...The Color Purple Sherelle Rozier English 2001 South University Thesis: Celie, an abused child and wife, Shug, a strong independent woman who was once a town whore, and Nettie, the sister of Celie who left the United States to become a missionary teacher. All these strong women need affection and love, and bond together to find their own voice. Celie’s story is about an abused child and wife who finds her independence. Celie was a slave to her husband and his children. Celie is able to gain her own security with the help of Shug and her sister Nettie’s letters. Celie finds independence and courage after years of abuse and other incredible obstacles. Nettie’s story is about a woman who left the United States to study becoming a missionary and hopes one day to reunite with her sister again. Nettie finds a good family and leaves the United States. B. Nettie keeps writing letters, hoping her sister will one day read them. III. Shug’s story is about a strong independent woman who was once the town whore and seeks love from men and helps Celie find love and courage to live on her own. Shug’s father did not want her to sing sinner’s music. B. She is known as a whore, but she presents herself as a strong and determined woman . In the novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker creates a woman who faces struggles and hardships as a child and as an adult. This story is narrated by Celie, the main...
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...The Color Purple Walker, Alice- 1982 Alexis Moss Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple (book titles in italics) to give her insight of men, women, love or the lack thereof, physical, mental, and verbal abuse. The men within this book were very powerful. It would be safe to say that the men were slave owners, and the women were the slaves. Celie was the main character of the book, and she endures every form of abuse from individuals in her life that should have been showing her love. Everyone abused her except her sister Nettie, whom she found herself trying to protect from their father. Celie’s mother abused and cursed her, even while being on her sick bed because her husband desired to have sex with Celie more than her. Walker uses this unique protagonist to comment on the racism, sexism, and abuse of women who was so prevalent in the early 1900s. Walker used Celie’s inner monologue (in the form of letters to God and her sister Nettie) to convey the overarching message of the novel; the power of finding that inner voice that leads to freedom from the oppression of society’s expectations. The plot takes place over a 30-year period in the reconstruction South of Georgia. They live in a rural farm community and were a hotbed of activity for civil rights and suffrage. This book was written from the other side of racism, from the victim’s point of view forcing the reader to see the result of bigotry. Racism not only affected Celie’s life but also the life of her friend Sofia...
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...The Color of Freedom Life for black women in the early 1900s was difficult, not only because of racism and lack of women’s rights, but because of the subjugation they faced from the men in their lives and from society. In the novel, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, the narrator is an abused black woman named Celie. Walker uses this unique protagonist to comment on the racism, sexism, and abuse of women that was so prevalent in the early 1900s. Walker used Celie’s inner monologue (in the form of letters to God and her sister Nettie) to convey the overarching message of the novel; the power of finding that inner voice that leads to freedom from the oppression of society’s expectations. Celie started off the book as a powerless victim of the men in her life with no voice. Walker uses Celie’s first person point of view to tell her life story of abuse and submissive silence. Celie’s only form of communication about her thoughts and feelings are through letters to God that are brief at first but then are more complex as Celie gets more confident and finds her voice. In the beginning, Celie’s inner voice had been beaten into silence at an early age by her abusive step-father and later by her husband with emotional and physical abuse. She survived by “[not] fight(ing)… stay[ing] where (she) told” and staying silent letting her step father believe that she is” too dumb to keep going to school” (Walker 2.254, 3. 342) Celie was only able to find her voice once she stood up to her husband...
