Strong Female Characters In Celie By Alice Walker

After intuitively analyzing the text, one can conclude that Walker was very profound in asserting her desired theme and message in the story through her use of narrative conventions. Specifically, Walker accentuated the theme that “strong female relationships between women enable them to combat male oppression and domination,” through the internal and external development of the protagonist Celie, the influential role of the secondary characters and through one of the central conflicts in the story. The initial character of Celie embodied several common characteristics of countless women everywhere, who endure abuse because they carry the notion that survival is guaranteed through obedience. Celie underwent substantial character development under the influence of another
She fight, she run away. What good it do? I don’t fight, I stay where I’m told. But I’m alive” (21), but under the guidance of Shug, Celie had the unmitigated temerity to stress this to her husband, “I curse you…Until you do right by me, I say, everything you even dream about will fail” (206). Noticeably, Celie’s progressive change is evident from her radically differing beliefs from when she initially married her husband, to her time spent living with Shug. Moreover, the internal conflict of the protagonist allowed for her to be influenced by Shug and liberated from her negative thoughts and submissiveness. Celie’s perilous obedience and submission to her husband was also the result of the lack of self-worth and confidence she had within her. The root of Celie’s lack of sense of self was her stepfather who openly claimed that, “She [Celie] ugly. Don’t even look like she kin to Nettie. But she’ll make the better wife. She ain’t smart either….” (8), which initiated the pernicious thoughts Celie had regarding herself, “I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook….”