Nonconformity In The Color Purple

Since the days of Adam and Eve, women have been forced to be subservient to men. This subservient role, or as it has become known in the 20th century, the traditional role, prohibits women from certain facets of work and restrains them to more domestic roles. These domestic roles: cooking, cleaning, bearing and caring for children give no room for a voice, whether it is to express an opinion or a choice. Nonconformity often results in punishment, sometimes physical, and, more damaging, emotionally and psychologically, at the hands of what is supposed to be a loving spouse. Alice Walker’s novel, The Color Purple, is a bold illustration of such a role. It demonstrates how women are forced to conform to whatever society deems that they should
She learns very quickly that she is not to contradict him, nor to express how she feels about anything. Mister’s father comes to visit occasionally, and offers his opinion on most any and every subject, including a woman’s place. He stresses to Mister that he should stop pining over Shug Avery, not because he is married to Celie, but because Shug is what he calls a “loose” woman. According to ‘Old Mister’, “all her children got different daddies, and she got that nasty woman’s disease” (p.54). Celie, however, looks up to Shug, because Shug represents everything that Celie wishes she was: bold, beautiful, talented, and free. Shug appears to live life on her own terms; secretly, she pines for the love of her minister father, who has nothing to do with her because of her unwillingness to live a traditionally submissive life. Shug will not be forced to submit into subservience, and Celie envies
Ironically, it is Shug Avery and Sofia who provide the emotional support for Celie's personal evolution. In turn, it is Celie's new understanding of an acceptance of herself that eventually lead to Albert's re-evaluation of his own life and a reconciliation among the novel's major characters (Watkins, 1982). As the book ends, Albert and Shug sit with Celie on Celie's front porch, "rocking and fanning flies," waiting for the arrival of Nettie and her family (p. 285). The Color Purple demonstrates some homage to the feminist community in Celie. She is a woman that triumphs over impossible odds. The relationship between Celie and Shug has been said to pay a debt to lesbians. "She pays homage to the lesbians by portraying a relationship between two women that reads like a schoolgirl fairy tale in its ultimate adherence to the convention of the happy resolution", (Bradley, 1984). Born-again feminists receive their dues in Albert and career-minded women are acknowledged in