In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, the format of Celie’s narratives show great similarities with the slave narratives that were collected in the 1930’s. Celie shows resmeblances in the way the slaves talked about their situation. They were very timid about raising their voices. Celie, as many slaves were, did not express their true emotions because of the fear that they would be punished severely.
Celie is a poor, Southern black girl. Celie is one of the most oppressed, silenced members of society. Her stepfather told her that she "better not never tell anybody but God. It'd kill your mammy" (Walker 1). This quote takes on a new significance. This statement made by her father affects Celie’s outlook. With him saying this, she decides to tell no one about what her father did. She thinks that if her mother knew, she would be very disappointed in her. He abuses Celie and demands her silence. He rapes her many times and she even gives birth to two of his children. She does not tell anyone that the children she has given birth to are his; she says that their father disappeared. She is ashamed of what has happened and worries if the people finding out, she is fearful this will be by society. Celie's narrative is a testimony to the struggles of black women, a disadvantaged segment of a disadvantaged race. She is too afraid to share her story with other people, yet
her need to share her experiences is evident. She writes letters in order to have something to talk to. Sh...
Life is defined by moments and humans are defined by life. We aren’t defined in the sense of how we react to the problems that arise when it comes to our life. Some people are strong and fight. They fight for their life and for all that they stand for. They never give up and will be confident. They still have trials and problems, but they know how to make it through the trials without it controlling them. On the other hand there are the people that don’t know how to fight. All their life they have been given trials that have controlled their lives, but now they have no way to escape. Instead of fight they let everything pass them by. Instead of facing their problems they just pretend it isn’t happening. Their challenge controls them. Celie knows that there are people who fight. Her sister, Nettie fought, but she has no fight in her. It died when every person she loved was taken away. She now has no reason to fight. She wants to live and the only way to live is to be passive and survive. Being passive is all that she can do, until being passive will destroy her. Within the text Color Purple there are three pivotal scenes for Celie, when she meets Shug, while reading the letters from her sister and when she has her own shop.
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.
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
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,
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 nobody 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 ...
Celie is a victim of mistreatment and isolation in a world that considers women inferior to men. To instill fear and obedience in women, men conduct themselves in a hostile manner towards women. They manage women similar to slaves and sexually dominate them. When Celie is barely fourteen her stepfather, causing her to become pregnant twice, violates her multiple times. In a letter to God, Celie writes “I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it” (Walker 11). Intended merely to satisfy Pa, Celie...
One of the prevalent issues in this book is the numerous sexual encounters Celie is forced or consensually involved in. “You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.” (Walker 1) This is the dialogue that opens the book and is warning to Celie from her father. The novel starts when Celie was fourteen years old and is raped by her father for the first time. While she lives with her father and mother she has two children fathered by her father. After she gives birth to the children she presumes them dead after her father takes them. Later in the book readers find out that Celie’...
Baga, A. (2010, June). Celie's Emancipation Process in Alice Walker's "The color Purple". Retrieved September 5, 2013, from http://www.umc.edu.dz/theses/anglais/BAG1207.pdf
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...
Women have battled for centuries to be equivalent to men. In “The Color Purple," Alice Walker illustrates the theme of women’s heartache, racist acts, and complications of a day to day woman. The Color Purple took place during a demeaning era to not only African American women but African Americans in general were treated inhumane. African American women submitted themselves to controlling men due to the belief of that’s how it should be. During this time, women were used for manual and sexual labor. They were referred as one’s property, hardly spoken of or treated like human-beings. Women faced lack of self-love and identity therefore the definition of love was clouded.
“Every time they ast me to do something, Miss Celie, I act like I’m you. I jump right up and do just what they say” (88). This line conveys how obedient Celie is towards others, which she learns from her own people. The black community degrades black women to make it difficult for them to become independent (Tanritanir and Aydemir 438). Alice Walker experiences this and understands the need to express the struggle of the black woman to the world. She, along with other black female writers, coins the term womanism to explain the idea of prevailing over this struggle. By having Celie overcome the oppression she faces, Alice Walker illustrates the theme of womanism in her novel The Color Purple.
Celie also endures other forms of both physical and mental abuse. “He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway” (Walker 8). Abuse was very common in those times. It was used for control and ultimately complete domination. Celie could not run from her stepfather because she had nowhere else to go. Alphonso later forces Celie to marry the Reverend Mr.______. This is not that bad for Celie because she no longer...
At the beginning of the book Celie announces her dependence on God by recognising that she can “tell nobody but God” about the abuse she is receiving from her stepfather.
If we analyse the story instead of the narrative perspective can we see that the main reason of Celie's insecurity is caused by the way she is treated by men. She is sexually abus...
The concept of racial and gender equality has expanded greatly throughout the twentieth century, both in society and in literature. These changes influence Walker's writing, allowing her to create a novel that chronicles the development of a discriminated black woman. Her main character, Celie, progresses from oppression to self-sufficiency, thereby symbolizing the racial and gender advancements our country has achieved. Celie expresses this accomplishment when she states at the end of the novel that "this the youngest [she] ever felt" declaring that her final step into female empowerment has allowed her to begin her new, independent life (Walker 295).