In The Color Purple, written by Alice Walker, uses a feminine heroin named Celie in the Southeastern corner of the United States. Through Celie, Alice Walker portrays the thematic subject of sin and deceit by explaining her life through a series of letters. Although her life was very difficult, she was able to find a way to get through it and become stronger.
The first sin that happened to Celie was the rape that occurred when she was fourteen. James Hall, author of the article “Towards a map of mis(sed) reading: The presence of absence in The Color Purple”, wrote “The victim of incest, Celie had told her mother upon the birth of her child that it was ‘God's’’ which is another act of sin that was committed in the story. In the bible, Moses
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On pages 174-175, “This would not do. [...] dragged out of their homes in the middle of the night and hanged,” and Nettie is explaining the story of their father to Celie. There father was lynched which falls under “Thou shalt not murder.” the fact that he was murdered because he had a business that was doing better than most of the white men in the area and they did not like that. Another sin is hatred which seems to rear its ugly head a lot. Linda Selzer, who wrote the article “Race and domesticity in The Color Purple”, said “But if the conclusion to The Color Purple suggests that feelings of racial identity can transcend national boundaries, the novel provides no such reassurances that the boundaries between races can be successfully negotiated,” which is basically saying that no matter what is going on or where it is, there will always be racial tension and boundaries set up for the other races to separate them all. In fact the hatred runs so deep that Selzer states, “[...] she [Nettie] is trained by a missionary society that is "run by white people" who "didn't say a thing about caring about Africa, but only about duty," showing that even the white missionaries seem to show a kind for hatred for the Africans and it seems a bit ludicrous …show more content…
Hall says, “The victim of incest, Celie had told her mother upon the birth of her child that it was ‘God's,’” when really it was a man that gave her the baby. She seems to be trying to reference the Holy Spirit when it gave the Virgin Mary Jesus Christ which can be taken as a double blasphemy. Hall even mentions that, “Her protagonist has (in the first two pages) spoken the unspoken (the "I am") and radically revised the mythic story of Christ's birth. Celie's path to selfhood involves the evaporation of patriarchal Christianity,” meaning Celie is pretty much breaking down the patriarchal christianity style that was going on at the time. What’s even stranger however is the fact that Hall recognizes the fact that Celie seems to be portraying her husband as a god-like figure as he states, “ Her husband, in a further reference to the Old Testament God, is also unnameable,” which is absolutely true. Usually when God would talk to someone in the Old Testament and they asked for His name because they did not know who he was, He would say something along the lines of “I am that I am” which is really mysterious yet authoritative in a way. The sin just seems to keep piling
Told through a series of letters to God, Celie shares her story. Impregnated twice by her father, Celie’s children are taken away
The Color Purple elicits multitudinous generalizations upon bitter circumstances. The novel possesses a surfeit of themes. One of the major themes in The Color Purple is the sexual relationships between the male and female characters, sexism. Walker stages her story of the transformation of Celie from a female that is passive to one who eventually becomes an independent black woman in the culture of the rural society from the 1920s to the early 1940s. Celie is dominated by her father who turns out to be her stepfather at the beginning of the story. In the latter part of the anecdote her husband Albert takes over as her foreperson. Shug Avery`s relationship with Celie was the cause of Celie`s personality change. Celie wrote letters to God because her stepfather Alphonso, told her to tell no one but God of sexual molestations he inflicted upon her. Through the letters, Walker wanted readers to generate a taste of Celie`s actuality, which at first is discrete, but eventually becomes stable and independent.
Because of her past experiences with men, Celie has accepted that God “...act just like all the other men’s I know: Trifling, forgetful, and lowdown” (Walker 192) seeing as God is a man. Celie has been a victim of rape, assault, and many forms of suppression from her step-father, husband, and stepson. Every man she has encountered has wronged her in some way, so she concludes that all men, even God, must be this way. Celie’s step-father sexually assaulted Celie multiple times in her childhood and stimulated her strong dislike of men. In current childhood sexual abuse cases, “80% of perpetrators were a parent” (Child Sexual Abuse Is a Widespread Problem). Celie would have been among the majority in childhood abuse situations in present day. Her traumatic past fuels her hateful feelings toward
Walker`s diction throughout the book emphasizes the inexperience of a young girl that is illiterate and existing in a land where men are considered dominate forces of every demeanor of life. Celie cultured how she was to submit to man, men in general which caused Celie to inhibit all of her own hopes and dreams. The moment Shug Avery and Sofia are introduced in the text we began to see the indoctrinated woman Celie really is within herself. Shug Avery is the perfect epitome of what it means to be an independent woman that Celie desires to be but cannot find the inner courage to become. Celie learned to stand up for herself and emerged as a powerful and astute woman through Shug`s yearning and inspiration. Celie encountered a lot of violence that was very uncomfortable and intolerable for her. Many of
The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a story written in 1982 that is about the life struggles of a young African American woman named Celie. The novel takes the reader through several main topics including the poor treatment of African American women, domestic abuse, family relationships, and also religion. The story takes place mostly in rural Georgia in the early 1900’s and demonstrates the difficult life of sharecropper families. Specifically how life was endured from the perspective of an African American woman. The Color Purple is written in the form of letters that Celie narrates explaining the events that took place at certain points in her life. Celie endures physical and emotional abuse by some of the people around her including
Walker’s theme of writing is straight forward, she express through emotions and sexual conduct. Alice Walker adds, “The worse thing than being a woman is being a black woman” (282). The novel: The Color of Purple tells about the leading character Celie that writes down her deepest thoughts of unhappiness and sorrow in her diary. Celie was sexual assaulted by the man she called father, and she later conceives a child, that child was taken away from her at the age of fourteen. For example, Celie was not attending school, she felt rejected and unattractive. Celie stayed at home
In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Celie leads a life filled with abuse at the hands of the most important men in her life. As result of the women who surround and help her, Celie becomes stronger and overcomes the abuse she experienced. The three most influential women in Celie’s life are her sister Nettie, her daughter-in-law Sofia, and the singer Shug Avery. These are the women who lead Celie out of her shell and help her turn from a shy, withdrawn woman to someone who was free to speak her mind and lead her own independent life.
