In Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "The Color Purple," by , the main character Celie, is raised in a home where there has been a cycle of abuse for many generations. At a young age Celie's mother dies and she is then raped and constantly abused by her father. She is then forced into a marriage by her father to Mr.__. Once Celie moves in with her husband and children she then is beaten repeatedly by her new husband for not being obedient to his wants and constant needs. Throughout the novel we see Celie's personality and self-worth get stomped on by both her father and husband, but after meeting Shug Avery Celie is shown what it truly is to be a woman. Towards the end of the novel Mr._ realizes that he had been treating Celie very poor and as if she was an object rather than a person. At the end of the novel, Celie and Mr._ rekindle their relationship and in order for Celie to move past the trauma in her life she must forgive Mr._. Celie must forgive Mr._ because it will be the only way for her to move past the trauma from earlier in her life and also because of the culture in the south at that time period the bible and its teachings were believed by most and they believed that God taught believers to forgive others as he had forgiven them.
In order for Celie to move on and past the trauma in her life to become the confident and self-loving person she wants to be she must forgive Mr._. At the end of the novel Celie starts to realize that Shug has left both her and Mr._ leaving them two feeling both vulnerable and raw towards love. Celie Writes to Nettie in letter at the end of the novel "Here us is, I thought, two old fools left over from love, keeping each other company under the stars"" (Walker, 238), Celie believes that even though Mr._ has done her wrong he is still a person that makes mistakes and learns from them. This is an example of just how powerful the Character Celie is in the novel, it shows that she started her life off in a cycle of abuse and then through hardships turned her life into something positive where she could help others.