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...In The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, Celie, Nettie, and Mr. are developed gradually throughout the novel and their actions all seem to be intertwined and what happens to one of them effects one if not both of the other two. There is a strong relationship between Celie and Nettie not just because they are siblings but because Nettie is one out of two people Celie loves, and this doesn't exist between Celie and any other of her siblings. There are various things that bring these two even closer, one being the discovery that they both come from a different father which Celie discover from a letter from Nettie which reads "...and I pray with all my heart that you get this letter, if none of the others. Pa is not our Pa." (182) and the one they thought was there flesh and blood father was actually only their step father. This brings them closer for it is so important and they are each other’s direct relatives for both parents are dead and they do not have any other brothers or sisters. The second point is that they keep in contact when Nettie is traveling to and from Africa. This is more or less an escape for Celie for she does not really have anyone except for Shug that she loves so the letters are a way for Celie to keep not only with Nettie but also her two children that she has only seen for a for a couple of days in her entire life. So the main bond between Nettie and Celie is one of love, and they demonstrate this by constantly trying to stay in touch even though...
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...Justin Bauer Mr. Pena English 2025 31 March 2016 Sisterhood Celie and Shug Avery form a deeply rooted friendship in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. They each have what the other needs. Both women are severely oppressed by the hardships of their lives. Celie was oppressed by her lack of dignity and emotions caused by her abusive father and husband. Shug was oppressed by her unpleasant, vulgar reputation in the eyes of others. Shug’s promiscuous image restrained her from seeking what she yearned, which is to be a member of a loving family. Shug was never truly part of a loving family. Her own mother even hated her. She displays this when she states, “One thing my momma hated me for was how much I love to fuck, she say. She never love to do nothing had anything to do with touching nobody, she say. I try to kiss her, she turn her mouth away” (Walker 120). Celie freed Shug from this promiscuous image, and in return, Shug freed Celie from her psychological chains of abuse by being her mentor and friend. Both women became what others made them out to be. For Celie’s whole life, her father Alphonso and husband Mr. (Albert) berated and belittled Celie by calling her ugly and useless. Shug even joined in on the abuse when she told Celie at their first meeting, “You sure is ugly” (Walker 46). On account of constant abuse, Celie never developed self-esteem causing her to feel ugly and useless. Shug’s own mother first called her a whore and eventually others joined in...
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...Cody Stetson Mr. Nester AP Writing/English 12 3 March 2015 The Color Purple Feminism in women's movements has been a prominent impact that revolutionizes women's rise for independence and equality amongst men. The ideology of feminism is shown rather often in various works of literature, through various different literature time periods. The way it is depicted in these novels can often include other various objective prejudices, such as racism or sexism. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, depicts the same ideology, along with those extra prejudices, throughout the endeavors of her more prominent characters, such as Celie or Shug Avery. Walker's novel is a prime representation of the vocalization of women's true voices throughout the gender differences that plagued them and their entirety. Celie is a prime example of how unruly prejudice and direct insults can be on a woman of her time. She was portrayed as a character that is always quiet, never outspoken, lacking self-confidence, and is considered to have an appearance like that of a hag-woman, for men and women alike never compliment her for her own looks or features. Men like Alphonso and Mr. ____ only see Celie as yet another object in their lives, and treat her with the same respect as the whites did slaves during societal times before hers. The treatment of women in this novel as well as the absurdity and abuse from the men that correlate to this novel can directly be assumed by most female characters and their...
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...The Color Purple is a great story of resilience and overcoming great oppression. Alice Walker tells a story a young black woman who was raped as a teen by her stepfather and beaten, also later beaten by her husband. With the help of new friends and her sister Nettie, Celie learns how to use her voice and stand up for herself and not just be a doormat. This novel explores the effect of strong female relationships which are essential for Celie’s development into a independent woman. As the novel is written in a series of letters to God and Nettie by Celie, the characters in the novel are uniquely introduced. The Color Purple would make a great addition to the AP English 12 curriculum, students would learn about the strength of the human spirit. At the beginning of the novel Celie is voiceless against her abuse and has learned how to survive but soon from Nettie and her new friend Shug gains a voice through the power of strong female relationships. Throughout the novel, Celie has been discriminated for who she was, and didn’t accept herself. She was always used for, and had a male dominating her. In the novel, there were several characters that changed Celie, and it were women that were very close to her. Her sister Nettie was a big influenced to her and Shug. In the story, Shug has helped her overcome Mr.____ and not be taken granted for. On pg. 186, it states that she is leaving Mr.____ and going to see Pa. This part of the story, Celie is taking charge and leaving Mr.____, showing...
