The Color Purple is focused on a young fourteen-year-old girl named Celie who grown up fast in the South. Celie was raped by her father and gave birth to two children of her own. Celie was told her children died in childbirth. Her mother died leaving her and her siblings living with her father. Her father pushed her into marriage to a widower, which made her a stepmother to his children at a young age. She was abused physically and mentally, but not spiritually because her faith was in God. She addresses God in her letters. She had challenges in her life with her family and marriage. She became stronger and overcame different obstacles in her life with the help of her faith in God, sister Nettie who helped her learn how to read and write, before Celie's husband tried to attack, and rape her. …show more content…
Just like Mr. and Shug treated Celie like a slave. She had her getting her water and doing other things for her such as lighting her cigarettes. Shug taught and gave Celie confidence in herself. Things looked brighter for Celie as reconciliation with her husband. They were sitting on the porch when her sister Nettie return from missionary work in Africa. Nettie brought Celie’s children back home with her. Which all of these approaches goes hand to hand such as in the historical approach women were supposed to be a second-class citizen to men with feminist also show that also the rise of the main female character. Lastly, the formalist will help give more depth and tie everything together. Celie became stronger and overcame the obstacles in her life with the help of her friends, her sister Nettie and her faith in God. The Color Purple follows Celie's life as a young woman in the 1930s to her later years in the 1960s as she overcomes many challenges and finds
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show MoreAlice Walker’s love of Zora Neale Hurston is well known. She was the only one who went looking for Hurston’s grave. She describes her journey to get to the unmarked grave in her book, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens. During that journey, Walker started to feel as if Hurston is family to her, an aunt. “By this time, I am, of course, completely into being Zora’s niece… Besides, as far as I’m concerned, she is my aunt – and that of all black people as well” (Ong). Walker’s book, The Color Purple, was influenced by Hurston and her works. Walker was greatly influenced by Hurston and her book The Color Purple has similarities to Hurston’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God.
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 mother, in the beginning of the novel The Color Purple, is a very small but effective setting character. Her character flaw was irresponsible parenting because she did not protect her daughter. With this lack of protection, Celie did not have any female role models when she was growing up. Therefore, Celie was not able to become knowledgeable about life and have good female company. Another effect this flaw had on the protagonist was that she had no one to teach her how to understand herself. Celie was unable to realize all of the wonderful qualities of being and becoming a woman. Because she could not appreciate being a woman, she was unable to appreciate herself, and therefore had a lack of self confidence.
In The Color Purple the realities of an abusive upbringing are deeply explained to the reader. Celie, the main character, is taught the importance of being strong and standing up for herself through Shug Avery. She portrays strength and independence that women have. In The Color Purple, Shug Avery teaches characters to hold the vigor and autonomy that is hidden somewhere inside of them.
First, by demonstrating the importance of the color purple, Celie opened her eyes towards God and then became more self-aware of all the small elements that God set to make her feel joyful, like the color purple. Then, many years pass in the book and Celie truly understand what Shug meant by the color purple in the field. She understands that “[her] ability to find a sense of self-worth, is symbolized by her attainment of color purple.” [Kerr, 177]. Celie’s life did not start on the right foot. She lived and saw a lot of things that killed her deep inside. The color purple in the story was not only an original name for a book that Walker wrote. It means something important in the story. This wonderful color, associate with royalty and prestige, follows the total progress of the young black girl who was, in some words, dead inside, that end up being a lady that now lives of freedom, love and happiness. In other words, the small surprises that, according to Shug, God puts in our life, made Celie stronger and increases her
In section three of The Color Purple, the main character is Celie. In this section she gains a little more control over her life, begins to express herself through creativity and also becomes more free and independent. Her decision to leave with Shug to go to Tennessee and begin her own pants business is good examples of these things. This section shows how much progress she has made in herself. We learn about Celie through different situations and dialogues she has throughout this section.
