Name- Priya Dutta
Registration no- 1313241
American Literature CIA
The Color Purple by
Alice Walker
Character sketch of Celie
Alice Walker was greatly
influenced by the time period of the 1940’s. There was much racism and
oppression during that time, especially for black women. Women were beaten and
abused simply because of their colour and gender. It is one of the most groundbreaking
novel of hers set mainly in rural Georgia in 1930s. The book tells the story
about a young African-American woman named Celie and her struggle for
empowerment in the world marked by racism, sexism and patriarchy. Alice Walker created a unique voice of her
protagonist Celia.
Celia a “poor, ugly,
uneducated black girl from rural Georgia”. The three dominant
attributes of Celie's personality are strength and endurance, the ability to
love unconditionally, and the constant search for truth. Celie's endurance
arises out of a belief in herself, even though she sometimes questions her
worth, and out of her connections with others, even though those connections
are sometimes tenuous. Even after suffering so much since childhood still she
remains a caring and gentle soul who finds it easy to love when she feels
loved. Her resilience is truly miraculous and a tribute to humankind. The
female bonding which occurs over a extended period of time enables celie- a
depressed, survivor victim of parental loss, emotional and physical neglect,
rape, incest, trauma and spousal abuse-to resume her arrested development. She
has been oppressed by men throughout her life. Often during the novel, Celie loves others more
than she loves herself. In order to save her mother and then Nettie from the
cruelty of Fonso, she quietly takes her own abuse. She marries Albert so Nettie
will not be forced to marry him. She then sends Nettie away from the farm to
protect her from Albert, even though it means she will lose the only family and
friend she has in the world. Even before she meets her, she loves Shug,
believing her to be the perfect picture of glamour and independence. When Shug
loves her back, she finds it hard to believe. When Shug chooses Germaine over
her, it breaks Celie's heart, but she understands and wonders why Shug has ever
loved her. It is only towards the end of the novel that Celie realizes she can
be content without depending on anyone but herself, but it took years of pain
to arrive at this sense of self-sufficiency. The ability to endure under the
worst of circumstances is Celie's key to survival like for example, she was
raped by her father with whom she had two children in her adolescence. She had a strong faith in her God and thus
overcame these obstacles to show the quiet strength of a woman.
She manages to withstand the
sexual abuse of Fonso, the loss of her babies, the cold cruelty of Albert, the
loss of her sister Nettie, and the uncertainty of Shug's love -- all coupled
with a life filled with poverty, struggles, and prejudice. In spite of the
hardships, Celie never gives up faith. At first, she writes letters to God,
trusting that He will eventually bless her life. When she feels deserted by
God, she places her faith in Nettie, certain that she will again be reunited
with her sister. Even when she learns that Nettie has supposedly been
shipwrecked at sea, she does not give up her faith. She continues to write
letters to Nettie, certain that she is still alive. Celie also maintains a
steadfast, platonic love for Sofia. When she is imprisoned, Celie goes to the
jail and cares for her wounds. She also visits her often during the years of
her confinement, encouraging her and giving her strength. After her initial
mistake of advising Harpo to beat Sofia, Celie learns the power of women's
solidarity through her bond with Sofia. Earlier we see that since she is poor
she is denied of education and as a elder daughter she was expected to stay at
home and take care of her siblings. Fortunately Miss Beasley and Nettie
privately teach and coach her. But she is unable to learn because she is both
physically and emotionally beaten by abuse but still she never give up.
Therefore we see
that Celie's constant search for the truth may be the most amazing
characteristic of this beautiful character. She endures so much of hardship in
spite of that she never breaks down . She continues to fight. Celie is at the bottom of the social hierarchy
in the South because she is poor, she is black, and she is female. As a female
she is abused by her father and by her husband, for she lives in a patriarchal
social system that does not value a female except as a sexual object and a labourer.
From early in the novel, Celie looks for ways to stand up for this unfair
system. It is Shug who teaches her about her own self-worth, making her believe
in herself. As a result, she finally leaves Albert, her abusive husband, and
goes with Shug to make a life of her own. By the end of the novel, she has
built a successful business, largely because she never gave in to the reality
of her life, but searched for the truth beyond it.
References
1. Original Entry by Qiana
Whitted, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 09/20/2004 Last edited ny NGE
Staff on 11/26/2013
http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/color-purple
2. contemporary Literature, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring, 1991), pp. 12-37
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2904151?searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicResults%3FQuery%
3. Democrasy Now-A
Daily Independent Global News hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González.
4.TheBestNotes.com
Staff. "TheBestNotes on The Color Purple". TheBestNotes.com.
25 August 2014. 11 May 2008
(http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Color_Purple/Color_Purple33.html >.)
5. Fumler,
Constance M. “The Color Purple.” Masterplots Complete. CD-ROM. 1999
6. http://no.cyclopaedia.net/wiki/1243_in_literature
7. http://prezi.com/5gwdnzoqqo2i/lingua-inglesa/
8. http://soniapetrucci.blogspot.com/2011/11/color-purple.html
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