Color Purple Thesis

All Stitched Up
In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, the main character Celie is a woman in the early twentieth century, this was not a simple task, especially for a woman of color. She has dealt with rape, postpartum depression, suppression, silence, loss, sexual and physical abuse, and not to mention secrecy. Her life was a difficult one, if it could even be called a life in the first place. To have life is to know self, and Celie does not discover who she could be until the end, therefore, she is not truly living until more than half her life has passed her by. This is what it was like to be a victim, but the most significant victimisation is that of colored women, being suppressed not only because they are the “weaker” sex but because they

Krejčová’s Thesis, he describes Celie’s lifeless character is essential, entombed and she does not resurface as her own person until she meets a certain someone. “She remains emotionally buried until meeting the blues singer and a lifelong lover of her husband, Shug Avery. And, rather unexpectedly, it is this unconventional, free-spirited and independent woman who opens and frees Celie’s buried self and transforms her into a confident and self-sufficient person” (Krejčová 24). Shug’s “woman” sickness when she comes to Celie’s home, is actually a good thing. Her illness gives Celie a sense of motherhood as she is nursing her, this is something Celie never had the opportunity to do because her children were taken away from her. This feeling of reliance and Shug’s dependence on Celie has given her a new sense of awareness and a confidence boost. Feeling needed is something everyone needs, and gives one’s self, a sense of identity in an otherwise anonymous character. Before Shug, Celie had to suffer in solitude and silence all her life. Her alienation is truly why she has a depreciation of self worth, motivation, and self respect. Krejčová states, “she is perceived subordinate, inferior human being, subjected to the constant humiliation as well as physical and psychological violence and abuse” (Krejčová 29). All of this has been kept within herself, and it is not until she nurses Shug, that she has someone to

“Celie had obviously inherited her notion of religion and God from the white dominant culture” (Nguyen 15). Part of the reason Celie cannot move on is because of her skewed image of God, “big and old and tall and gray-bearded and white” (Walker 195). Shug eventually explains to Celie, that God is not a race of any man or woman, God is all around, within the sky, grass, trees, and is carried around by everyone and everything. Celie’s changing attitude towards God leads her to grow and develop more as an individual and as a