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...The Color Purple by Alice Walker The Color Purple is a series of letters written mostly by the main character, Celie, to God. The plot takes place over a thirty year period. In the beginning Celie is a fourteen year old, African American girl who lives with her dying mother, father, and sister, Nettie, in Georgia. Celie’s father, Alfonso, rapes her and eventually she has two children by him, she believes the first one he killed, and the other he sold. Celie’s mother dies, and her father brings home a new wife. Nettie begins dating this man, Mr. __, but their father will not let him marry her. He claims that Nettie is smart and needs to stay in school and that she could be a teacher someday. Instead he says that Mr. __ can marry Celie, calling her ugly and dumb, but good with children. So Mr. __ takes his time to think about it, but since he really needed a mother for his children he agrees to marry her. He treats Celie like an object; he rapes and beats her, while his children boss her around like a slave. Nettie runs away from home to Celie and Mr. __’s house. Mr. __ compliments Nettie right in front of Celie, but Nettie passes the compliments on to her sister. Mr.__ then says that Nettie cannot stay in his house, because she rejects him. Mr. __’s sister, Kate, comes to visit and tells her to stand up for herself, and fight back. Mr. __ son, Harpo, struggles in his relationship with his wife Sophia. Harpo wants Sophia to obey him like Celie obeys Mr. __. Sophia is a strong...
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...The Color Purple The Color Purple describes the obstacles and progression of the chief character Celie, an unschooled teenager who is the object of mistreatment. In a series of writings to God, Celie narrates her life as she evolves from a timid mistreated spouse to a self-assured liberated woman. Celie’s story fundamentally begins as a consequence of her ill-treatment. As a fourteen year-old girl, she is repetitively physically and sexually abused and then told that she is ugly. As a result, Celie chooses to maintain her continued existence by being silent as well as invisible. The novel starts with the memory of her father’s order that Celie remain quiet about his abuse of her, “You better not tell anybody but God. I’ll kill your mammy” (Walker 1). In her first letter to God, she asks for direction for the reason that she does not comprehend all that is happing to her. In her early teens, she is carrying her second baby. Celie’s father turns to her for fleshly gratification since his wife, Celie’s mother is sick. Celie believes her father took her first baby and murdered it in the woods. She then assumes the second child will endure the same fate, “He took it. He took it while I was sleeping.” “Kilt it out there in the woods; kill this one too, if he can” (Walker 2). However, her baby was not murdered and Celie suspects that as an alternative, her father sold the baby to a married couple, “but I don’t think he kilt it. I think he sold it to a man and his wife over Monticello”...
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...Stacy Jackson C. Liegh McInnis ENG 105-09 December 7, 2011 Critical Analysis of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple to give her insight of men, women, love or the lack thereof, physical, mental, and verbal abuse. The men within this book were very powerful. It would be safe to say that the men were as slave owners and the women were treated as slaves. Celie, being the main character of the book, endures every form of abuse from individuals in her life that should have been showing her love. Everyone abused her except her sister Nettie, whom she found herself trying to protect from their father. Celie’s mother abused and cursed her, even while being on her sick bed because her husband, Celie and Nettie’s father, desired to have sex with Celie more than he did with his wife (Celie’s mother). Marriage is a union between a man and a woman although in today’s society in some states it could be man and man or woman and woman. However, within the traditional marriage, the man is said to be the head of the household, especially within the Christian faith. Marriage consists of God, the husband, and then the wife which is how it was intended to be. In this context, historically, the men within a marriage ruled or oppressed the wife. The wife had to do whatever her husband demanded of her. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple explains the marital oppression of women, which included an older widowed man who is given a younger unattractive wife by her step-father...
