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
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.
Alice 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.
She was so young and scared. Her dad favorite Nettie more than her, so he decided to hurt her. He got Celie pregnant and gave the baby away to a preacher and his wife. Living in that house was like hell to Celie, she hated every minute of it. Even though it was slave days, her own father made her his own personal slave around the house. She had to cook supper every day, clean after all of those kids. Celie got recognized by this man at church named “Mister” and her father gave her to him because he did not really want Celie anymore. Celie, had been through a lot staying there with mister. The only way she could escape from her problems, was by writing in her diary (Wall). Although Celie initially writes her diary letters to heal the rift that has ensued from her sexual violation and to create an identity from fragmentation, the form of her text necessarily yokes together unity and disparity” (Wall). Mister hates Celie just because she is a woman. He claims women are not equal to men and that they should serv...
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.
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.
In The Color Purple, written by Alice Walker, Celie's life was falling apart. Due to her step-father's actions, she became pregnant and then quickly had her children whisked away from her. She was sent away to marry a man she didn't know, and experienced more hardships than many could even attempt to fathom. Thankfully, she had her dear sister, Nettie, to think of and lean on both mentally and emotionally even when she wasn't able to be with her physically.
Most of all, without Shug, Celie would have never been reunited with her beloved sister Nettie. The Color Purple is a tale of epic proportion and is beautiful, tear-jerking, passionate, and suspenseful. Even after all of the abuse that Celie received and after all of the struggles that she faced, she found it in her heart to forgive and move on. Her life was truly remarkable, and she was a brave woman who defied the odds in a time of division and hatred. The love that was shared between Celie and Shug was extraordinary and went against all customs of the time period.
Sisterhood does not only bring women together, it also helps make women stronger individuals in a patriarchal society. For instance, The Women of Brewster Place is an African American novel by Gloria Naylor that takes place in 1982 in Brewster Place. This novel contains several stories which focus on the lives of each of the seven women that live there. These women come to Brewster Place to find comfort. Eventually, the women build bonds that help them deal with the negativity of the society that they live in. In addition, The Color Purple by Alice Walker is an epistolary novel that takes place in rural Georgia during the 1980’s. Celie, who is the protagonist in The Color Purple, is a poor and uneducated fourteen year old African American girl. She is constantly physically and mentally abused by the men in her life. She forms strong friendships with women whom she idolizes and women who stand up to the social norms of society. In the end she gains confidence and becomes a stronger individual. The women in the novels The Color Purple and The Women of Brewster Place have shown that the only way to survive in a patriarchal society is through sisterhood.
In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel. 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 anybody 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 the events occurring in her life over the course of the next several letters lacks sentiment and opinion....
The second most important relationship that develops in Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”, is the relationship between Celie and Shug. Even before Celie meets Shug, she is envious of her; she starts with just word of mouth, then a picture, until finally they meet. Shug represents everything that is frowned upon in the patriarchal society. She is fatherless, sexually promiscuous, and a very talented singer. She is a strong, independent, and free woman, and because of this she is outcast from society.
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
In the film “The Color Purple”, segregation plays an important role and the differences between black people and white people are shown through race and life. The Color Purple focuses on the lives of several African American women who are faced with abuse, violence, and cruelty. The fim is set in Macon County Georgia and there are two main characters’ Celie and her sister Nettie. Celie is the character the movie is centered around and she is also the film’s narrator. The story is based on Celie’s life and the many different issues along the way that she has encountered such as being raped by her father over and over again, abused by her father and forced into marriage at fourteen to another abusive man (Albert) who didn’t even want to marry her but w...
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.
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. The progression of civil rights for black women that existed throughout the twentieth century mirrors the development Celie makes from a verbally debilitated girl to an adamant young woman. The expression of racism and sexism that evidenced itself during the postmodern era presented Walker with an opportunity to compose a novel that reveals her strong animosity toward discrimination. Without these outlets, Walker would not have had the ability to create a novel with such in-depth insights into the lifestyle of an immensely oppressed woman.