Alice Walker takes on a feminist tone in The Color Purple, a novel about the struggles between salvation and independence in which she discusses the oppression of black women. Through the relationship between black men and black women, Walker portrays the prejudice that black women have to face. She paints this inferior female image and only through the sisterhood of women can the inferior female characters find freedom.
Celie, the voice of the novel, is continually oppressed throughout the novel. She is condemned to a life of drudgery because she is so ugly, poor, black, and a woman. She is raped by her father and brutally beaten by her husband causing her to fear men. She admits in church that she looks " at women cause [she is] not scared of them" (6). She is forced into marrying Mr. ___, in the same manner as a slave is sold to its master. Her husband continues to degrade her by telling Celie, " You a woman you nothing at all" (93). To him she is a woman of no worth and deserves no happiness. Mr. ___ deprives Celie of communication with her only love, her sister, Nettie. He deliberately gets the mail everyday so he can hide Nettie's letters from Celie, diminishing all Celie's hope. She only knows "how to stay alive" not " to fight" (18). She is an innocent victim who fell into a man's unjust hands. .
Sofia is another victim of this injustice. Although, unlike Celie, Sofia fights back and defends her rights. Harpo, her husband, often goes to his father and asks him how to make Sofia listen to him. His father's answers with " wives is like children. [Men] have to let "em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound .
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beating" (37). The men think that the only way to have a woman's respect is to brutally beat them like they are their property. Once Harpo starts to beat Sofia, Sofia beats him back and defends herself. Harpo realizes that Sofia's strong character will not fade and they separate.
The Color Purple Theme Reflection In The Color Purple Walker expresses many ideas and themes. A major theme that I saw was the gender roles were often confused from the traditional roles that are often portrayed. In present time many men and women have also strayed from the traditional ste...
The Color Purple is clearly an example of this genre in that it is written using a series of letters written by the principal character, Celie, and also her sister Nettie. ... In The Color Purple, Walker effectively uses the epistolary genre to communicate the thoughts and feelings of the novel's central character, Celie. ... The Color Purple closely follows the growth of Celie on her journey of self-discovery. ... Walker appeared to learn from this problem and went on to write a sequel to The Color Purple which addresses Nettie and her outcome. Nettie still plays a significant role in Th...
THE COLOR PURPLE Alice Walker wrote this novel from her own personal experience, growing up in the rural South as an uneducated and abused child. ... In the novel she also uses color. The color purple is the color of royalty, which exemplifies the endless possibilities available to Celie and other black women if they stand up for their own rights. The Color Purple is a historical novel; it never refers to any factual events. ...
"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker is a novel that is written in letterforms. ... What does the color "purple" symbolize Why did Alice Walker title her novel the "The Color Purple"? The color "purple" is an important symbol because it concern the life of young Celie and the pains and sorrows she lives through. ... In 1982 Alice finished her novel "The Color Purple." "The Color Purple" is not like most novels. ...
The Color Purple There is much controversy about weather or not the book, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, is an appropriate reading material for the high school classrooms. ... Additionally, it was not uncomfortable discussing any of the content of The Color Purple aloud in class. ... In conclusion, I consider Alice Walker's The Color Purple, to be a suitable novel for a high school classroom to read. ...
The Color Purple Essay One of the most widely known and false stereotypes is that women belong in the kitchen, and men are suppose to make the money. In The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, there are some main characters that prove this stereotype wrong. ... "I think it pisses God off when you walk by the color purple in a field and don't notice it. " I believe a woman being inferior to a man is our society's color purple. ...
The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a book about a young girl named Celie whose character undergoes a huge transformation in attitude from a passive and quite girl to a strong and courageously confident woman (Color 1). ... Throughout her life Walker went on to write many more books and win lots of awards, especially for her most famous book, The Color Purple. The Color Purple is said by many professionals to be Alice Walker's best piece of work. ... Peter Prescott comments in a Newsweek review that; "The Color Purple is an American novel of permanent importance, that rare sort of...
The Color Purple Alice Walker was highly influenced by the works of Zora Neale Hurston. Both authors show many similar ideas in their books. One similarity between the two authors was what they based the book on. Zora and Alice wrote their books on black women, and the struggles they we...
The Colour Purple Chapter 1 The first few pages begin Walker's narrative of the life of Celie, a fourteen-year-old black girl who lives with her dying mother and her sister, Nettie. Her stepfather, Alfonso, is portrayed as the villain of the narrative, first demanding sex from Celie's sick mo...
Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple to capture and illuminate the hardship and bitterness African American women had to face in the early 1900s. ... The Color Purple, was published in 1982. ... In The Color Purple, as in her other writings, Walker focuses on the theme of double repression of black women in the American experience. ... The primary theme of The Color Purple, though, reflects Walker's desire to project a positive outcome in life, even under the harshest conditions. ... Although her response sometimes varies, she most frequently answers, "Remember, the movie is not the boo...
