Theme Of Oppression In Alice Walker's Color Purple

In the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker the reader is immediately introduced to the harsh reality of Celie’s life, with the very first sentence being, “You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.” From that point onwards the narrative follows young Celie from she raped and abused by the man she believes to be her father to becoming the wife of Mr._____ , with his decision being almost solely based on the fact that their consummation agreement includes both her and a cow. In the beginning of the novel Celie is portrayed as being a victim of oppression from all of the men in her life and doesn’t have control over what happens to her. However despite these terrible experiences, Celie manages to survive and grow due to
However, when Harpo approaches Celie about how to control Sofia, Celie is bitter about the pity she sees in Sofia’s eyes so she tells Harpo to “Beat her” (p.36). After Harpo attempts to beat Sofia to make her listen to him and he instead is the one who comes away injured, she finds out that it is Celie who told him that it was the appropriate course of action. When questioning Celie about how she could encourage the abuse of another woman when she herself has been abused, Celie responds with, “I say it cause I’m a fool, I say. I say it cause I’m jealous of you. I say it cause you do what I can’t….Fight.” (p.40). Sofia exposes to Celie that the world is not binary and that women can fight back against abuse or oppression. Celie admires Sofia for her ability to be assertive and have a will that is not entwined with that of her husbands. However, this does get Sofia in some trouble when she is confronted with racism from the mayor’s wife and as a result ends up with a jail sentence of 12 years. While in jail Celie observes how different Sofia is and serves as a brutal reminder of the difficulties that come with fighting racism and resisting society’s perceptions of what is