The Color Purple Patriarchy Analysis

Celie practically struggled for happiness her whole existence. Her father sold her to a man who had no intent of loving or caring for her. Celies’ husband whom she refers to as Mr. physically and verbally abused her. Mr. felt that the only way to keep a woman in check was to beat her and he did just that throughout the movie. Like any woman would though the abuse Celie lost herself and respect for herself. Living with Mr. was a life full of darkness and hatred. Life with her husband was no better life than life with her stepfather. It took years for Celie to become brave enough to fight back for what she accept as true and gain understanding of how to convey amusement and have little outlook on life. After years of abuse, Celie no longer was afraid of Mr. She no longer cared for her husband or the

In The Color Purple, women were often weakened by men having their sense of self-worth controlled by principles of beauty, ability, and what they could provide for men. The men in the novel kept them uneducated so that they were submissive and if they ever got out of line they would be beaten to remind them of their place. The men in the novel were able to do and go as they pleased with no backlash or repercussions from the women in the novel. As Mr.__ would say “Men’s supposed to wear the pants.”

Celie and the women surrounding her struggle for bondage. Celie finds a bond with many females. Walker introduces the hint of Celie's sexual attraction to women in church. Afraid of men because of the cruel treatment by her father, Celie turns more and more towards the company of women, who represent love, warmth, and feelings of solidarity to her. Celie affirms her sexual identity in her relationship with Shug Avery. For now, it is manifested merely as what men cannot offer.

They also show independence by not only leaving the men but finding their own source of income. Shug was beautiful and had a great voice therefore she sang " Dear God, Shug Avery is coming to town! She coming with her orkestra. She going to sing in the Lucky Star out on Coalman road. ”(24).Celie on the other hand was good at sewing "How you make your living up there?’

Celie found her independence with the help of Shug Avery and Sofia by watching and learning to see how they were independent. When Celie found her independence, she told Albert she was leaving him and was leaving with Shug Avery and her husband. However, Albert did not believe her and tried to get her to stay but instead Celie cursed him by saying to him “Everything you done me, already been done to you.” This means that with everything Albert has done to Celie and has already experienced or will experience sometime in his lifetime. Furthermore, Celie went from wearing rags for clothes to wearing pants with a blouse to help show how she is independent as well.

This definitely shows the development of Celie’s character – at the beginning of the novel, she is a shy girl who feared confronting her stepfather, to a confident woman who was able to find the strength in herself to do

One of the biggest challenges Celie faces throughout this novel is learning how to deal with long-held societal beliefs. As she was growing up, she accepted the harsh treatment she received from men because she lacked anything to compare her own situation to. Karla Kovalova comes to the realization that “Celie is initially portrayed as a victim whose womanhood as well as subjectivity has been denied to her” (2). During this time period, women were viewed to be of lesser importance than men and few women questioned this hierarchy for fear of repercussion, accepting the fact that they were viewed to have been put on earth solely to cater to man’s every wish. Children learned this by observing the interactions of the adults around them, and Celie’s stepchildren are no exception. Harpo clearly demonstrates what he has learned from his father’s behavior when his aunt confronts him about not helping Celie carry the water:

The self-actualization Celie achieves transforms her into a happy, successful, independent woman. Celie takes the act of sewing, which is traditionally thought of as a mere chore for women who are confined to a domestic role, and turns it into an outlet for creative self-expression and a profitable business. After being voiceless for so many years, she is finally content, fulfilled, and self-suf-ficient. The self-actualization Celie achieves transforms her into a happy, successful, independent woman. Celie takes the act of sewing, which is traditionally thought of as a mere chore for women who are confined to a domestic role, and turns it into an outlet for creative self-expression and a profitable business. After being voiceless for so many

