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Identity In The Color Purple Essay

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Abstract: This article explores and analyzes the roles of Identity, Gender and Racism as depicted by Alice Walker, mainly in her novel The Color Purple. Alice Walker has been a prolific and highly respected writer. She became internationally known in the 1980s with the publication of The Color Purple and its subsequent film release. In the novel, Walker deals with the powerful, expressive fiction about the black woman’s struggle for survival, wholeness, and sexual, political, and racial equality. Alice Walker’s works, similarly, are closely related to issues of race and gender and self exploration. As a political activist, Walker has worked for civil rights in Liberty County, Georgia and a number of civil rights projects in Mississippi. Georgia …show more content…

Celie lives with her Younger sister Nettie and a brood of half brothers and sisters. She lives a life of abuse and moil with a mother who is sickly and worn out with childbearing and soon dies, and Alphonso, whom she thinks is her father. But who later turns out to be her stepfather. Celie lives like a slave- cooking, cleaning and looking after the other children. She is denied to go to school, because according to her stepfather, she is ‘too dumb to keep going to school’ (CP 9). She is repeatedly raped by him and becomes pregnant twice, but the babies are taken away from her. Celie becomes a mother of two children born of incestuous union but they are sold by Alphonso for monetary benefit. Celie’s life is the representation of the female slaves whose children were forcefully taken away by the slave masters who enjoyed the financial gain by selling children. Celie mingles her physical suffering with the psychological torture through many letters that she writes to God and her sister. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple revolves around sexual violence and rape. Charles L. Proudfit says: ‘Walker enables the readers to enter into the private thoughts and emotional state of Celie’s traumatized, guilt and shame-ridden, and depressed fourteen year protagonist, who became a victim of rape and incest’

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This quote means that Celie is taking the role of her mother, as Celie’s mother is ill and is unable to do what Pa wants, so he turns to Celie. Raping, abusing and making her do work. Celie is a 14-year-old girl living with her sister,

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Alice Walker is considered a Revolutionary for many people because of the struggles she fought through as an African American woman, novelist, and activist living in the mid to late 1900’s. Alice Walker shows how women have struggled in America with having similar and equal rights to white men. She also shows how African Americans struggle with the same problems when it comes to achieving similar or equal rights to a white male. In the novel, “The Color Purple”, written by Alice Walker, the main protagonist, Celie, learns to find her own voice and own self worth through a series of obstacles that she had to overcome throughout her journey; similar to the way Alice Walker also had struggles of being an African American woman during the mid to

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Celie is pulled out of school, beaten, raped, and forced into marriage at an extremely young age. All of these sacrifices kept Nettie safe and educated, but hurt Celie, who only thought of her sister and not of herself. Firstly, Celie sacrifices her childhood to keep

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Child Labor Part 1 Children in America always had to work. When they lived with their family on a farm, they had to do their fair share of work in order to keep up with payments. As the industrial revolution began to change the economy, people became more urbanized. In order to pay for food and housing, the kids had to work in factories. The reason why there were so many jobs for children in the factories was that the owners could pay them less than an adult, and the children are less likely to go on strike.

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Countless people, especially black people and women, are victims of racism or sexism in The Color Purple. Due to the pervasive nature of discrimination in society, there is clear prejudice against groups of people. Throughout the novel, Walker shines light on the race and gender inequality that is prevalent during the twentieth century. Sofia is subjected to racism as a black woman in a society that values white supremacy. This is proved when the mayor’s wife says “would you

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This epistolary form allows one to analyze and compare the life of Celie who is settled in Georgia and the life of her sister, Netti, who also endures discrimination at an African missionary. Walker

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There’s rape, death, and many other aspects covered in the book. In this first page, readers are immediately met with a rape scene. While this is shocking to many, Celie recovers and gets through it. She was born with all odds against her, but she is a strong and selfless woman. Celie becomes prosperous and content, and the book executes a joyful end that is satisfying.

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She focuses “on the theme double repression of black women in the American experience”(“Overview: The Color Purple 5”), she displays this in her book The Color Purple by Celie representing how black women and men were treated very unfair. During this time period and even a little bit today women rights and civil rights are a big thing, by Walker making Celie go through harsh times in the book it illustrations to Americans no one should be treated that poorly. Walker made Celie think, “religion and the relation between men and women as well as between the white race and the black race are inseparable (Thyreen 4)”; Walker makes Celie think this way because she wants people to desire a happy outcome in life, even when going through harsh and brutal

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In the book Celie is a young girl near 20 when she gets married. She is writing letters to God and going through her emotions, thoughts, and feelings on the way. By the end with knowing Shug Avery and Sofia she learns to embrace her womanhood and stands up to Mister. In the end she states, “And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest I ever felt.”

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Hi Zachary! I also said that honesty is a key characteristic. It is important to be able to trust the information that they are giving you. If you do not trust your mentor, you are not going to reach your goals; therefore, the mentor did not complete his/her job. I also liked how you said a mentor is a person who challenges you.

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Literary Analysis: The Color Purple Every individual learns something new or different every day, whether it is somebody’s favorite color or learning something new about yourself. Many people can either learn from their hardships and past experiences, while others may learn from other people’s past through stories or guidance. Throughout the novel, The Color Purple written by Alice Walker, the main character, Celie, learned how to love herself, that everyone makes mistakes, and face her fears.

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"The color purple" is a reflection of reality in 20th century. The African American women isolated from the white society as Walker in The color purple talks about racism and discrimination of society in 20the century. Celie, the heroine was born in Rural Georgia where is known as a harsh place for poor and uneducated black women who were servants to their husbands and fathers. Throughout the novel, Celie tries to overcome her psychological anger and becomes independent. At the beginning of the novel, Celie appears like other women 20th century as they oppressed by men and lived under men 's dominance and violence.

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Introduction 　　　 The Color Purple is a novel written by an American author Alice Walker and was published in 1982. It won numerous awards in literature and film as it had many musical, film and radio adaptations, particularly the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It primarily involves the subject of feminism and addresses issues in sexism and racism in the early 20th century in the United States. The story is all about a girl named Celie, a black woman who lives in the Southern part of US.

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For example, Celie becomes socially, economically and spiritually free, she sins love, dignity, and respect. This paper has analyzed how the characters in The Color Purple arouse their self-consciousness, through sisterhood and encouragement, love and help from their partners. The author demonstrates how the characters escape degradation caused by mistreatment by men and finally win dignity. The paper recognizes that Celie utilizes sisterhood to gain liberation, sexual identity independence, and freedom.   Works Cited Thyreen, Jeannine. "

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It is a novel which can be read crossing all the cultural boundaries, as bell hooks praises “it is truly popular work-a book of people-a work that has many different meanings for many different readers.” (454) The color ‘purple’ teaches the world of women that they have endless potentiality not only to the black women but to all women who get ready to fight for their

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