Strong Characters In The Color Purple By Alice Walker

but I didn't wink”. This important to the overall mood of the story because Celie is sad throughout most of the book because she is physically abused by Mr._____ for stuff she can't control or because he wants to make sure she knows who has the upper hand. The format of the letters which are addressed to God but the way Alice Walker writes the

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is the story of a poor black woman living in the south between World War 1 and World War 2. This was at a time when, although slavery had ended,many women were still virtually in bondage, and had to put up with many conditions that was reminiscent of the days of slavery. The problem was that they had to endure being treated like an inferior being by their own families sometimes, as well as from the white people that lived there. It was a life that was filled with misery for many black women, and they felt helpless to do anything about their situations.

In The Color Purple, Alice Walker illustrates the lives of a female African American before the Civil Rights Movement. A novel that describes female empowerment, The Color Purple demonstrates the domestic violence women faced in the South. Walker tells the story through Celie, a young African American girl who faces constant hardships until she stands up for herself with the help of her closest friends – other women undergoing the same difficulties. Even though men controlled females in the South, the author emphasizes the strength of female empowerment because females struggled to survive during this time.

The most important aspect of The Color Purple is the growth and maturity of each individual. There is a huge transition of many of the characters from the beginning to the end of the novel.  This evolution of the characters is a recurring theme that runs throughout the novel and can be tracked by Celie’s letters.  The women struggle  for freedom in a society where they are inferior to men.  Towards the end of the novel one can sense the slow evolution towards the increasing empowerment of women.

Alice Walker wrote ‘The Color Purple’ in order to capture and highlight the hardship and bitterness African-American women experienced in the early 1900s. She demonstrates the emotional, physical and spiritual revolution of an abused black girl into an independent, strong woman. The novel largely focuses on the role of male domination and its resulting frustrations and black women’s struggle for independence. The protagonist, Celie’s, gain of an independent identity, away from her family, friends, work, and love life, forms the plot of the novel.

Firstly, The Color Purple (1982) is written by the African- American novelist Alice Walker. For creating such an innovative novel, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple won both the Pulitzer Price and the National Book Award. Walker initiated her novel by a confession that The Color Purple is her spiritual journey and the female protagonist represents her during this journey. The novel is made up of 90 letters written by Celie to God and some of these letters are written by Nettie to her sister Celie. These letters are similar to a diary that Celie finds as a way to express her feelings , emotions and thoughts in a place she is not permitted to be free. Generally, the novel portrays a life and a journey of a young fourteen -year- old black girl who is persecuted throughout her life from her stepfather who repeatedly raped her and forced her to marry a cruel man who, in turn, oppressed her.

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

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

Life is a rollercoaster filled with ups and downs. Left turns, right turns, and sometimes completely upside down loop de loops. The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a story about a colored woman named Celie who writes letters to God while living through extreme oppression and abuse. Celie eventually overcomes her oppressors by finding her purpose in life through friendship, love, hope, and change in faith. Discovering hope, love, and faith leads to a fulfilling life through difficult times.

I have researched and now understood that Walker left college due to an unwanted pregnancy, became very depressed, and contemplated suicide. “Her fear was justifiably informed by social taboos about female sexuality and assumptions from her own family of her morally depraved constitution” (Nguyen 1). This resembles Celie and her unwanted pregnancies from her rapings. Walker’s experiences may have influenced The Color Purple. Nguyen argues and supports his theories on how The Color Purple and The Awakening may be the reason “The question of motherhood seems to haunt both texts with ambiguities as if it is at once a source of life-giving and a tool of self-destruction” (Nguyen 3) is about. I completely agree with Nguyen, for the reason that Walker may have strong women as major roles in her novels with terrible backgrounds, which may be her way of expressing how she has felt in her earlier years. “...it seems that the female subjects of Walker’s text are more successful in demonstrating spiritual as well as physical transcendence of the social-historico problems burdening them since the beginning” (Nguyen 2). The Color Purple is a wonderful novel to understand that ways of womanism and feminism. Nguyen’s quote, “The availability of feminine space for women to cultivate and nourish themselves as individuals can determine the outcome of their struggle” (5), really captures a theme of The Color Purple, being that if a woman has little space to be a woman, their lavender cannot be purple. Celie, embraced herself, grew confidence with the help of the women by her side, and really grew to be the color purple. “‘Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.’ In that sense, of course, Blackness is about the color purple” (Thompson 19). Walker resembles the same meaning, but with the help of her fictional characters to bring her womanism to life. “I think it pisses God off if you walk by

The Color Purple is the inspiring story of a young girl, Celie, who is separated from her sister, married to an abusive man, whom she does not love, yet overcome these challenges and becomes a strong proud black woman. Originally written by Alice walker, the story also took a film adaptation under director Steven Spielberg in which the main idea of oppression against unjust powers is continued. In the written novel, Walker spares the readers not one detail of the suffering and agony Celie faced as described in her letters to God thus expressing Walker’s serious tone. In the film, Spielberg reveals a playful aspect to the story to lift spare the emotions of the audience. Walker and Spielberg both demonstrate Celie’s defiance to emphasize how

The Color Purple is the story of Celie’s life, starting from her adolescent years. At a very young and fragile age, Celie was deprived of her dignity as a woman, through the assault by her stepfather, the treatment she endured from her husband, and the disappearance of the one human she adored, her sister Nettie. As her days passed by with more worry and strife, Celie lost faith in love and resented all signs of a kind and honorable God. Shug Avery arrived in this small town to rekindle with her

If any woman had to answer if she ever had trouble accepting herself, the response would be yes. According to Susan David, “All healthy human beings have an inner stream of thoughts and feelings that include criticism, doubt, and fear” (125-128). Depending on the person Alice Walker has as the recipients of Celie’s and Nettie’s letters, the text alters. The Color Purple is about a girl named Celie, who grows up in the south during the early 1920’s, surrounded by racism, sexism, and abuse from her father and husband. Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple in epistolary style and it traces Celie’s journey of finding her identity and path of finally accepting herself. On her journey she encounters a couple of women including one named Shug

The main character in Walker’s “The Color Purple” is Celie, a black woman who is treated very poorly by the men surrounding her. In her early years she is abused and raped by her stepfather, Alfonso, who she has two babies from. It shows already at the beginning of the novel that there is a mixture of parent – lover, parent – children roles, which can prevent Celie’s rise and also noting their similar history will be a barrier in Precious’s life as well. Throughout the novel the strong relationships she builds with the other female characters around her have the greatest impact on Celie’s life. This ‘sisterhood’ gives her the strength to liberate herself from the oppression created by men.

In our everyday lives whether we notice it or not, disrespect towards gender and racism surrounds us and it begins to affect individuals not only physically but emotionally and socially as well. In Alice Walkers novel, The Color Purple, the topic of racism is strongly emphasized and shown throughout novel. Due to Celie’s race and gender roles played, she resists the urge to speak up for herself resulting in silence. In addition, it is through the love and support of other characters like Shug, in which tempts and inspires Celie to stand up for herself. Lastly, through all the troubles Celie faces, she eventually finds the strength in herself to leave Albert and start her life afresh. In The Color Purple, the author develops the idea that discrimination based on gender or race limits one’s opportunities and results in lack of independence and silence, ultimately suggesting that only through the influence of positive models for change can one develop the strength to change their life for the better.