In The Color Purple, there were several themes such as Violence, Sexuality, Power, God or Spiritually. Power is a key role in this novel. Walker focuses throughout the novel that the ability to express someone’s thoughts and feelings is critical to developing a sense of self. Initially, Celie is truly unable to resist those who abuse her. Remembering Alphonso’s warning that she “better not never tell nobody but God” about him abusing her. , Celie knows that the only way to keep it is to remain silent and invisible. Celie is emphasize an object, an entirely accepting party who has no power to give herself through
The Colour Purple is a novel that was written by the 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner, Alice Walker. The Novel was published in 1982 and was later turned into a film by Steven Spielberg in 1985. The book is about a young girl, Celie who was oppressed and seek to find happiness in life. Despite her inner turmoil, she had a strong belief in God, and also hopes that she would find her estranged sister, Nettie who loved her with all her heart. She got pregnant at an early age by the man she thought was her father. Celie was also a young bride who was being abused by her husband.
Sometimes life brings experiences of abandonment through difficult times. Celie shows an expression of abandonment from God with her intimate friend Shug Avery, who challenges Celie where she thinks God is. “What God do for me?...He gave me a lynched daddy, crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won’t see again...The God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful and lowdown...Miss Celie, You better hush. God might hear you. Let’im hear me, I say. If he ever listened to poor colored women the world would be a different place” Celie said in anger (192). It is times like this that society tells the world to push life’s disasters under the rug. When instead it requires the attention of others to become endured. To be human is to go through the struggles of life and face them. Without them, life can become meaningless. Celie experiences this through oppression and her loss of faith in God. Throughout
Celie, the narrator of The Color Purple, is an uneducated, submissive, 14-year old black girl who lives in Georgia. Celie is constantly being abused and raped by her father, Alphonso. He has already impregnated Celie twice. The first one was a girl while the second one was a boy. All her children were taken away by her father after they were born. Her father told her that she better not tell anybody about their relationship but God, which explains why every letter she write begins with “Dear God”. Celie’s mother is happy because Alphonso doesn’t bother her anymore, but the truth is that Alphonso has been raping Celie as a substitute for her mother to gratify his sexual needs. Celie’s mother becomes seriously sick and eventually dies. Alphonso brings home another woman but continues to sexually
As a result of these tragic events, Celie writes to an unknown audience, resembling her unknown identity. In the beginning, the only person she can talk to is God. She writes her first letters to God shortly after her so-called father raped her. Each one of the letters is short, choppy and has a similar rhythm. The patterns found in her letters symbolize her state of mind; she feels depressed and weak. "Celie does not think of her letters as anything else than just that, as written documents saying the things she wishes to tell the recipients she cannot speak to in person”, making God the person she has always wished to communicate with (Boynukara). Her letters in the beginning are also mostly written to God and not signed off, illustrating her lack of identity. Her conception of God is a “Big and old and tall and graybearded and white. He wear white robes and go barefooted” (Walker 195). Celie’s first letter proves that she has a low self-confidence when she writes, "Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me." (1). According to Janoff Bulman, “cognitive strategy used to make
She has to deal with the loss of her kids, but one day she gets to see one of them. She always called her little girl Olivia, but when she met the woman who had her child, she said, “We calls her Pauline.” (pg.16). That made Celie sad, but then the woman says, “But I calls her Olivia.” She just said that she looked like an Olivia and this made Celie happy.
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is an epistolary novel about a young African-American girl named Celie. Through her letters, Celie narrates the horrific situations and daily struggles that she endures as a young black woman living in the South during the racial unrest of the 1930s. Stuck between being a woman and being black, Celie overcomes her situations and eventually finds her place in society. The first thing that Celie had to accomplish this goal was to find her identity. Walker illustrates how Celie’s relationships with men, sex, women, and God help shape her identity.
Walker introduces the reader to the protagonist, Celie, through a series of letters. In these letters the reader finds Celie amidst her mother’s death. The author chooses to address her letters to God, giving Celie a greater willpower to survive. Celie’s upbringing gave her maternal authority; as seen through the multiple maternal roles she played through the novel. Her mother’s death forces her to step up and fill a, painful role revealing her inner strength and ability to remain optimistic.The full