Preview

How Does Celie Change In The Color Purple

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
526 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Celie Change In The Color Purple
Alice Walker portrays the tough life of the main character Celie. Celie at a young age is raped by Pa then marries Mr.__ who does the same, he takes Nettie’s letters from her until she finds out and gets them back. She confronts him showing how far she has come to speaking up and showing courage. While married to Mr.__ she meets Shug who she soon falls in love with her. She makes her become herself and they move off to Memphis after Pa dies she inherits her the home and the dry goods store and soon makes a small business making pants. At the end of the novel she finally meets her children and Nettie after so many long years.

Celie becomes more independent because of Shug’s support and thoughts. In the end Celie’s change into a talking topic who makes her personal decisions. But this article really hit, for Celie her lesbian drive is a normal consequence of her anxiety of males after her catastrophic rapes from her stepfather then her harsh treatment of Mr.__ which we can understand throughout the book and indeed Celie develops who she is because of Shug.
Slomski, Genevieve. "The Color Purple." Masterplots, Fourth Edition (2010): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. Some problems of racism, sexism, and violence. From the beginning where Celie is in abject despair to at the end where it ends in joy when Nettie and her
…show more content…
One theme they talked about was sexism, which took up a lot of the book; but is shows Celie’s transformation from a shy female to an independent woman. In the beginning she is overthrown by Pa and later husband Mr.__, but by the end of the novel she is an independent female who owned her own business. The style of the novel was point of view was first person who was Celie but some of it is her sister Nettie. The religion part was when Nettie and Celie talk about god. As many black males turned their anger towards

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    But, She can now take away her sister Nettie from Pa, but eventually gets kicked out of the house because she would not accept Mr.’s sexual advantages. Nettie promises to write to Celie, but unfortunately never receives any letters from Her. Celie’s life slowly starts to decline after her sister Nettie leaves. She was really the only person in her life who she could love and receive love back. Celie is a very defeated character, and she is very passive but we know from reading that she is telling her own story in these letters to God. Later in the book, many women come in to her life including her Daughter in law, and her Husbands Mistress, and these women practically help her break out of the constrains of life, and find joy. Sexism is a very big theme to this book. Some other themes include race, love, sexual identity, and femininity. Mr.’s mistress, Shug Avery, a blues singer comes to stay at their house and Celie finds herself sexually attracted to her. Soon, Celie and Shug find a stash of Nettie’s letters, which Mr. had been keeping hidden from her for years. These letters describe her life among missionaries in…

    • 410 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Summary: The Color Purple

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages

    At the beginning of the book, Celie was unaware of the color purple. She has such a horrible life she had nothing to enjoy—she’s just surviving. By surviving, she’s emotionally dead, but is physically alive. Shug is person who showed Celie the theory of the color purple. Shug says that God does little things for people, like creating the color purple, just to make people happy and give them pleasure in their lives. God want everyone to enjoy beauty of his/her creation. Enjoying all of God’s creation, including sex, is important according to shug. Shug shows Celie to embrace and enjoy life as God wants us to do. It’s a way to show our love and gratitude for God. Celie decoratesher bedroom in her own home in all purples and reds as she learns to love…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    What are the three most important themes raised by the novel Parvana by Deborah Ellis?…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The Color Purple" is a very powerful film that tells the story of Celie, a poor black woman living in the old south. The film begins at her childhood and follows her up to old age. She was raped and abused by her father as a young woman and was sent to marry and equally abusive man, Albert. The various people in Celie's household may seem strange in their actions to an outsider. However, if one examines the actions of the characters, their behabiors can be explained, and sometimes justified, by the systems theory, symbolic interactionism and finally, developmental theory.…

