Women's Power In The Color Purple

“Then she seemed to remember something and came back to look at him with wonder and curiosity. Are you happy? She said. “Am I what?” He cried (7).

Similarly, Celie’s father gave her to Mr.__ to be a wife who will clean his house and care for his children. Both women go through their lives being told what to do and how to do it. They both disagree with their respective standards, and try to overcome

The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a very controversial novel, which many people found to be very offensive. It is basically the struggle for one woman’s independence. The main character in The Color Purple is Celie a coloured woman with little or no education at all. She is one who has been used and abused by all the men in her life, and because of these men, she has very little courage or ambition in her life. She has so little courage, that all she wants to do is just survive. Through the various women she meets throughout here life like: Shug, her sister, and Harpo’s wife, she learns how to enjoy herself, gain courage and happiness. She finally learns enough and with the final straw she could no longer bare, she leaves her husband

It is clear that Celie’s father commits several forms of violence against her when she quotes, “he [Pa] never had a kine word to say to me… First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around… When that hurt, I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. But I don’t never get used to it.” (Walker, 1-2). As a results of this, Celie finds herself in situations where she has trouble identifying with her sexual orientation as well as, becoming numb to sex after repeated sexual abuse. Moreover, not only is he physically violent with her by raping her, but later on in the novel, one discovers that he sells Celie’s children away- just like Aminata’s children- causing her to face emotional damage as well. Moreover, Celie’s father does not respect her as a human being, for the fact that he calls her ugly and does not say anything kind to her, but he also forces her to keep quiet about the way he is treating her, thus dehumanizing her. All in all, numerous forms of abuse have severely crippled Aminata and Celie, displaying oppression caused by men in their daily lives.

Albert he is an abusive man that treats women as property instead of as a person. Although he doesn’t make the most significant change in the story, but it drastically changes our perspective of him in ways. He would hide letters from her so she couldn’t have any hope of someone loving her so that way she would feel isolated. He would also try to get with other women to show her that she was worthless to him. Later once she finally stands up to him, he becomes stunned at the act of it.

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.

Other women she meets tell her to stand up and fight for herself, but Celie thinks it is better to survive and not risk disastrous consequences. That being said, her and Janie both experience the confinement and servitude like conditions their husbands put them through. Physical abuse is not something Mr. ______ , Celie’s husband, shy’s away from. To him, Celie is not valuable and he beats her simply because she is not Shug Avery. Of the abuse she reports on this, “Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr. ______ say, cause she my wife. Plus, she stubborn. All women good for-- he don’t finish” (Walker 22). Alice Walker left that phrase empty because she knew the reader would only need those few words to take away from it the point. It is clear that Albert thinks Celie’s life is worthless and because of this, the sins he commits against her do not matter. It is understandable that for most of the novel Celie thinks it is not wise to stand up for herself as she has witnessed a fraction of the repercussions it may cause. In this moment she grasps some courage and shouts, “I curse you, I say. What that mean? He say. I say, Until you do right by me, everything you touch will crumble. He laugh. Who you think you is? He say. You can’t curse nobody. Look at you. You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all”(206). At this moment Mr._____ is threatened by Celie, she shows strength and it surprises him. His only defense is to insult her and yet he does so with some characteristics he too possesses. Until this moment Mr._____ (Albert), looks through Celie and treats her as an object that he can abuse and manipulated as his disposal. Janie and Celie’s husbands both view them in a similar manner. Although their personalities and internal mindsets differ, both of these women inch towards refuge towards the end of each

Women work. I’m a man. ”(28-35 Walker) In this sentence, we can see that man in this situation wants to let all the girls do all the hard work just because he is male thinks that he can rule the place. He is treating the females as slaves since they cannot defend for themselves.

Just like in the bluest eye Celies father Alphonso beats and rapes Celie. Alphonso already impregnated her once before and Celie gave birth to a girl. Whom her father most likely killed in the woods. Celie was looking for accecptance in the community just like pecloa. Rape is one of the worst and traumatic crimes committed and I'm sure it contributed to her sense of low self-esteem and powerlessness and feelings of worthlessness and her dislike towards sex.

Dictionary.com defines power as the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty and or quality. In other words, power can be a positive or negative asset. However, if used negatively power can result in unbearable pain.  Characters in The Color Purple have a continuous power struggle, specifically between men and women.  The Color Purple  is about a girl named Celie who has a sister named Nettie. Their mother died when they were young, which resulted in their Pa beating them. In an effort of obtaining power and control over them since their mother used to receive all the abuse he needed a new outlet. Celie and Nettie got separated due to Celie being married off into an abusive relationship. However when Celie meets shug Avery, her life took a turn for the better. Shung cares and loves Celie unlike all the other hateful people in her life.  Alice Walker uses symbolism, character change and key scenes to bring light to women's power through mistreatment within The Color Purple.

In the novel, The Color Purple, there are three main characters who demonstrate meaningful traits of women. Celie, the main character, is the most important of the three. She is influenced by other characters in the novel and is inspired to let herself seek their virtues. Celie's two friends, Shug and Sofia, are both strong women who teach Celie how to achieve the happiness she desires.

Celie was a little girl who lived with her step dad and mom and sister named nattia. Mr Albert wanted to marry nattia but her step dad wouldn’t let him so he offered celie to her and Albert needed and woman to take care of his kids and the farm and to cook for him. Celie would get beat by albert for talking back to him or not doing what he wanted her to do. If she didn't have dinner ready by the time he said she was in trouble.

In Alice Walker’s, “The Color Purple”, there are big issues when it comes to gender. Whether it be gender violence or unnatural gender roles, they are very apparent in the story. Gender is defined as a social condition of being male or female, normally used with mention to preferably social and cultural differences than biological ones. Throughout history, the role of gender can not be dismissed in how someone behaves and how is seen in society. Some behaviors are more common among males than females, while some are not prevailed as true.

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.

In the film The Color purple women are strongly objectified by men, their worth being ruled by beauty, talent and what they could do. They were left uneducated to keep them submissive and beaten down to be put in place. Men however did as they please with no repercussions for their actions. White men were given the right to an education and all