Essay about The Fairytale of Alice Walker's Color Purple

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.

Told through a series of letters to God, Celie shares her story. Impregnated twice by her father, Celie’s children are taken away

Symbolism is one of the major elements in "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker. The woman's search for something she has never experienced is the symbolization of the mankind's search for love and happiness. The meaning of names, occupations, power, pants, cloth, words, eyes, frogs, starts, shell, stamps are only few examples of the symbols used by the author and are very important in understanding not only the characters of the story, but also global values such as love, power, mutual understanding, and authority over another person's life.

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.

The Color Purple revolves around the life of Celie, a young black woman growing up in the poverty-ridden South.  In order to find herself and gain independence, Celie must deal with all manner of abuse, including misogyny, racism and poverty.  When she is a young girl of just 14, Celie is sexually assaulted by a man she believes is her father.  She has two children by her rapist, both of who

The Color Purple examines several aspects of unit one, including the difference between singular or multiple perspectives and the subsequent impact of adding more perspectives to an issue. As discovered in unit one, the principle of Occam’s Razor, which usually favors a singular perspective, holds that ”entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity,” but this thought process often oversimplifies the issue by disregarding certain aspects or details of a situation (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, 2015). As if adhering to Occam’s Razor, Celie in the film, rather than further complicate her situation, chooses the path of least resistance by living the majority of her early to mid life viewing her circumstance with a singular perspective in which the society holds that she has no choice, but to conform to its sexist expectations (Spielberg, 1985). However, Sofia and Shug provide new, additional perspectives that fuse together in the formation of a cyclopean image, which gives Celie greater awareness of her situation (The Cyclopean View, n.d.; Spielberg, 1985). Through gaining these multiple perspectives, Celie realizes the abuse she suffers and decides to take initiative against them, eventually embracing her inner individuality and no longer submitting to the whims of every man she encounters, as society would expect a black woman of the time to do (Spielberg, 1985). By unveiling the power of multiple perspectives in comparison to a singular perspective, The Color Purple coincides with a predominant topic of unit one.

Celie's transformation from Mr. ____'s slave into an independent women is successful thanks to two strong women that become role models for Celie in her everyday life; Shug Avery and Sofia. Sofia is a role model in a more unconscious way for Celie then Shug is. Sofia's whole appearance and behaviour is proud, she lets no one sit on her and Celie is, at first, jealous of Sofia's self-confidence and tries to destroy it by giving her husband Harpo the advice to beat her to make her obedient; "I think about this when Harpo ast me what he ought to do to make her mind. [---] I think bout how every time I jump when Mr. _____ call me, she [Sofia] look surprise. And like she pity me. Beat her. I say"2. When this does not work, Celie realises that Sofia is someone to become more alike, not someone to destroy.

In the beginning of this novel, Celie is a young and naive adolescent. She is

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.

“I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me.” Celie is trying to understand why her father, Alphonso, is starting to rape her repeatedly, however, convinces herself to believe it is her fault Alphonso is abusing her. She thinks that this horrible thing happening to her is because she herself is bad. In Celie’s second letter a year later her mother has passed away angry at Celie for father has impregnated her. After Celie had her children, her father gave them away; however, she believes that her father killed one of her children. Although all this is happening to Celie, she only hopes her father finds himself a new wife so that he does not advance towards her younger sister, Nettie, and rape or mistreat her like he did to Celie. Eventually, her father does get remarried and Celie serves as a maid for him and the kids he had with his new wife as well as a protector for Nettie.

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

Though The Color Purple is a historical novel, it never refers to any factual events. Because of this, we presumably follow Celie through thirty or forty years of her life, from the age of fourteen up until her hair is gray. The setting of the novel is primarily rural Georgia in the early twentieth century. As a poor black woman in the rural south, Celie’s bad treatment is largely ignored which was the norm in this time period. Celie leaves Georgia to live in Memphis with Shug. There, Celie lives a life of luxury and empowerment. Living a poor, downtrodden life in the South, Celie had never stopped to consider her African heritage until Nettie sends

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

The most important out of these relationships could be the one she has with her little sister, Nettie. The book consists of a series of letters that Celie writes to her sister and later to God. In these letters she informs Nettie about her life, and

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.