug from the role that everybody wanted her to fit into, and Shug freed Celie from the psychological bonds that were keeping her from making of her life what she wanted it to be, by being a mixture of friend, idol, lover, and teacher.
Sedgewick observes, one’s social position is affected by various axis of classification such as gender, sexuality, race, class and the interplay of these social identities. In The Color Purple by Alice walker, Sedgewick’s observations ring true. Celie, the main character in Walker’s novel, is a perfect example of these observations put forth by Sedgewick. Celie’s social position is indicative of her gender, sexuality, race, and class; as a Black woman living in Georgia in 1910 to 1940, one can expect to witness the general ‘acceptable’ racism present within the novel towards people of color. Despite the ‘acceptable’ racism, the novel accentuates the hardships and struggles the women of color in this novel have to go through. The social positions of the characters, more so Celie and Sofia, in Walker’s The Color Purple are based on the social identities of their gender, race, class, sexuality, and ethnicity.
The Color Purple follows Celie's transformation from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. What is remarkable is the fact that this transformation does not merely compose the plot of the novel, it also dominates the layout of the pages. The book's chapters are not written in a typical fashion as each chapter is a letter written from Celie to God, Celie to her sister Nettie, or Nellie to Celie. Alice Walker utilized this method of storytelling to give the reader a very personal glimpse into Celie's mind and soul. The writer gets a feel for Celie through her writing style- she uses specific phrasing to express herself and, over time, her mechanical writing skills improve greatly. We see Celie's thought process as she makes decisions and then writes about them. This powerful narration is the main driving force behind the words.