In The Color Purple, Alice Walker explores the life of a beaten, black woman who triumphantly finds her way in life, Celie. She writes letters to God, then transitions into letters to her sister Nettie throughout the course of the story. The book begins with Celie at age 14 and ends with her at an estimated age of 55. At a young age, she is raped by her ‘father’ then is forced to marry a man named Mr.___, or otherwise known as Albert. Celie is a sensible woman who learns to deal with the curveballs that are thrown at her. She raises Mr.___’s children, looses her sister, and takes regular beatings from her husband. Soon, Shug Avery is introduced; she is Mr.___’s long time mistress, a blue’s singer, and a lover. Celie and Shug’s relationship starts out rocky, but they end up just as sisters. Shug is pivotal to Celie’s growth throughout the book. Celie is the ultimate one in control of her life, she grows a thick backbone and becomes a successful woman on her own. In Celie’s life she has only been loved by one person, her sister Nettie, until she met Shug Avery. Shug is Celie’s teacher, she teaches her how to At Thanksgiving dinner, the two women tell the rest of the family their plan, Mr.___ is outraged, Harpo is in a state of shock, Sofia is surprised and proud of Celie for standing up to Mr.___. At the same time, Mr.___ tries to stop Celie from leaving by slapping her in the face, but she unexpectedly stabs him in the hand, “ I jab my case knife in his hand” (203). Now, The muted character we have grown to know in the beginning of the book is now cursing Mr.____, “Until you do right by me, everything you touch will crumble”, “Every lick you hit me you will suffer twice” (209). In summary, Celie leaves for Memphis with a newfound confidence and Mr.___’s world starts to crumble piece by
Shug Avery was neglected through childhood and left without a stable environment. Her mother would avoid all ways of conveying love and outright avoided Shug. Contrary to Shug's mother, her father made inappropriate advances onto her. These occurrences caused Shug to distance herself at an early age and
(9) Beginning that day on, Celie's life took an ever-downward sloping. turn. Then the sand is sunk. She endures seeing Olivia with a new mother, the animosity of Harpo, taking care of Mr. ______'s children, and his abuse. Her relationship with Mr.______ is such that it could hardly be called a marriage.
Five minutes later we were out the door. Cecile despised us now she kicked us out of her house with no money whatsoever. Now it was just Vonetta, Fern, and I who were three girls out on the dangerous streets with no money. The first thing I knew I should do is to comfort my sisters. It was my fault that I got us into this mess. Then Vonetta cut in and stopped my train of thought. Literally, she banged me on the head. That bang was the kind of bang was the one we gave each other if something bad happened because one of us did something that caused it. “Why didn’t you break up our fight like you always do Delphine?” asks Vonetta harshly. I had an answer but I knew they wouldn’t like it. “ Yeah!” Fern grunted angrily. At that moment because of ...
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.
The novel begins with the intense and graphic description of Celie being raped by her father. During this violation Celie states that, “When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. But I don’t ever get used to it” (Walker 1). The very specific dialect that Walker uses in these three short sentences creates a very grim and severe tone that helps deepen the understanding and severity of Celie’s situation. A sense of inferiority is established through Celie’s father’s demand that she must “get used to it” because he is the superior male and she must listen to him. Walker uses this tone to immediately establish the traditional gender roles that are woven throughout the novel. In addition to the male’s
From the beginning of the letters, Celie herself is a symbol of complete powerlessness herself. She is so powerless that the only person she can talk to is God. She lost the ability to control her own life when her mother died . She is forced to assume the duties of her mother and is treated like a slave by Pa, who constantly rapes and beats her. Nettie is the only living creature who provides Celie with friendship and love.
Celie went through an amazing transformation throughout the course of the story and nobody played a larger part in this transformation than Shug. She helped Celie to realize her full potential as a person, and she aided her in overcoming her greatest fears and obstacles in life. Without Shug, Celie may have never seen Nettie again and would have been miserable for the entirety of her life. Celie learned that she was able to stand up for herself even against a man. Shug taught her that it was okay to love someone even if it was not considered to be “normal”.
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 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. Walker writes “He talk bout [Shug] a strumpet in short skirts, smoking cigarettes, drinking gin. Singing for money and taking other women mens. Talk bout slut, hussy, heifer and streetcleaner”(44). Shug represents the ultimate freedom to Celie, she is able to control Albert and she is not owned or controlled by any man.
In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel. One of the most important symbols that Walker incorporates into the plot is the letters written by Celie to either God or Nettie, signifying the power of voice. The epistolary format of the novel itself enables readers to understand Celie, whose letters are initially addressed to God. After being raped by her stepfather at the age of fourteen, he tells her to “never tell anybody but God” (Walker 1); thus, Celie’s original letters are presented more as confessions and prayers. This first letter itself “initiates the story of Celie's unrelenting victimization” (Bloom, and Williams 77-88), and the audience notices that the way in which Celie narrates the events occurring in her life over the course of the next several letters lacks sentiment and opinion....
Although Celie is married to her husband, Mister, for what seems like a few days, she is still viewed as a child who needs to be trained with punishments (regardless of how absurd his request may be). When asked to silence his daughter as she combed her hair, she tells him that she can’t, only to be slapped for “talking back” to him.
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple takes place in Georgia from 1910 to 1940. During this time racism was easily visible and apparent in society. Black people were seen as lesser beings in contrast to their white counterparts. However, not only are all of the colored characters within The Color Purple forced, by means of oppression, into their social positions because they are not white, but also because some of them are women, lesbian, and lower class. As Crenshaw explains, “[b]ecause of their intersectional identity as both women and of color within discourses that are shaped to respond to one or the other, women of color are marginalized within both” (Crenshaw 5). Celie, the main character in the novel, is given enormous adult responsibility from a young age. After the death of her mother, she is pulled out of school in order to...
The novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the story of a poor, young black girl, growing up in rural Georgia in the early twentieth century. The novel follows the protagonist, Celie, as she experiences such hardships as racism and abuse, all the while attempting to discover her own sense of self-worth. Celie expresses herself through a series of private letters that are initially addressed to God, then later to her sister Nettie. As Celie develops from an adolescent into an adult, her letters possess m...
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.
One of the most popular works by Walker was, The Color Purple. In this Alice Walker story, the reader meets a girl named Celie. In this novel, Walker takes the reader on a journey through much of Celie’s life. While taking the reader through this tale, Walker draws attention to a number of social aspects during this time period. Through Cilie’s life, Walker brings to light the abuse and mistreatment of African American women from 1910 through the 1940’s. “Women were also regarded as less important than men-both Black and white Black women doubly disadvantage. Black women of the era were often treated as slaves or as property” (Tavormina page 2...