Introduction:
In The Color Purple, through the voice of an isolated young woman who encounters abuse and obstacles on her own, Walker asserts that it is necessary to find community to rise above difficult situations. When people think of a community they think of a large group or settlement coming together and giving each other support. Not all communities have to be large groups. In the novel, Celie, the main character who struggles with abuse and isolation, only needs a couple of people to feel validated. All through her early life, no one was a major supporter, only God, until Nettie moved to Africa and Celie met Shug Avery. With her close nit of friends and family, she thrives with their attention and love. Celie developed very different relationships, from a sister/sister relationship, to an abuser/victim relationship, to mentor/pupil status, even lovers. When she first starts writing, God was the major receiver of said letters. Because Celie was alone she only wrote to him, as her sister wasn’t gone yet, to vent her feelings about her abuse to. The only thing common between Celie’s father, Alphonso, and her husband, Mr._____, who’s name is Albert, is that they both abused her both physically and emotionally. Violence is a common problem for African Americans all over at the time. Celie had a lot of people to help her out, and to support her throughout her tough experience. This goes to show that by having a community, people can thrive more than they would by themselves.
Body Paragraph 1:
As a woman who endured trauma without the support of friends and family, one of the only outlets Celie has is letter writing. She first started writing letters to God because God was the only outside voice she knew. Knowing it was God, Celie knew she could trust him and he would listen to all she had to say. Shug invites Celie to imagine God as an “it” that delights in creation and just wants human beings to love what it has created. After Celie has dismissed her patriarchal God away and come up with a new concept of God, she writes in her last letter, “Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God.” This reimagining of God on her own terms symbolizes Celie’s move from an object of someone else’s care to an independent woman. It also indicates that her voice is now empowered enough to create her own narrative. Through writing letters to God, and later her sister Nettie, Celie finds an outlet from the abuse at home. When she writes, it is the only time for Celie to express herself knowing that her thoughts and feelings will be heard by someone, even someone who does not have the power to change her situation, Nettie or God. Writing these letters to other people give her a sense of security and faith that someone will hear her voice. Celine desperately seeks another figure to share her experiences with. When Nettie moves out and down to Africa Celie writes to her and Nettie returns letters, but Celie does not ever get letters back, as Nettie’s letters to Celie are taken and hidden by Mr._____. However, with Shug Avery’s help, Celie gets to read the letters from Nettie. Harpo hides the letters Celie wrote to Nettie from the latter. Mr____ , Celie’s husband, prevents the sisters from writing after Nettie has turned down his lustful advances. Nettie writes to Celie, “He said because of what I’d done I’d never hear from you again, and you would never hear from me” (119). By hiding Nettie’s letters from Celie, Mr____ gives the same punishment to Nettie that Harpo does to Celie, denying their communication. In “Don’t Tell”: Imposed Silences in The Color Purple and The Woman Warrior the author says, “In both, it is not the male offender but the female victim who suffers the penalty for an illicit affair: he sentences her to hold her tongue.”
Body Paragraph 2:
Celie had very few good relationships, but they were strong relationships. Celie and her sister Nettie had a defender and defendant relationship. Nettie believed in protecting Celie, so her sister, often acts as Celie’s protector. For the majority of Celie’s life, Nettie is the only person she loves—and is also the only one to return the feeling to Celie. Celie’s father and husband are anything but loving to her, and she experiences romantic love for the first time with another woman, Shug. In this novel, love isn’t necessarily about pureness, and certainly isn’t about gender or marriage. Love is about self-sacrifice, respect, and unconditional care. Later on, before she moves to Africa Nettie finds out that their father had raped Celie and when she had their children, he essentially sold them. Nettie tried to keep contact with Celie when she went on her excursion to Africa, knowing that she needed the support. Nettie writes in her letters to Celie that she is lonely, showing that like Celie, Nettie needs someone who actually understands her to listen to her thoughts and concerns and fears regarding Africa and the discrimination there, and questions about life. Both of the sisters needed someone, a community, to truly thrive and survive in their separate worlds. Celie found Shug Avery to share her feelings with and to escape the difficult home life to. Shug Avery is at first seen with a bad reputation. She dressed very scandalous, and didn’t have a positive reputation around town. Celie compares Shug to her mother throughout the novel. Unlike Celie’s mom, who was oppressed by traditional gender roles, Shug refused to allow herself to be dominated by anyone. Celie sees something more in her. To Celie, Shug reminds her of her mother, so she sees her as her ‘mama’. Eventually, this ‘mentor/pupil’ relationship grew into something more: a love bond between the two women. The two women continue their tender relationship even when Shug falls ill and Celie returns Shug’s love by taking care of her. Shug, to Celie an icon, started to develop Celie into a strong independent young woman without the need of a man in her house. She helped her to be more defiant with her husband and gave her some good life advice. Shug shows Celie that she can create her own narrative, a new interpretation of herself and her history that counters