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The Color Purple And Shug's Influence On Religion

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In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple the ideologies around religion change drastically throughout the novel. These changes are aided by Walker’s assertion of the corruption of organized religion, along with the common ideology of a while male God figure in Christianity. In the beginning of the novel, Celie and Shug’s ideology of God are completely different; however Celie goes through the process of defining her faith so that it aligns with Shug’s. In The Color Purple the protagonist, Celie, redefines her spiritual relationship with God and religion, which debunks the ideology of a white male God and aides in commenting on the corruption of organized religion. Throughout the first half of the novel, Celie’s idea of God is someone she can tell her secrets to; however, as the novel progresses Celie becomes more frustrated with God and blames him for the bad things that have happened to her. In the first letter Celie writes, she explains that her father has told her that only God can know about her secrets. Celie uses God as a way to cope with the abuse from the males in her life. …show more content…

Shug does not see God as a white man, but as an ‘it.’ Shug explains to Celie how she sees God when she says, “I believe God is everything. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found It” (197). Shug sees God as everything, which is why when Celie is writing her last letter, she addresses it to ‘Everything.’ Shug believes that if she enjoys her life, God will be happy with her. She also says that she thinks God wants her to enjoy the things he has created, such as the trees, grass, flowers, etc. This ideology is what causes Celie to address her last letter to the stars, trees, and sky. Shug has a completely different ideology of God compared to Celie, which is what ultimately causes Celie to adopt Shug’s way of looking at

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Her faith is weakened at a certain point but then she starts to develop a new perception of God, she begins to see God as a universal being with no gender and race who is present everywhere and in everything that we love or do. She is now able to see God through people, nature, sex, and in the color purple. Alice Walker also gave importance to the value of female bonds and relationships or sisterhood as a means of coping and social support against the alienation experienced by Celie and other black female characters in the novel. Celie’s friends, mainly Shug and Sofia helped her to find her voice and stand up for herself. As the novel progresses, Celie develops strength and eventually gains her freedom towards the end.

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Being both a woman and having colored skin, Celie faces discrimination often by the power of others, setting her apart from the rest as a sort of punching bag for some of the worst people around her. This otherness in power is known to hinder her everyday life as Celie fights to even be noticed by those around her. Though it took her some time, that imbalance of power was eventually uncovered after Shug taught Celie more about how she specifically sees the world: “Man corrupts everything, say Shug. He on your box of grits, in your head, and all over the radio. He try to make you think he everywhere, you think he God, but he ain’t” (Walker 198).

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Lucas Venette Miss Glass English III Honors February 28, 2018 Jim: More Than a Slave Everyone wants a father figure, but the person who takes on the role of being a father is not always who is expected. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Jim, an African American slave, is a father figure to Huck, a young white boy. Jim acts as a father by protecting Huck from dangers and risks during their journey. Jim is also a father to Huck by teaching him lessons about right and wrong.

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Shug speaks up for her, but Mr.____ becomes upset about letting Celie go, and mutters “My wife can’t do this. My wife can’t do that. No wife of mines… He go on and on.” (Walker 73).

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Despite Celie finding tremendous comfort in her faith, there is still a decent amount of questioning about whether it was designed to benefit more dominant individuals within society. It should be noted that Walker uses the novel as a tool to comment on Western Christianity, which is often sexist, racist, and used to empower the

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The problem of Mr. ____ gets taken care of when Shug and her discover the letters that Mr. ____ has been withholding. Shug can see that he does not care for Celie at all, and that Celie has to get away from him. After reading the letters, they just lie together and for the first time since Nettie, she has a family member. She calls Shug her sister.

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She describes how through the victimization and oppression experienced through slavery; black women have come to a sense of almost becoming mothers to their own communities. In this case, the term mother becomes more than just the physical or biological aspect of being a parent, but relies more on the protection and nurturing that mothers bring towards their children or people they care about. Williams describes this idea through the use Alice Walkers The Color Purple. As shown in The Color Purple, Shug was the catalyst that sparked Celie’s sense of self identity and self-worth after being brutally victimized and brutalized by men all of her life. Williams believes that Shug’s influence and nurturing as a black women gave Celie the ability to believe in herself as well as, her God and not the God she was taught to believe in (Williams 50).

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The conversation takes place in letter seventy-three where Celie learns that Shug had also believed in a conventional stereotyped God at one point in her life but had since advanced and developed a pantheist belief. This reassured Celie greatly and gave her a focus to her

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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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