    • 694 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    This book is truly centered on the darkness of sexual abuse and the immorality of a man oppressing the will of females. This novel demonstrates the evil of black male patriarchy. Mr. Blank is the father of two young girls, Celie and Nettie, which he basically uses for his own disturbing desires. Not only does he try to sexually control them, but also he dehumanizes them by his mistreatment. Being merely children, he forces himself onto them very aggressively. Their daily experience is described by this quote: “ he start to choke me, saying you better shut up and get use to it. But I don’t ever get use to it. And know I feels sick every time I be the one to cook.” He also orders Celie around like a slave and threatens her into submission. Mr. Blank has also dedicated himself to draining every inch of self-confidence Celie has, which he uses to keep her weak. “Well next time you come look at her. She ugly. Don’t even look like she kin to Nettie. But she’ll make a better wife. She aint smart either, and I’ll just be fair, you have to watch her or she’ll give away everything you own. But she can work like a man.” Mr. Blank takes away their freedom as women to do as they wish and strive for success in life. He condemns them to a life of terror and…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The syntax that Walker uses to represent Celie’s voice is often short, simple and lacking in description. ‘I am fourteen years old’ shows this. The almost constant use of short, simple sentences could indicate to the reader that Celie has a very basic understanding of written English. The lack of descriptive language used by Walker in Celie’s narrative voice could suggest that although these letters are addressed to God, only Celie will read them. This portrays Celie as a vulnerable character for various reasons. The use of short sentences indicates that Celie has a poor or non-existent formal education; this makes Celie seem vulnerable as the reader could think she is too unintelligent to understand her plight, this also induces a sense of pathos in the reader. The lack of description incorporated into her letters adds to the sense of vulnerability surrounding Celie as it could be interpreted by the reader that she has no one to turn to and she is alone to endure her struggle. When coupled with the sequential and chronological structure of her letters, the notion that, although Celie writes in an epistolary form, she has no one to turn to is intensified as it suggests to the reader that she doesn’t want to explain her situation to anyone.…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel consists of letters written by the main protagonist, Celie, that she has written to God. Celie is a poor black girl living in the American South. She writes letters to God because the man she believes to be her father, Alphonso, abuses and rapes her. Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once,…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Celie’s first challenge in the story is enduring a very tough childhood in the form of rape and abuse from her stepfather, Pa. She writes to God that “He never had a kine word to say to me” and then details how she was raped “he push his thing inside my pussy. When that hurt I cry. He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it”. Celie had a choice to rebel and fight back, however she just allows Pa to rape her, showing little resistance. The reason for this is because Celie knew she was weak and couldn’t overcome her his physical strength. Celie then ends up giving birth to a son, however Pa takes this child away from her.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Color Purple Shag Quotes

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In “The Color Purple”, Shug Avery has a positive impact on Celie. This empowers Celie to become independent and confident. The author describes the positive impacts when Shug meets Celie during her illness and develops a strong friendship with her. Shug is an independent and strong woman. These are two qualities Celie does not posses. However, when Shug is introduced in the novel, she influences Celie to become a more independent woman. Shug helps Celie with her mental problems, which has been an issue since her early childhood. She was told she was ugly as expressed in the quote “She ugly. He say” (Walker, pg. 10). Shug also had some problems with her appearance and was told she was a prostitute by the preacher. This is expressed in the quote;…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Initially, you get the impression of Celie as a shadow in the background- the kind of person that you wouldn’t notice even if she was right in front of you. She was utterly silent in her life, never getting in anyone’s way or saying what was on her mind; until she discovered the healing power of writing a series of letters, addressed to God first, and then her sister. Through her writing, she discovers her true nature and the woman that she was supposed to be in her own life.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    5.4)Challenges and trials: when she escapes to NY her brother end up coming up after high school as well and then eventually so do her crazy parents. She learns to cope with her strange parents “wanting to be poor” ideas her parents want to be poor so they dig through dumpsters and don’t shower and she doesn’t understand why they want to do that. She has to cope with their ways of life and still create…

    • 1682 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Maids Metaphors

    • 1779 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The theme being shown through out this book was racism. Racism was a substantial problem according to white people , whites were in charge over their colored maids. Their ideology was that the white race was superior than any other race thus them treating colored maids unfairly. However, they let them raise their kids and also take care of them when they were sick. After doing all this they don't even let them use the bathroom in their home not even when there is bad weather nor when they are in a good mood. In addition the maids would provide food for the family they were working for. The maids were like mothers to the babies and would teach them everything they needed to know when they were young. Eventually they grow and became as disrespectful as their parents if not more.…

    • 1779 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    For Colored Girls Essay

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It reveals the different issues that impact women in general, but colored women in particular. The film interconnects seven women, exploring their daily lives and struggles as colored women. Each film character deals with a different personal conflict, such as, rape, love, abandonment, infidelity, and abortion.…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The book is set in the South around the 1930’s. The book is about 14 year old Celie who is an uneducated African American women who experiences hardship, abuse, and rape by both her husband and stepfather who she believes is her real father. The book shows the trials black women had to go through and their suffering for people they love. Ms. Walker also won the Pulitzer Prize and National book award for Fiction in 1983.…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial and gender prejudice are the main prejudices, and that is quite obvious and quickly evidenced by the way women and girls are treated. It portrays how women were beaten and raped in that society at that time by their own people in the community. There is also prejudice against what is considered to be ugly or beautiful. Celie had a bright wide, beautiful, smile,\; but was made to feel that it was ugly and that she was ugly. Celie and Netty were sisters and yet because of their looks, one was more accepted than the other by their father. The father considered that Celie was ugly, and so should therefore not be as highly regarded as Netty. The father thought nothing of giving up Celie to the first man that came calling even though the man was after Netty, the younger of the two sisters. Netty and Celie’s father told the man that Netty would never be available to him, yet he gave up Celie so readily.…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays