Abuse Of Women In The Colour Purple Essay

Abuse of Women in the book ‘The Colour Purple’ by Alice Walker

“Cruel, violent, or unfair treatment, especially of someone who does not have the power to prevent it” [1]

Abuse can be both physical and mental. In the novel ‘The Colour Purple’ by Alice Walker, the women are victims of both physical and mental abuse. From the very start we understand the plight or the position of the protagonist, Celie. It starts with her father abusing her when her mother was ill. She was blackmailed to stay quiet about it. The father does not respect his daughters and regards them as objects to satisfy the needs of men.

Nowadays, in most cases if someone is abused by someone, there are people that would help. It was not so in the late 1800s or early 1900s and

Trapped in a gridlock of racist and sexist repressions, Celie struggles to be independent. Celie is considered as an invisible woman in the first part of her life. Celie, as well as her sister have the disadvantage of not only being women but also being black women, luckily her sister was given the opportunity to get education. Celie on the other hand, was taken out of school because of her first pregnancy at the age 14. Both young women, over time learned how to express their thoughts atleast on paper. The letters in a sense is a form of therapy for the women, within those letters they had the freedom to write whatever came to mind. In the story, Mr.____, as well as the other male characters, look down upon the women and them. Celie and Mr.____ were married, but she was treated like his property. Mr.____ is actually nice to Celie only when Shug was around and that was simply because all his attention was focused on Shug, whom he was having a known affair with. Celie was only a victim because she allowed herself to be a victim. The moment she gained her identity and got to a place where she was somewhat happy with herself, she starts doing things that she enjoyed although she was limited because of the setting, such as the letters to God then later to her sister as well as making