Maxine Vs. Celie Dealing With The Past

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Maxine vs. Celie Dealing with the Past
This paper compares and contrasts Celie’s story in The Color Purple by Alice Walker to that of Maxine’s story in the Woman Warrior by Maxine Kingston and how each of these women deals with their past.
Both of these novels deal heavily with female oppression. While both of the women in the novels must deal with their pasts, their pasts and the manner in which they deal with them are very different.
The Color Purple is a novel that is a series of letters written by a young black girl. The letters are from Ceilie to God and then later from Celie to Nettie and from Nettie to Celie. Throughout the novel Celie tells God and Nettie about the poverty, rape and cruelty that she has endured from when she was a young girl either at the hands of her step-father, her husband, or the whites. She writes these letters to God because she has nobody else to write to. She is alone and she feels that God is all there is to write to. She has been betrayed by everyone else in her life that was supposed care for her.
Celie’s life is sad from the beginning. First her biological father is murdered and then her mother dies. Her mother is mean to her the entire time she’s sick. Celie can’t do anything right for her. 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. Nettie comes to live with them, but when Mr. makes advances towards her and she rejects him, he makes her leave.
Celie is made to take care ...

... middle of paper ...

...usion, although both of these women are able to come to terms with their pasts and they both use writing as a way to come to terms with the past, the peace that each of them comes to is very different. Cellei’s peace is of a spiritual nature. She has to let go and forgive those who wronged her in order to become the strong independent woman she wants to be. She develops a relationship with God that makes feel at peace with her life. Kingston discovers her voice when she comes to terms with her heritage and the stories that her mother was telling her. She realizes that her mother was trying to help her to develop a voice, not hold her down. Once she understands the importance of these stories she comes to the understanding that she doesn’t have to adhere to the old Chinese ways and can express herself. Her peace is that of accepting her mother and her heritage.

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