The Color Purple, by Alice Walker is a epistolary novel which portrays the struggles of African American women for independence, self esteem, and identity. The effect of racism and sexism on the black community, especially black women is expressed throughout the book. This novel is told through letters which chronologically goes through 30 years of Celie’s life in South America. The 91 letters written by both Celie and her sister Nettie awakens Celie where she gains a spiritual encouragement from Nettie, Sofia, and Shug. The Color Purple is the sisterhood of Celie, Nettie, Shug and Sofia which contributes a lot to Celie’s escape from slavery. Celie and Nettie have depended on their sisterhood for survival due to their fathers natural death and their mother’s weakness. Celie plays the role of Nettie’s parents especially the maternal role. Celie says “I’ll take care of you. With God help.” after her mother passes away and Mr. tries to rape Nettie (Walker. 3). When Nettie is around Celie, she feels a sense of comfort in the harsh world she lives in even though she hasn’t heard from her in years. Celie hopes that Nettie is still living and one day they will see one another again. Because Nettie and Celie have no contact after Mr. bans them from seeing one another God is the only thing she has to talk to. The friendship between Celie and Nettie helped Celie through the abuse from her husband. The letter writing between Celie and Nettie goes through a long period of absence
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 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.
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.
The award-winning novel, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, is a story about a woman going through cruel things such as: incest, rape, and physical abuse. This greatly written novel comes from a very active feminist author who used many of her own experiences, as well as things that were happening during that era, in her writing. “The Color Purple” takes place in the early 1900's, and symbolizes the economic, emotional, and social deprivation that African American women faced in Southern states of America. The main character of the story is Celie, a fourteen-year old that starts writing letters to God for thirty years, and then to her sister, Nette, who ran away to Africa to save herself from the troubles Celie went through. Celie starts off as a pushover and very dependent girl that would eventually grow and develop into an independent flourishing woman that opens a business making pants for all genders. This novel shows the hardship of a girl becoming a woman over the course of her life and eventually standing up for herself and being confident. Many of the experiences and characters of “The Color Purple” are based on history of that time and a bit of the author’s personal experiences. Her use of epistolary allows the reader to learn everything in the point of view of Celie. Alice Walker's influences for writing this novel range from her childhood experiences to the white society in her hometown of Eatonville, Georgia. Even during these times, it still shows that women
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.
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
Celie uses god as a symbol of hope to her life and happiness. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker is a story about the life of an african american woman before world war 2. Alice portrays real life problems women during that time faced. The main character Celie experiences domestic violence, racism, jealousy, homosexual curiosity, motherhood, and poverty. The story is made up of letters Celie writes to God, her sister, Nettie, and letters Nettie writes to Celie. The letters all vary in length. The main conflict in the story is that Celie has never questioned her rights or what she wants, she has always done as she has been told and never gone against
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker is narrated by a woman named Celie. Celie brings a young African-American women who was unable to have the proper education or treatment she desired for a majority of her life time. Throughout the story Celie searches for freedom and power through the abuse, love, and challenges that she endures.
Alice Walker’s inspirational novel The Color Purple illustrated the brutal childhood of Celie, an African American fourteen-year-old girl who lived in rural Georgia. Celie became impregnated twice by her step-father, Alfonso, and had her children immediately taken away from her after she gave birth. Celie was then married off to a man known as Mister who quickly demonstrated that he was just as evil and abusive as Alfonso. Celie’s letters to God demonstrated the journey of hardships that she faced throughout her adulthood including the separation from her sister Nettie and the verbal and physical abuse from her husband. After Celie met Blues singer Shug Avery, she found the strength to leave Mister.
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.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker is about the abuse of a young girl named Celie and how she uses her life experiences to gain her independence as a woman. Celie begins writing letters to God at the age of fourteen because her father, Alphonso, repeatedly assaults her both physically and sexually. This results in the birth of two children between them that Alphonso has been rumored to kidnap and murder. After the death of their mother, Nettie, Celie’s younger sister, is pursued by a man they refer to as “Mister”, but Alphonso refuses to let Nettie marry and tells Mister to marry Celie instead. Knowing he was doing this to split the sisters up, the inhuman treatment serves as an example to show how many women’s emotions were viewed during this time - meaningless.
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
Because Celie seeks to protect her younger sister Nettie from being degraded by Pa, Pa frequently targets Celie to be the subject of his physical and sexual abuse. Pa constantly rapes Celie and eventually impregnates her twice. Pa also physically abuses Celie. In one letter, Celie references an incident where Pa punches her because she accidently winks at a boy in her church (12). On top of the physical and sexual abuse that Celie suffers from, Pa also verbally abuses her. He frequently tells Celie that she its ugly and unwanted. Eventually, Celie internalizes these words and begins to think view herself as though she is ugly and unwanted, so she believes that the things that happen to her must be normal. All of the abuse that Celie suffers from at the hands of Pa causes her to characterize all men as violent and