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...The Color Purple by Alice Walker is set during the 1930's. During this time period in history, mens' status in society was undeniably higher than that of a womans'. The main characters' role in society, her status, and how it affects the theme of the story can all be seen in the novel. She endures years of abuse by both her husband and stepfather. However, overtime, she overcomes her hardships and defends herself. Celie, like many others, finally takes a stand for what she believes in. Being the main character in this novel, Celie's role in society is well-developed. Since Celie is a black housewife, she stays at home to care for her husbands' children. Although she works the same amount as her husband, she is treated unfairly simply because she is of the opposite sex. Celie is treated like an indentured servant or a slave, only being used for sexual pleasure by both her stepfather and her husband. Her own husband, Albert, only marries her so she can work for him and assist him with caring for his children. He doesn't view her as a lover, simply as a maid. This shows men's attitude towards women and how they simply use them to satisfy themselves or help them around the house. Since Celie could not work, she remained a housewife. Eventually, she made her hobby of sewing into a business and began making pants for family members and friends but could never get a real career. Men do not support women having jobs but Nettie, Celie's sister, mentions how “ The world is changing.....
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...“All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my uncles. I had to fight my brothers. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men.” According to this quote by a very independent woman named Sofia in the novel, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, life is not easy. There is always a fight to be had in order to live the life that one deserves. During the novel, however, Sofia does not back down against any battle that is put in front of her. Even though she may stumble and fall along the way, Sofia always finds a way to rise up again and continue the fight. Sofia is an extremely strong woman who will do whatever is needed to stand up to the oppression that she sees and receives on a daily basis for being a black woman. Unlike...
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...Culture in the Color Purple “Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit.” That is a quote by Jawaharlal Nehru, former Prime Minister of India. I interpreted this as culture expands your knowledge as well as you spiritual life. This statement is false. In the novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple, the Characterization of the protagonist, Celie, and the setting of the novel disprove this. Mohja Kahf also shows evidence against this in her poem, My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears, with the plot of the poem. The main protagonist in Walker’s, The Color Purple, is Celie, a young African American woman fighting through the struggles of living in the early 1900s as a black female. The novel is written in an epistolary style with Celie writing letters to her distant sister Nettie, and god in the beginning. Eventually Celie stops writing to god and solely writes letters to Nettie. “‘…the god I been praying and writing to is a man. And act like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful, and lowdown.’”(Walker 73). At this point Celie has finally given up belief in god, which in a way removes the blindfold from her eyes. When Celie was relying on god nothing good was coming from it. So once Celie became less spiritual and cultural and acted on things that displeased her by herself, she got results. The whole time these cultural beliefs were just blinding her. It’s the early 1900s in Georgia, in the Deep South, a region...
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...Mustafa Nagi English 1121 Research Papers Prof. Margo Goldstein The Color Purple The film I will speak about today is “Color Purple” which was first adopted from a novel by Alice Walker in 1982. This film revolves around a native African American lady named Celie whose life was destined by oppression and mistreatment by her own father. This reminded me of my country Yemen sadly. Women in my country were always oppressed by men and had no rights. And this is one of the reasons I chose this film. The theme I will focus on today is religion and how the confusion of the Christianity belief took away her innocence at the age of fourteen...
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...The color purple is a story about resilience and victory in life. This story line moved me and lifted me up, it is a great, warm, battling, unforgiving and triumphant movie. It reflected on how male dominance in a society or marriage could impact a woman’s life. This movie shows the struggles women faces and how bond in friendship can help in gaining power to overcome oppression. The movie showed the life of a young black, oppressed and naive girl Celie, who grow up in the early 1900's. By age fourteen she has been pregnant by her father twice. Both of children were both taken away from, after having the second baby her father took the baby away from her arm and warned her not to tell anybody. Since she lost her mother the only person closer to her is her younger sister Nettie. Their close relationship is torn when Celie she was forced to marry a local farmer, "Mister" (Albert Johnson) a widower with four...
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