The Color Purple shows the intersectionality of oppression and the issues women had to deal with such as their sexuality,gender,race. One of the biggest problems this book was facing was Sexsism. In the beginning of novel, one of the main characters, Celie reveals to the readers how she has no control over her life. Celie’s mother dies due to a heart break. Her father which is also the father of her two children who she refers to as ”Pa” abuses her on a daily base. She writes many letters speaking to God. She shows that she doesn't respect her husband because she really never refers to his name. The Color Purple faces issues such as sexsim. The power of women was distorted and challenged. Black feminism cues that sexsism, classism,
From the Friendships the Celie created with Shug-Avery and having her help get away from Albert. Redemption in help Shug patch things up with her father and opening a clothing store for herself to make a good living. Courage to have the courage to get out of a bad situation and stand up for herself eventually and she becomes something and gets to reunite with her children.An online article says, “Bonnie Russ had never imagined owning her own business before getting involved in the National Association of Women Business Owners” (Grey). Today women are more accepted to be just as good as men, though some don’t think so, even though it is and they are wrong. Many women can even have their own business and be just as rich. Women don’t have it never as bad as Celie did and she still made it out okay and successful. For sure , The messages from The Color Purple can be put into effect to help many people out of hard time or just s recipe to a better
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.
Eventually she turns into a lesbian. In the book, The Color Purple, "dear God, Nettie, dear stars and trees" are the only people she communicates with. All the letters show that Celie is a very insecure person, and that reflects to her teenage years. All the abusing caused her a scar in her heart, which would stay there and wouldn't go away. Every time she thought about the abusement she felt like she was experiencing it all over again. In The Color Purple, there are many conflicts, which arise from the theme. First of all, Celie is against Pa and Mr._____, that shows the conflict of man Vs man, and unfortunately, Celie doesn't have the power to fight back physically. Secondly, Celie and herself that show the conflict of man Vs him/herself. She can't win over herself and that is why she doesn't have enough courage to stand up and be in command for her own life. Thirdly, the tradition of men had high social status then women. That shows the conflict of man Vs society. At the end of the book Celie eventually fight over the tradition. Men are no longer in charge for her life.
In the color purple, we can see how Celie develops an identity for herself throughout the novel. At first we can appreciate how Celie does not longer believe in herself and looses all trust she had on herself. When Nettie gets older, about 12 years old, their father Fonso tries to get to Nettie, but Celie protects her and lets Fonso rape her instead of him raping Nettie. This at the beginning shows that Celie has enough strength to take decisions that will affect other people, however, this strength starts to disappear as the story continues.
When Celie’s mother left, she played the role of a mother to care and protect her sister, but she started to notice that Mr.__ was looking at her sister in a way that she knew was not okay. Nettie was afraid but Celie knew that God had everything in control (Williams). According to Tate, “The novel evolves as Celie, a fourteen-year-old black girl, confides in God through letters about what has happened to her. She has been raped by a man whom she assu...
What would it be like to live in a world where you don’t have any say in what goes on in your own life? While The Color Purple doesn’t ask think question directly it really causes its viewers to begin to wonder what it would have been like to live in the world that Alice Walker creates with her novel. In this story the main character is Celie. She is a black woman who never has had a choice in her life. From a young age her father abused her and then sent her off to marry a man who he did not know at all. Her father also got her pregnant two times and both times her forced her to give away her children. Mister was just as abusive as her father had been to her and she was still never given a choice. This begins to change as she meets people in the story like Shug and Sofia. Both Shug and Sofia are strong willed women who don’t let men control their lives because they have their own agendas and they will not let people get in the way of that. One of the hardest things that she has to face is her sister Nettie leaving her because Mister kicked her out of his house. After this Celie is basically alone and she doesn’t hear from Celie again for a long time because Mister always gets the mail and he will not let Celie go and get the mail. Throughout the story you see how Celie is constantly shut down, but one day she gets the courage to stand up for herself and it is one of the turning points in the story. With a story as dramatic and powerful as this one there are a lot of scenes that impact viewers as the watch the movie. There are so many pivotal moments that change the story that you almost have to watch it twice just to pick up on everything. In The Color Purple by Alice Walker my three favorite scenes are when Shug and Celie begin ...
The Color Purple revolves around the life of Celie, a young black woman growing up in the poverty-ridden South. In order to find herself and gain independence, Celie must deal with all manner of abuse, including misogyny, racism and poverty. When she is a young girl of just 14, Celie is sexually assaulted by a man she believes is her father. She has two children by her rapist, both of who he takes to a Reverend. When her mother dies, this man known as "Pa" marries Celie to a man she will only refer to as "Mr. ___."
Celie is not a typical protagonist. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, the main character Celie is an ugly, poor girl who is severely lacking in self-confidence. However, Celie transforms throughout the course of the novel and manages to realize herself as a colorful, beautiful, and proud human being. Celie becomes a powerful individual.