the interpretations forced upon her. Gradually Celie begins to work out her story by telling it to Shug. In general, sewing in The Color Purple symbolizes the power women can gain from channeling their creative energy productively. After Sofia and Celie argue about the advice Celie has given Harpo about him beating his wife, Sofia signals a truce by suggesting they make a quilt. The quilt, composed of diverse patterns sewn together, symbolizes diverse people coming together in unity. Like a patchwork quilt, the community of love that surrounds Celie at the end of the novel incorporates men and women who are bonded by family and friendship. However, it is not until Celie and Shug discover Nettie’s letters that Celie finally has enough knowledge of herself to form her own powerful narrative. Sofia was another woman in Celie’s life who helped her become independent. Sofia was a fiercely independent woman who befriends Celie and marries Harpo, Mr._____’s son. Like Shug, Sofia refuses to submit to whites, men, or anyone else who tries to dominate her,
“[Harpo and Sofia] fighting like two mens. Every piece of furniture they got is turned over. Every plate look like it broke. The looking glass hang crooked, the curtains torn. The bed look like the stuffing pulled out. They don’t’ notice. They fight. He try to slap her. What he do that for? She reach down and grab a piece of stove wood and whack him cross the eyes. He punch her in the stomach, she double over groaning but come up with both hands lock right under his privates. He roll on the floor. He grab her dress tail and pull. She stand there in her slip. She never blink a eye. He jump up to put a hammer lock under her chin, she throw him over her back. He fall bam up gainst the stove. (20.2)
After defying the town’s mayor, Sophia is sentenced to twelve years in jail, but the sentence is later changed to twelve years labor as the mayor’s maid. The hardship Sofia endures serves as a reminder of the repercussions of resistance and the difficulties of trying to over come cultural and world wide racism. Sofia claims that her ability to fight comes from her strong relationships with her sisters. Nettie’s relationship with Celie gets her through years of living in the unfamiliar culture of Africa. Relationships among women form a refuge, providing love in a world filled with male violence.
Body Paragraph 3:
In The Color Purple almost every African American woman is abused in some way. Celie is verbally, physically and sexually abused at her own home, and even when she leaves. Through Nettie’s letters to Celie she lets her know that discrimination and oppression of women and black people is universal, and not just happening to Celie, or any other women in their town. Celie was raped and beaten and talked down upon by her stepfather for the littlest things, “Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr._______ say, Cause he my wife. Plus, she stubborn. All women good for—he don’t finish. He just tuck his chin over the paper like he do. Remind me of Pa.” (13.1)
Violence is an integral part of Celie and Mr.__’s marriage. Essentially, Mr.__ beats Celie because he has no respect for her or women in general. Harpo, for example, beats Sofia only after his father implies that Sofia’s resistance makes Harpo less of a man. Mr._____ is violent and mistreats his family much like his own father treated him. Celie tells Harpo to beat Sofia because she is jealous of Sofia’s strength and assertiveness,
“Harpo want to know what to do to make Sofia mind. He sit out on the porch with Mr._________. He say, I tell her one thing, she do another. Never do what I say. Always backtalk. To tell the truth, he sound a little proud of this to me. […] You ever hit her? Mr._________ ast. Harpo look down at his hands. Naw suh, he say low, embarrass. Well how you spect to make her mind? Wives is like children. You have to let ‘em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating. He puff on his pipe. Sofia think too much of herself anyway, he say. She need to be taken down a peg. I like Sofia, but she don’t act like me at all. If she talking when Harpo and Mr._________ come in the room, she keep right on. If they ast her where something at, she say she don’t know. Keep talking.”I think bout this when Harpo ast me what he ought to do to her to make her mind. I don’t mention how happy he is now. How three years pass and he still whistle and sing. I think bout how every time I jump when Mr.________ call me, she look surprise. And like she pity me. Beat her. I say.” (19.1-2; 5-12)
Harpo’s insecurity about his masculinity leads to his beatings of Sofia. The way female characters react to violence varies dramatically. Celie suffers repeated violence from both her father and husband and reacts by shutting down emotionally and being very submissive. Other female characters, however, prove their strength in the face of violence. After suffering so much abuse, many women prove that they will not be dragged down. Eventually, when Celie realizes the extent of the emotional violence committed against her, she finds the strength and the willpower to leave her husband and start a new life.
Conclusion:
A community is a very important thing for some people. A community is the key to certain people; it can base or establish a persons life and actions. Some people just need that tight knit group of people to influence their actions and impact their lives. To Celie, God was one of these people in the beginning when she first stated writing letters. She knew that he was the only one out there who would listen wholeheartedly to her feelings and fears. Walker uses the voice of a young, struggling woman to assert the need for a community to help develop someone into a better person, to rise above difficult times. Communities come in all different shapes and sizes, some really big, some really small. Celie doesn’t need that big of a “friend group” to evolve into an independent young woman. In her early stages of life, there want a prominent materialistic supporter, only God. When her sister Nettie, moved to Africa she met Shug. Shug literally changed her life.