1313242 Raniya: Celie and Nettie’s Empowerment Through Their Exchange of Letters

Raniya Mohammed Sameer

Dr. Arya Aiyappan

American Literature 331

29 August 2014

Celie and Nettie’s Empowerment Through Their Exchange of Letters

“Don't wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you've got to make yourself.’’—Alice Walker

Empowerment is something that we view as a medium of creating a social environment where we are free to make our decisions individually or collectively, for social transformation. It helps in strengthening the innate ability of the individual by way of acquiring knowledge, power and experience. Letters are looked at as merely a means of communication and nothing more. Yet through Alice Walker’s The Color Purple we can see letters being a source of encouragement and empowerment to the women.

The Color Purple is the first African American women authored epistolary novel. It embodies Walker’s feminist view that depicts the plight of the ‘Poor Black Women’ who suffers the dual oppression of racism and sexism. She observed that it was the Strong Bond of Sisterhood that empowered the women in regaining their Identity and their Inner Strength of Individuality.

This paper attempts to explain how the 14 year old female protagonist, Celie as illustrated by Walker in ‘Color Purple’, gradually liberated herself from fear, misery and oppression with the support of her sister. The author gives special emphasis on the black women’s innate ability to survive, despite the worsening conditions around them. “But I don’t know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive.” (Walker 18) She observes that all the women characters in the novel exhibit the determination needed to overcome all the injustices that are levelled on them in order to attain a meaningful life. The Color Purple articulates the struggle of Black women in America. Walker traces the development of women in society by first portraying her women as Victims of Violence and then transforming them from victims to successful women. It is a novel that embodies Female Empowerment irrespective of being colored, poor and/or oppressed.

The story is delivered in the form of letters. The letters are written by the protagonist, 14 year old Celie, to God, searching for help and comfort from the physical abuse she suffers from. It is very important for her to write these letters to cope with her worsening situation. The writing of the letters gives us an insight into her story, her life. Celie by writing her thoughts and ideas expresses her very personal emotions and her experiences. We can see the power of communication as it is brought in the letters. She questions her fate, as all the experiences force her to re-think her life. It is through these letters that Celie has her first experience of sexism and makes her interpretation of it.

“You better not never tell anybody but God It'd kill your mammy

Dear God,

I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me." (Walker 3)

Her stepfather abuses her repeatedly, who impregnates her twice and abducts her children letting Celie assume they were killed. This situation gives us an essence of what the black women underwent in a patriarchal society, that women were just tools that could be easily manipulated, used and disposed of. The shift in the story occurs when Nettie, her sister, starts to adopt the same reasoning of writing letters to Celie every day. This becomes a guide, as it connects them even when they are apart.

Letters offer Celie solace and a retreat from pain. For Nettie the letters become a medium of introspection and a vessel to pour out her emotions and thoughts that are too painful to be spoken about. Together they dive into a world of comfort and hope to escape the harsh realities. The experiences of the new world that Nettie narrates to Celie, gives them both the power to face the difficult surroundings. Thus through the letters both Nettie and Celie empower each other.

Works Cited

Babb, Valerie. “The Color Purple: Writing to Undo What Writing Has Done.” Phylon 47.2 (1986): 107-116. JSTOR. Web. 20 August 2014.

Blount, Marcellus. “A Woman Speaks.” Callaloo 18 (1983): 118-122. JSTOR. Web. 20 August 2104.

Mintz, Zoe. International Women’s Day 2014 Quotes: 25 Sayings That Empower Women. International Business Times. N.p.  March 07 2014. Web. 28 August 2014.

Tucker, Lindsay. “Alice Walker's The Color Purple: Emergent Woman, Emergent Text.” Black American Literature Forum 22.1 (1988): 81-95. JSTOR. Web. 20 August 2014.

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. London: Pheonix, 2004. Print.