Celie did not enjoy being controlled but she had grown up watching women being dominated by men her whole life, she had been taught that it was okay. She fell into the routine of following orders from her step-father and her husband, Albert, (like most women at that time), and never had the confidence, or even the knowledge to stand up for herself, until she met Shug. Shug became the sunlight in Celie’s life. Shug showed Celie love that she had never felt before, and helped her build her self-confidence, self-love, and self-worth. Celie was finally able to leave Mister, she then started her own business, reconnected with her sister, and inherited her own home. If gender roles were not as strict then Celie could have been healthier and happier sooner in her life. For example, she could have had a choice in her marriage to Albert, who abused her for many years “Mr.___ marry me to take care of his children. I marry him cause my daddy made me. I don’t love Mr.___ and he don’t love me.” (Walker 64). Celie had great difficulty breaking the constraints of gender roles that had been engraved into her, but with the help of strong women in her life Celie was able to become a strong, independent woman, who filled her life with happiness and love, “I am so happy. I got love, and I got work, I got money, friends, and time.”(Walker pg. 218). In The Color Purple Albert was also affected by gender roles in society. Albert could not function after Celie left, he could not take care of himself properly or the house because he was never use to it. If there was more equality between the genders, husband and wife could share the tasks of running a house hold. If that were the case Albert would have known how to take care of himself and the household better. Albert was disciplined by his father who thought women oversaw the household, and thaat if Albert

In her letter she describes Shug’s eyes. Patricia Harris Abrams says in her book The Gift of Loneliness, “Shug’s eyes fascinate Celie probably because they betray a suffering Celie can relate to.” It is Shug who renames Celie a virgin and teaches her what it feels like to really live and to love. Blount says, “Their growing friendship offers Celie a rich purpose in life.” Their relationship, both sisterly and romantically, is what shows Celie that it is possible to love and be loved in return.

In this book society has come up with a major separation between female and male what they are allowed to do and what they aren't supposed to do. In this society woman are supposed to follow orders

Shug Avery also has a reversal in character. At first she is presented as an ungodly woman who sings in bars. She had become a smoker and an alcoholic, who had slept with a lot of men and is said to possibly have some unclean disease. Shug had become very sickly when she met Celie. By the end of the novel, she returns to the church and also goes back to her father, who had exiled her from the family. She too had achieved total happiness through Celie.

The overarching trauma of this novel is highlighted by Celie’s relationship with Shug Avery. Though the brutality continues, Celie still manages to find an escape allowing her to come closer to the line of thriving. For Celie her first notion of Shug comes from her abusive husband's obsession with the singer. Her growing sense of imagination and curiosity began to develop a more nuanced character. The reader is given a new looking at the character; Celie crosses the threshold of survival to thriving only for a few fleeting seconds. Our first encounter of this diminishing joy unfortunately encapsulated a well-rounded sense of author's purpose. “And then I think about Shug Avery. I know what he doing to be done to Shug Avery and maybe she like it. I put my arm around him”(Walker, 12). There are several key elements that the author has intentionally created. The first being the motif of sex, for Celie sex has been a brutal massacring for her body, which resulted in two heartbreaking children. While these children were taken from her and killed, Walker highlights the wedding night sex scene shifting from brutal to sad. The reader can clearly see that the idea of Shug is what allows Celie to escape from her horrid reality. As Charmaine Eddy notes in his paper entitled Marking the body: the material dislocation of gender in Alice Walker's The Color Purple “Because Shug's picture has initiated lesbian sexual desire in Celie, this imitation must be seen as a transvestism, a drag

Celie from a young age is a victim of incest at the hands of her stepfather, Pa. She is not only dispossessed of her children as they are taken away at birth by Pa, but she is also dispossessed of self. Like Sethe, Celie is denied the outlet of motherhood. Celie sacrifices herself to Pa, as a means of saving her sister, Nettie, from the sexual exploitation that she soon would have encountered. Celie in this act becomes the mother figure to Nettie, as sisters become mothers to each other. Her body becomes a sacrificial lamb that gives Nettie salvation from the sexual plight and violation faced by black women. With the dispossession of her children and all the events that accumulate, Celie faces the psychosocial trauma of deferred

The family is the basic unit of society where members love, support, and comforts one another. This is not the case in Celie’s household. The novel describes a patriarchal system wherein women are subordinated to men. Women are expected to follow and conform without asking or objecting. They are supposed to follow the rules without questioning. Black women are deprived of education so that they would not protest against the oppression from the society and so that they would remain ignorant of their rights. Since Celie has no voice or power, she can’t tell anybody about her misfortunes, which is why she only writes letters to God as an outlet of expression. This is her only way of verbalizing what she feels before she discovered the power of sisterhood.