The Strength Of Women In Alice Walker's The Color Purple

The most prominent form of the celebration of the strength of women in ‘The Color Purple’ are the characters individual quests to find their identity. Whether the female characters are questioning their religion and it restrictions, exploring their sexualities, or trying to overcome the restrictions that being the ethnicity and gender that they are has entailed for them, they are all trying to define themselves as individual people, rather than a social, racial or ethnic group stereotype that seems to inhabit people both in the world of fiction and in the realm of reality. Walker’s character of Sofia seems to want to find her identity by not succumbing to the pressure and authority held over her by black men and Caucasians of both genders.
When Celie describes her refusal to become ‘Miss Millie’s’ maid, her re-telling of Sofia’ blunt “hell no”, the reaction of the Mayor; “he slap her”, and the insinuation that she is beaten nearly to death and dragged off to jail, proposes that her rebuttal was considered rude and criminal, as the white people consider to be a great honour to be a white lady’s housemaid. However, because Sofia is unwilling to place herself in this mortifying position, the white Mayor and police beat her in order to reassert their racial and gender dominance over a black woman. Sofia later goes on to describe her position in the Mayor’s house as “slaving”, however her son instead calls her “a captive”, signifying a change in behaviour for more of the characters, discovering that they do not have to conform to what their society expects of them, and instead what to change their position within that society, having pride in who they are. Celie’s curiosity and desire to explore her sexual identity, is what Walker uses to define her character from the
Due to her strong belief in God, shown by the repeated “Dear God”, this shows her belief that what she is doing feels right, as if her worshipping of Shug’s body is sacred and holy: something to be cherished, like a prayer. This links with the theme of finding identity through religion, whether that means rebelling against it, or embracing it. At the beginning Celie finds solace in God and prayer, writing to God in order to escape her hard life. However it is still a restriction, as her want to get into heaven overpowers her desire to stand up to Mr. about hitting her, leaving Sofia to suggest that she should “think bout heaven later”. The belief that religion is keeping Celie from rising up against all the people that have sinned against her is dismissed at the end through her addressing her final letter “Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God.” And ending it with “Amen”, suggests that she has found happiness and safety both in religion and in nature, implying that although her belief in God hasn’t lessened, it has changed from a catalyst of restriction, to a symbol of hope for the future, and she is instead choosing to put belief in things she can she and feel, like nature. Walker therefore uses religion a defining characteristic, allowing it to part of her rather than control her. This is representative of Walker’s own