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The Color Purple Research Paper

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“Feminism is not about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It is about changing the way the world perceives strength.” (Anderson) The book, The Color Purple written by Alice Walker illustrates the struggles of an African American women in the early 1930’s and how the flat character, Celie tries to reverse the whole idea of gender roles. Alice Walker validates the importance of women throughout the book and positions characters to break gender norms of that time period. Society in the 1930’s was very narrow-minded when it came to women, gender equality was not heard of. Alice Walker points out each and every conflict that a typical African American woman in the 1930’s would face through Celie as she talks about her past experience with men and the people she …show more content…

Alice Walker concludes the book with Celie who is now a strong, independent woman to prove that society’s gender norms are made to be broken and gender equality would not be possible until women make a stand.

In The Color Purple, Alice Walker focuses on Celie, who is mistreated by men throughout her life and is unable to stand up for herself. When Celie wrote a letter to god it said, “ㅡ He never had a kine word to say to me. You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t. First, he put this thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold of my tities. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When that I cry”(1). This connects back to the plot of the story, Celie, the main character who is left unknown and is currently 14 years old in the first few chapters, is being sexually abused by her stepfather. She has been sexually and mentally assaulted for many years, this later affects her as she dislikes and lies in fear of men and starts to develop an attraction for women. It also reveals that Celie is very naive because she writes letters to god about her secrets because she can not trust anyone. She thinks of others before herself which is proven when

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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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In the beginning of the book, Celie describes Mister as a man no family wants to marry the girls off to because his last wife ran away and left him with 6 kids. When Celie is sold into the marriage, she is forced to sexually satisfy him and take care of the kids. Throughout most of the story she is sexually, emotionally, mentally and physically abused by Mister. He takes and takes from Celie but never gives anything back to him.

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Celie Finds a Voice A fiction novel that is often harshly criticized for its obscene, yet realistic view of a poor, illiterate, African American woman and her escape from the grasps of her abusive husband would be Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. This novel creates a global message that is portrayed by a multitude of literary devices and may be thoroughly analyzed by high school students to gain various aspects of societal injustice over race, power, and gender. The book is written solely in letters, whether to God, or from one sister to the other.

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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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Not only did she write literature but inspired a film as well. Her most know piece is the Color Purple. The Color Purple is world-renowned award-winning book and movie that brought the struggles of Black American to mainstream society. In addition to that, Alice Walker coined the term womanist, which is a black feminist. The

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Celie’s father is approached suddenly by Mister, who proposes to marry his daughter youngest daughter Nettie. Celie’s father rejects the offer but insists that he marry Celie instead. He warns that she is ugly and has had two children, but can help him care for his children and home. Mister accepts Celie as his wife and she returns to his home. Throughout their marriage, Celie continues to face violence including physical abuse and rape.

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Protagonist Celie begins her story with rape from her supposed “Pa” and her life, instead of lifting from that low point, stays grounded in a state of peril for quite

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The novel entitled The Colour Purple (1982) is set a period that was almost entirely male dominated. This theme of power and desire on the part of the men to have control exerted over women is evident throughout (Selzer 2011, p. 13). The protagonist of this story is a young woman by the name of Celie, whose life is marked almost entirely by oppression, submission and abuse, and almost exclusively at the hands of males (Lundin 2009, p. 6). Abuse and male domination is seen almost immediately in the beginning of this novel and then continuously throughout. The power that men hold and male supremacy is cited in almost every facet of this novel.

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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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A moving inspirational novel told in letters to portray how life was for African Americans, and especially women is The Color Purple. It is not about purple in no way at all; it is actually a difficult book to tackle, dealing with rape insest, explicit sex, sexism, and violence toward women and a lesbian relationship. Not only does it speak of women, but it tells of how there was a negative depiction of African American men during this time. The novel consists of letters written by the main protagonist, Celie, that she has written to God.

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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.

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Celie realizes that she only needs to love herself, to be who she wants to be. How she can grow as a person, and live her life to the fullest. Understanding that her emotions that she felt toward other people, she can feel about herself. Another example of Celie self growth is shown at the end of the passage. When she writes about situational irony that shows self discovery, “and then I figure this the lesson I was suppose to learn.”

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Celie becomes subjective about want she want in her life and she do this through the assistance of other female characters. Furthermore, she also do this through the writing and making friends with females. Alice walker gives celie an awareness on how to deal/manage her life and how she should act against discrimination. In addition, Celie is able to grow or breaks away from discrimination through the assistance of other female characters. As celie do this she begins to convey her feeling of living abusive life through writing letters, because earlier she was not allowed to speak out her feelings by her stepfather.

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They are left with no choice other than yield to the affliction and torment for centuries together Walker reproves that the earth has become the nigger of the world and will assuredly undo us if we don’t learn to care for it, revere it, and even worship it. . In an interview with John O’Brien Walker admits that she is committed to the cause of black women but equally to the cause of nature. The Color Purple published in 1983 is Walker’s third novel which focuses on the physical pain, mental agony, violence and death of black women narrated in a time-honoured epistolary technique.

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