Sneha Elizabeth

1313249

 

Domestic Violence in The Color Purple

 

Domestic violence. What is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear these words? We imagine a woman crouching in a corner, crying as her husband slaps and yells at her. The novel The Color Purple has an ever present theme of domestic violence in it.

Walker fully develops the concept of domestic violence through the protagonist Celie's mistreatment at the hands of her stepfather and husband. There is also a powerful theme about how oppressed people can unite with solidarity to overcome their oppressors. Most of all, this book is a feminist novel about a powerful character finding out who she is and valuing what she can become. In the course of Celie's search for the truth in her life, she realizes that the patriarchal culture she has undergone all her life in the South is abusive to all women. It is when she meets Shug and escapes from her abusive husband Albert, she learns that women can also be equal to men - in knowledge, in power, and in matters of finance and love. When Celie returns to live in Georgia towards the end of the novel, she is no longer weak and submissive, instead she has become a self-assured, competent female who knows that she can be content without depending on anyone but herself. This is the lesson of feminism, which Walker calls "womanism."

The horror of domestic violence, is depicted to both women and children in the novel. The two main characters who have to endure the violence in the novel are Celie and Sofia who is her step-son’s wife, both experience abuse in their childhood and in their marriages. Sofia tries to fight her domestic violence by being violent herself. Because of her strength and size, she dares to stand up to Harpo. Celie, on the other hand, is in the beginning is portrayed as a submissive and weak person. She endures the incest inflicted by Alphonso her father in order to protect her mother and then Nettie from his cruelty. In order to escape from Alphonso, she marries Albert, who is an abusive husband who values her only as a sexual object and a caretaker for his children. In order to make himself feel more important and prove that he is the boss, he regularly beats Celie. Because of the violence she goes through, Celie's self-esteem is injured as much as her body. She imagines herself to be unworthy of love, ugly and incapable of enjoying pleasure. But fortunately, Shug breaks the pattern of violence and abuse for Celie. Sofia also breaks free from her domestic abuse by leaving Harpo.

 

Shug, Albert’s long-time mistress, is another woman in the novel who knows the value of women's solidarity. When she finds out about how Albert has treated Celie over the years, she naturally loses her desire for him and permanently discards him from her life. She then helps Mary Agnes and Celie escape their lives of drudgery and domestic abuse. In the process, she gives Celie a sense of her own unique beauty and spirit.

Despite how Albert has treated her throughout the novel, towards the end of it he realizes that he has mistreated her. He gives Celie permission to call him by his first name, Albert which isn’t mentioned until the end of the novel. Albert proposes that they marry "in the spirit as well as in the flesh," but Celie declines his offer.