Mustafa Nagi New York City College Of Technology English 1121 Pro. Margo Goldstein The Color Purple The film Color Purple first adopted from a novel by Alice Walker in 1982. It Celie as a black woman whose life is marred by oppression mistreatment by the men present in her life. Celie endures all the pain quietly and makes no effort to fight for her rights. It was only after meeting two incredible friends in her life that Celie learned she could stand up against an individual and protect herself from the oppression and ill treatment. Raped at the age of fourteen, Celie bears to children who are also taken away from her by the father. She is later on forced into marriage to Albert, who is a widower with four children. …show more content…
The marriage does not provide solace to Celie as the husband goes on to mistreat her. Despite all that Celie experience in life, her trust in religion and spirituality does not waver (Spielberg, 1985). She only transitions strengthening her faith in God as time goes by. Therefore, the objective of the essay is to examine the dominant theme of religion and spirituality in the film and how it influences the life of the main protagonist. At the beginning, Celie viewed God as a man with a white beard. Her belief in God was thus confined to one individual and what the society required of her. She was afraid of fighting for her rights because the Christian teachings which were patriarchal in nature could not allow her to confront the abusive men in her life (Mercadante, 2007). It is, thus the religious development journey of Celie that acts as an inspiration for the film. The teachings of the patriarchal religion could not give Celie the satisfaction she needed in life. She thus, opts to search for a viable God she could communicate with and share her sufferings. She writes numerous letters addressed to God. As the film progresses, Celie acknowledges that she could not find God in a patriarchal religion.
Instead, she decided to search for him in every place. According to the personal concept of Walker, God is present in all the living things in the world. Such a change is demonstrated when Celie begins her letters with salutations such as “Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear people. Dear Everything. Dear God” (Spielberg, 1985). The God that Celie trusts exists all around the universe and is responsible for the human happiness. Celie experienced a life that no other child her age had in the hands of her own father. The trust Celie puts into God is a sign of hope despite the current life situation. The faith Celie has in God is naive and related to that of a child. However, it undergoes transitions as the film progresses. The letters she receives from her younger sister Nettie gives Celie a new perspective of God other than what she knew and was accustomed to from the start. Besides, Shug does not agree with the perceptions of the church towards God as she regards them as false and narrow-minded (Richards, 2016). Her perspectives are unconventional, but they serve as a wake-up call to her
naivety. Celie does not reject the unconventional interpretation and it enables her to open up and have a relaxed attitude towards a new sense of purpose in life. She was able to stand up against her husband Albert which resulted in a better relationship between them for the first time. The God presented to the audience in the film is not personified. The characters do not refer to God as male or female, white or black as it is the case with the western perception of God (Spielberg, 1985). Instead, God is referred to as ‘Everything’ to show that no matter who you are in life, he can fulfil the desires of your heart. Work Citied Mercadante, L. (2007). Using film to teach theology. Theological Education, 42(2), 19-28. Richards, M. (2016). Film Music Themes: Analysis and Corpus Study. Music Theory Online, 22(1). Spielberg, S. (Director). (1985). The Purple Color [Motion Picture].
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 relationship between Shug and Celie cuts very deep. Both of them help each other become what they really need to be. Both Celie and Shug were very oppressed people. Celie was oppressed by her lack of caring, and by her lack of self esteem. Shug is caught in other people's image of her. She is not free to become what she really wants to be, which is a loving member of a loving family, which she never really had. This is shown by the quote on page 125-6. "(Mama) never love to do nothing had to do with touching nobody, she say. I try to kiss her, she turn her mouth away. Say, Cut that out, Lillie." Celie freed Shug from the role that everybody wanted her to fit into, and Shug freed Celie from the psychological bonds that were keeping her from making of her life what she wanted it to be, by being a mixture of friend, idol, lover, and teacher.
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 Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts a woman (herself) that is somewhat trapped within a room covered with yellow wall paper or trapped within the times? Is she trapped by the wall paper that symbolizes her illness or by her husband? Gilman was the protagonist of this story. She tells the story as she relates it to her own life dealing with depression and a marriage that proved to be prison within itself. Is the yellow wall paper contributing to her illness or is this something her husband uses to control her? “John is a physician and perhaps that is one of the reasons that I do not get well faster. But John, her husband who is a physician doesn’t feel that she is sick “ if a physician of high standings and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression-a slight hysterical tendency- what is one to do?” (pg. 648) You see he does not think I am sick.” John uses the fact that he is a physician to convince his wife that she
“The Color Purple” is a 1985 period drama film. It’s based on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel.The movie was filmed in North Carolina. It tells a story about a young African American girl named Celie Harris. The movie shows the problems that African American women had to confront during the 1900s for example poverty, which means poor also racism.
