Zainab Wahid
1313289
Prof. Arya
American
Literature
EST331
28 August 2014
THE CONTRADICTORY PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN CHARACTERS:
Celie
and Shug Avery
In the time where
racial discrimination was widespread, Blacks were always at the end of the
problems created by the whites. This unfair treatment based on the ‘color’
wasn’t just enough to make all Blacks helpless; nevertheless, they treated
their own women even worse than the whites did to them. Of all the variety of
writings based on this important era in the history of America, ‘Color purple’
by Alice Walker was able to strike the right cord addressing this issue. In this paper, the novel ‘color purple’ is
the primary text of which the following topic will be developed: The
Contradictory portrayal of women characters.
Celie:
The character of the
novel’s protagonist Celie depicts a clear picture of how the black women were
oppressed since their childhood. Exploited of her innocence and purity by her
stepfather, she was left to face her own fate at the hands of her unloving
husband and her stepchildren after being separated from her two children. She
was stripped of her own self esteem and thus had a low self concept of herself
after she was refused the opportunity to go to school. As the novel takes its
course we also come to know that Celie isn’t beautiful or attractive and hence,
this becomes another reason for her to be looked down upon by others. Unaware
of her worth, she continues to accept things as it came without complaining.
This shows that she had some kind of faith in herself and initially in God. She doesn’t let hatred overtake her
unconditional care and love to her husband and her stepchildren. “I spend my wedding day running from the
oldest boy. He pick up a rock and laid my head open…” (Walker, the color purple,
14).
Hence, in this way she
comes out to be a very caring and gentle person always engaging herself in the
quest of loving others like her sister, mother, Harpo unconditionally. Her
quest for truth, patience and hope for a better tomorrow remain undeterred by
the present sorrows and pain faced by Celie.
But the way Celie is portrayed by
her Stepfather Alfonso has her character, purity and morality being questioned.
He blames her of being ‘spoilt twice’ after having himself impregnated Celie
with two children. She is accepted half heartedly by Mr.____ (or Albert) just
to look after his children and also for the fact that she belonged to a wealthy
family. In her journey of discovering and reasoning the rationality of things
going around her, eventually, her husband’s former mistress Shug Avery is the
one who helps her proceed further. Shug makes Celie believe in herself, which helps
her to grow confident. Shug’s presence in her life helps Celie identify many
more essential things such as her sexuality, importance of individuality and
self worth. The skill or art of making
cloth work, pants, etc empower her to
set up her own flourishing business with
which she is finally liberated from the shackles of her subjugated past.
Shug Avery:
In this novel, Shug comes out to be a very
lively, free spirited woman who listens to her own tunes. A singer by
profession (‘Queen Honeybee’), Shug is a very opposite of Celie’s character. She
has the ability to make the men around her listen to her in a very obsessed
patriarchal society. She is very beautiful and leads a glamorous lifestyle. Her
independence, stability and popularity makes Celie dot on her even more. Shug
is very exceptional and quite ‘wild’ when it comes to her love life. Having had
a number of flings, she doesn’t lose her spirit of loving others irrespective
of their gender or age. Thus, this shows that Shug is bisexual. Like Celie, she
doesn’t give in to other’s choices and does not wait for things to be as they
were. Initially, Shug is not very keen with Celie. It is only with time and
instances that she realizes that Celie has been exploited by the men all her
life. Celie’s devoted caring and nursing helps her get away with a fatal
illness which further prompts Shug to help Celie carve out an identity for
herself away from the predominant suppression.
She plays a very important role
in liberating Celie’s life and establishing her identity. Celie discovers that
she is homosexual only from Shug who then becomes her love interest. Later on,
when Celie moves out to Shug’s place, Celie is helped to establish her own
business and later on discover the truth about her father. Hence, it is Shug
who makes Celie think practically and make her own strong decisions. So in
short she could be seen as a guardian angel who comes to make Celie re-live her
life away from oppression and sorrows.
After having described
these two prominent characters of the novel, many differences in their
portrayal can be seen. Gender inequality is what Celie and Shug face in the
society, but their reaction to this issue is quite different from each other.
Celie is a representation of an enduring character. However Shug is more
rational and ‘acts’ at the right time to save herself from being exploited or
‘being handled’ by men. As it can be seen, both of these women are not free
from facing criticism. In Celie’s case, her character is maligned for having
been pregnant twice and accused of being spoilt. Without being aware of the
fact that she was actually raped twice by a man who called himself her father.
On the other hand Shug’s character is judged based on her profession. She is
indirectly seen in the society as a prostitute, misjudging the fact that she is
just a free spirited and a strong lady. Thus, when Albert gets Shug to live at
his place to cure her illness, he faces severe criticisms for doing so. Thereupon,
we can conclude that even with a huge difference in their characters, at the
end Celie and Shug Avery are being placed in the same position before being
judged in this baseless society. Living their lives at their own terms is the
only way they escape from this judgmental patriarchal society.
Works cited:
·
thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Color_Purple/Color_Purple33.html
www.gradesaver.com › The Color Purple › Study Guide
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