From Victimization to Independence in The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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The novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker, won the American Book Award in fiction in 1983 (Slomski). Celie was raped and impregnated by the man she considered to be her father twice at the age of fourteen, and then later married off to a poor black farmer. The man who Celie is sold to treats her as if she is a servant, not as his wife. Mr.___ believes that women are supposed to serve men, while they enjoy life. Mr.__’s other beliefs about women are that they should obey their husbands, work, and not be seen or heard (Averbach). Women in this time period were seen as children. They did not deserve to be respected and needed to be controlled by a man. Celie endures over thirty years of physical and mental abuse by her husband. Celie develops a strong relationship with many female characters in the novel such as Nettie, Shug Avery, and Sophia. They show Celie how to believe that joy can come even to her, how to celebrate life’s pleasures that are given by God, to stand up for herself, how to appreciate her own beauty, and help her to discover herself (Slomski). Although Celie has been victimized for over thirty years, she finds the strength within herself to become an independent woman through the help of other females.

Celie’s abuse first starts when her stepfather rapes and verbally abuses her “He never had a kine word to say to me. Just say You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t…. He started to choke me saying You better shut up and git used to it. But I don’t ever get used to it. And now I feels sick every time I be the one to cook” (1). After Celie is raped by her stepfather, she is told “you better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy” (1). Celie did exactly as she is told and becomes silent about her abuse, an...

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... celebrate life’s pleasures that are given by God, to stand up for herself, and how to appreciate her own beauty (Slomski). By Celie overcoming her flaws she increases her self-confidence. Celie destroys Mr.___’s power over her, and turns it against him by getting him to like the pants she sews (Harris). When Celie finally releases all the power Mr. ___ had over her for so many years, she is finally able to call him by his real name which is Albert. Although Celie has been “owned, beaten, and degraded by her husband’s” (Sadoff 133), she finds forgiveness in him for mistreating her for so many years. Celie is able to forgive Albert after she realizes that she no longer hates him because of the love they both share for Shug. Celie comes from being beaten and used by others to establishing her own business and living life independently (Harris).

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