‘The Color Purple’ is a film based on a novel by writer Alice Walker, about the life and struggles of a young African American girl name Celie. The Color Purple was directed by Steven Spielberg in 1985. There are three known African American actors, Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, and Danny Glover. Oprah Winfrey plays Sofia, Whoopi Goldberg plays Celie and Danny Glover plays ‘Mr. Albert’ who is Celie’s husband. Another main character who is mentioned throughout the film and who is not well known is Nettie, she is Celie’s sister. Nettie is played by Akosua Busia. The Color Purple portrays the life of a young African American girl in the early 1900’s, ranging from
The movie, The Color Purple, may be verging on one of my favorite movies of all time. When I watch it my eyes are literally glued to the screen. It has made me cry and laugh and love and so many more emotions that I can’t even cry. I was literally so scared of scenes that I jumped off my seat and onto the floor. The movie starts out with a girl who gives birth to her second child. Her stepfather is the father of the child meaning he raped her not only once but twice. She is only fourteen during these years and she is only fourteen when she gets married to a man who remain nameless and he also rapes her and beats her. Throughout the story, you learn from Celie herself who says when talking to her good friend Shug Avery, “He beats me because I am not you.” (Celie, The Color Purple). He then takes her sister away from her and she does not get to have contact with her sister again for an incredibly long time. However, even though the story starts out so sad it does get better after the Ceile is and adult and she meets Sophia. Sophia is Harpo’s soon to be wife. Harpo is Mr. ‘s son. Harpo and Sophia love each other very much, but they end up drifting apart and then Shug Avery comes into Celie’s life and changes it very much. She teaches Ceile a ton of things and she is the woman who inspires Ceile to stand up for herself. There are three scenes in The Color Purple directed by Stephen Spielberg that are my absolute favorite.
The story of The Color Purple begins with a fourteen year old girl named Celie who was raped repeatedly by her step-father. The only one she was told to speak to was God, so she did this by writing him daily letters. The book starts out in the first letter with Celie describing how and why she is pregnant with her second child. This child was the result of her getting raped by her step-father, Alphonso. At the time, Celie believes that Alphonso is her real father because
The novel, The Color Purple, is an epistolary novel. In the letterforms, Alice Walker gives several ideas, such as, friendship, domination, courage & independence. She impacts readers by looking at the story through the eyes of Celie and Nettie. The book describes the fateful life of a young lady. It tells how a 14 year old girl fights through all the steps and finally she is in command for her own life. Celie is the young lady who has been constantly physically, sexually, and emotionally abused.
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.
In Everyday use Maggie and Dee are raised on a farm in a rural area. Much like Ms. Walker who grew up in a very country setting since her parents were sharecroppers. In both Everyday Use and The Color Purple God is mention, In The Color Purple Shug tells Celie “God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with god.” Celie confines in God throughout the story, first starting off about the rape and then continuing to write him letters. God in the story is basically Celie’s lifeline of hope to get her through all the pain of her life, as she waits for Gods response back. In the end, Celie never gets a response and loses her faith. She begins to question God and everything he stands for, much like Walker who in her speech given at the Uburn Theological Seminary stated “What kind of God would be so cruel as to curse women and men forever for eating a piece of fruit, no matter how forbidden? after describing her small church, she grew up going to in her hometown. Showing in this speech a time she questioned god much like Celie. This speech was latter adapted into a poem title ‘The Only Reason You Want to Go to Heaven is That You Have Been Driven Out of Your
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.
For as long as I can remember, and quite possibly before my birth, I have been an avid fan of the written word. In utero, my mother read to me from every type of literature she could obtain; it was her constant reading that effectively fed my developing brain. To date, I luxuriate in an author’s ability to transport me outside of myself, into a realm of intrigue; my imagination flourishes with each descriptive phrase. Every book, I have ever read has changed me in some way, none more so than my all-time favorite book- “The Color Purple.” Although, this novel is a piece of fiction, it addresses a few major realistic life situations that many children face.
Alice Walker's use of characterization in her novel The Color Purple depicts her main theme of female empowerment and the importance of maintaining an assertive voice. The tyrannical male characters, the victimized female characters, and the development of the protagonist, Celie, express Walker's firm views of female independence in a male dominated society. Her feminist views have been influenced by her experiences with discrimination as an African-American woman as well as her involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. These experiences serve as an inspiration for developing the character Celie, a young black woman discovering her own sense of self while battling a male dependent environment.
Colorism has became a huge issue in today’s society. Colorism is an issue because, it is a form of racism, it reflects back on the days of slavery, it is overall rude, and jail terms are affected.