Celie Johnson

Celie, as apposed to Shug, begins hardly any particular views of her own, and only does what she thinks is right: caring for her husband. She holds onto the morals she has learnt from her stepfather, although she realises that her life could be less abusive, she does not seem to feel that she has the power to change that. She thinks that her stepfather, who raped her, has killed her children and therefore she does not trust him. The incest that happens allows distrust towards her family, and so she turns to God is not allowed to tell anybody about the rape and abuse. Celie struggles through life as an uneducated young

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.

Celie growing up was a soft girl as her father took advantage of that by silencing her by saying ‘You better never tell anybody but God. It’d kill your mammy” (1) she did not say a thing due to her loft and soft heart and caring a lot for her sister it made her weak as her father wanted to sleep with Nettie and her husband though she could

            As Celie writes to God for guidance and strength asking that she may carry on, her letters shift to be intended for her intensely loved sister, Nettie, whom separated from Celie at an early age. Celie becomes a victim of brutal violence as she refuses to fight back to the injustices

This further enhances the reader’s ability to acknowledge the contrast in her character by first depicting her as having seemingly nothing and later having all of the tools needed to self-succeed. It should also be noted that Celie’s journey doesn’t portray the typical rags to riches story in that Celie acquires an intellectual wealth. Initially, Celie is portrayed as an archetype that is associated with innocence, purity, and chastity. (Though the image of her chastity is destroyed in the very first page when Fonso “put his thing up gainst” (pg.1) Celie’s body.) This archetype doesn’t fit the typical character form associated with participating in a quest-like journey, but she ends up doing so. Celie is extremely obedient to the people closest to her and is even more so compliant with her surroundings. To add to the helplessness of the narrator’s character, on several occasions she is described in undesirable ways. One could go so far as to infer an allusion to Hans Christian Andersen’s, “The Ugly Duckling.” She is essentially the swan surrounded by a group of ducks and is rendered blind to her own beauty, liberation, and potential due to the consistent abuse that she receives from the “ducklings” around her. In the children’s fable, some of what the mother duck’s behaviors are interpreted as are the ideas and concepts expressed by the society Celie lives in. To her fortune, she is able to peer

suppression of her personality of who she was. she was just a person who cooked and cleaned and took care of the children without any consideration given to her. She is uneducated because her father took her out off school as a result of her pregnancies. Celie is raised in an environment where she wasn't allow to have a mind of her own because her father dominated and controlled all her actions. For example, Celie writes letters to God because she has been warned by her

When Celie was young, she was raped by her father and he killed both of their children. She writes her letters to God to help her better understand what was going on to her. Because what has happened to her, was so terrible, she can only talk about these things to someone that she knows loves her. Her younger sister, Nettie, loves her; however, Nettie

First she is rejected by the society as she is black woman. She is raped by her father and got two children. Then her father separates her from her sister. Celie's natural compassion makes it very difficult for her to hate anyone, although she becomes very angry when she finds out how Albert hides her letters from her sister. Physical violence appears in the relationship between Harpo and his wife Sophia. He always beats her because she is regarded as an object.

The Color Purple depicts the struggle and growth of Celie, an uneducated slave of the South who became a victim of racism, sexual roles, men, and social injustices, in numerous letters that she writes as a diary. Walker uses Celie's uneducated grammar to help the reader perceive the pain that she thinks and feels in order to become a mature, twentieth-century woman.

Additionally, Celie after her tragedies is able to reconstruct herself to love life again and give back to the world through learning to accept Albert and crafting her lovely pants. Once she returns to Georgia, after a long conversation with Albert Celie writes, “He ain’t Shug, but he begin to be somebody I can talk to. And no matter how the telegram said you must be drown, I still get letters from you.” (276). For this reason, Celie is one who channels out forgiveness and love onto her surroundings. Even though Celie encounters cruel treatment and a poor life at first she is able to respond in wholeness without attempting to hurt anyone. In contrast, Maleficent does not end up accepting her attacker. In the film, there is a huge clash between

Initially, Celie has no voice and is unable to stand up to any of her abusers. To her abusers she is only an object and that soon reflects in Celie’s character and thoughts she has about herself. Through her words, she writes letters addressed to God. Soon, Shug comes into Celie’s life and shows her that she can create her own opinion and have her own voice. Even though Shug helped Celie find the start of her new voice, Celie did not really put it into action until she discovered the letters from Nettie that Albert was keeping. Soon after, Celie starts confronting Albert. This is the turning point in the novel where Celie made her voice known. Throughout Celie’s life she had people who supported her and helped her find her voice. The power of family and friendship plays an important role in the book. Without Nettie, Sophia, and Shug, Celie would have never been able to stand up for herself. Each woman has had an impact on each other to further them in life. For example, Sophia learned her fighting form standing up for herself at a young age and never letting anyone push her around. The relationship Nettie had with Celie anchored

She suffers constant abuse from her stepfather Alfonso. Restricted from living an independent lifestyle, she is confined to do whatever he wants due to the imbalance of rights in the setting of the novel. In the latter stages, Celie eventually discovers her inner self as she recovers her own sexuality, beliefs, and voice. From the novel, the way Celie continuously perseveres through the hardships thrown at her, shows that she has faith that one day, everything will be alright. TThis is a clear indication that she doesn’t feel love for anyone in her life now but regardless, she is dealing with her misfortune. Without faith that one day things will change, the plot of the novel could have been drastically changed. She is obviously very depressed with her life; she may have even committed suicide had she not had strong faith in what she believed in. Research studies have shown that depression is the leading cause for suicide but she expresses no suicidal thoughts since her strong faith prevents her from taking drastic

The Color Purple is a novel that reflects Celie, an abused fourteen-year-old girl in the rural south who went through a lot to achieve happiness. The novel is a series of letters from Celie to God, Nettie to Celie, and Celie to Nettie. The novel begins with fourteen-year-old Celie writing a letter to God asking him to give her a sign on what is happening to her. Celie feels very connected to God through her letters. Many of the characters’ perspective of God changes throughout the novel.

With the main character Celie, she overcomes her hardships with her childhood and marriage to achieve complete happiness. Her childhood consists of a father that rapes her and gives her kids away. He also gives her

From her father to Albert to society even everything was against her and she was always looked down on because she never had anybody in her corner to support her and help her fight the world that looked down on her. Although you can see that she lets everyone get to her at the beginning of the story when Celie opens her eyes and meets other female characters that aren’t living life the same way she was she thought she could make a change in her life and so she went out and did that. Celie left her abusive relationship with Albert while still forgiving him for what he did as well as started working on her own although the society looked down upon women in the workforce no matter what the task was she didn’t care though she went out and did what she thought was best. Faith in God can go a long way and although she was scared of God at first because she connected God with males and not everything she learned that God was much more than just a male or a skin color she learned that God is always around and is everything which helps support an alternative approach as Walker stated in one of his critical essays “The Color Purple reaches out to anyone who’s felt confused about the role of God and religion in their life and offers an alternative