Johnson Family Boundaries

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The Johnson Family has many members, the focus of the assessment is the couple, Celie and Albert. Celie’s abuse began at a young age, with her father sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions. These assaults led to two pregnancies, each time the child was removed by her father only moments after birth. First, Celie had a son named Adam and later had a daughter named Olivia. Celie is unaware if her children are safe for the majority of her life, only finding out many years later, that they are safe and healthy. Celie has a close relationship with her younger sister Nettie, and the need to survive their father’s abuse brought them even closer. Continuing her father’s pattern of abuse, he marries a young girl named Gray. Albert was widowed …show more content…

All of the boundaries Albert sets are damaged boundaries as he often does not voice them to others and uses violence and threats to enforce them. All of Celie's boundaries, whether they be physical, sexual, emotional, or spiritual, are ignored from the time she was a young girl until she leaves Albert’s farm with Shug. Years of this abuse caused her to create walls in every aspect. Celie becomes shut down and unattached from the world around her for many years after Nettie is removed from the home. Her emotional boundaries are ignored yet again as Albert has an affair with Shug in the same home as Celie. After years of her Father ignoring her sexual boundaries, she marries Albert, and her sexual boundaries are ignored again, causing her to create a wall. She begins to create healthy boundaries again once she has her shop and feels as though she has control of her life for the first time. There is also a strong spiritual theme throughout the movie, highlighted by Shug’s relationship with her …show more content…

The inspiring part of this film is the healing journey. Celie learns to stand up for herself, become independent, and create a support system around her. Albert learns to support Celie by sending for Nettie and Celie’s children, he also learns to give her space and not use his kind acts as leverage to control Celie. This is shown as Nettie and Celie reunite and he continues to walk his horse in the distance, letting them reconnect without ever taking credit. Sofia gets to live the rest of her life on the farm, seeing her children and Harpo. Harpo has a family, and it appears that he has taken steps to lessen the physical abuse trends in his family. Shug Avery marries a nice man and reconnects with her father after years of not speaking. It is inspiring to see that after all the years of a cycle of abuse, they are able to recover and learn to care for each other in their own ways. While the film addresses extremely dark and upsetting topics, this needs to be shown as a reminder that family violence is an incredibly intricate and interwoven concept that cannot be solved overnight, no matter how much we would like

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