Celie Abused In The Color Purple By Alice Walker

The Color Purple has been largely criticized because of the main character, Celie. Throughout the book, the reader is introduced to numerous categories of minorities and Celie seems to fit in every single one. She is a poor, black, lesbian, female, who is raped at a young age. The Color Purple was written by a black woman who was able to express herself through the main character. The Pulitzer Prize for fiction was awarded to The Color Purple a year after it released in 1983. Many thought the book and Alice Walker were both overly praised since it seemed that overnight Alice Walker became “universally recognized as a spokeswoman for black people, especially black women…” (Harris, 155). In The Color Purple, the reader only gets to experience

However, Walker paints the men in abusive positions to really bring out the character of Celie. If Celie had never gone through the abuse of her father, and her husband she would have never had the strength to overcome the oppression and truly find her potential. The men “abuse Celie in an effort to dominate and victimize her, their abuse actually enables Celie to assert herself, overcome their oppression, and move toward contentment and independence.” (Dixon, 145). Celie is able to overcome everything she has been through because of the men. The abuse allows her to realize she loves Shug, by doing this she would have never found the part of herself that was so different from society at the time. It is also interesting to note that the oppression of each character stems from themselves or a different individual. “Walker’s fiction explores a much more personal kind of oppression: that which the individual inflicts on himself or another individual.” (Washington, 397) Each character is able to become their own person through the experiences with each other. The characters are all connected to Celie and suffer in a different way alongside