The Color Purple Womanism Analysis

Womanism in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple “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. Womanism

Womanist ideals are based off the linkage of racism and sexism. Walker uses this link to help build up every aspect of oppression Celie faces. An example of this is when she links sexism and racism by having Nettie write to Celie about the Olinka people not educating females “like the white people at home” (Ogunyemi 70). She is showing how black women are not educated not only because of their race, but also because of their sex. Women of color face these unique issues because of the link, so problems never get fully solved (Hutchison 185). On top of these issues, Celie deals with rape and incest in her life. In the very first letter Celie writes to God as a child, she describes her first experience of rape. Before she describes in detail what he does to her, she writes that he says “You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t” (1). This occurrence scars her for the rest of her life, and ultimately shapes her personality. Rape and incest are obvious themes in the novel, and Walker does this to reflect the truth of black women’s lives during this time period (Tanritanir and Aydemir 438). As the novel progresses, Celie understands that rape is very wrong and she needs to not allow it to happen. However, she is still is burdened by the remembrance of her own father abusing her and her two children being born out of incest. Fortunately, this is not true, which she realizes when Nettie describes the situation

Celie finally embraces womanist ideals and stands up for herself. After many years, she is able to realize that she does not have to listen to men’s demands, and she has the right to live her own life (Tanritanir and Aydemir 443). Once she reaches this point in her life she lets her husband know how she feels and says “You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong, I say. It’s time to leave you and enter into the Creation. And your dead body just the welcome mat I need” (199). Based off of these lines, her change is very drastic. She suddenly understands that she is a strong woman that can stand up for herself. Celie then moves to Memphis with Shug. Celie finally has the space and freedom to become independent and express her creativity with her business (Nguyen 6). This is the next important step to her transformation. With men no longer around for the first time in her life, she is able to find herself and discover her passions; she can finally grow to be a happy, independent woman. Along with this vital personal transformation, Celie’s views of God also change. Up until Celie grows close to Shug, she views God as the stereotypical white male. She believes that He, like the other men in her life, does not want her to be happy, so that is why she has so many misfortunes. Shug is able to show Celie that she should not view God as man but rather as an “It” to try to suppress the