The Power of Strong Female Relationships

Female ties take many forms, but the bond Celie, Nettie, Shug, and other females in the novel build and share is what helps Celie the most in finding herself and resist oppression. The Color Purple approximately takes place 1916 and 1942 in the South where blacks still were being treated so wrong (Bloom 55). Religion is a big part of the novel considering that Celie address all the letters, ' Dear God.” She writes, ' You better not never tell nobody but God It'd kill your mammy ' (Walker 1), and ending the novel by addressing her last letter to God also 'Dear God.

Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything. Dear God.' (Walker 285). Violence is also a big part of the novel.

The narrative is told in the first-person point of view in form of letters, and in the first half of the book Celie's tells it from her point of view. She addresses God in kind of a dairy form to let him know what is going on in her life and the lives of those around her.

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She shares with us her abuse from her father and husband, and how she reacts by being submissive and shutting down emotionally. Family and love is a good theme for Celie because of the love she has for her younger sister Nettie; Celie would do anything for her little sister.

Even if that means putting herself in danger. All the marriages I read about are pretty miserable and sad. Many of the men think it’s okay to abuse their wives and mistreat them as they please.

Celie writes, “He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church. I may have got somethin in my eye but I didn’t wink. I don’t even look at mens. That’s the truth. I look at women, tho, cause I’m not scared of them. Maybe cause my mama cuss me you think I kept mad at her. But I ain’t. I felt sorry for mama.

Trying to believe his story kilt her” (Walker 5). Celie confesses to being scared of men, and Celie may not be at all interested in them , and that’s where the theme for sexuality and sexual identity comes in. As Dinitia Smith notes: “ The Color Purple is about the struggle between redemption and revenge. And the chief agency of redemption, Walker is saying, is the strength of the relationships between women: their friendships, their love, their shared oppression.” Celie’s life is never easy. Her mother is sick and she is getting abused. Celie starts writing letters to God because her stepfather, Alphonso, repeatedly beats and rapes her. We learn from Nettie’s letters that Pa is not Nettie and Celie’s real father.

Pa also known as Alphonso, impregnates Celie twice, and both times he takes the baby away after birth basically getting rid of the evidence that he has been abusing her. Pa starts eyeing Nettie and refuses to let her marry; instead the abuse continues for Celie when Pa marries Celie off to Mr. ____ and is forced into a difficult and joyless marriage. After Celie’s mama dies, Pa marries one of many young wives that he will mistreat and make have kids. For the majority of the novel, He see not only Celie but all women as stupid, in need of abuse, constant direction from men, and only useful as sexual objects and laborers. By beating Celie repeatedly,

makes her submissive. Nettie comes to stay with Celie to get away from Pa and the two sisters are as close as ever. Nettie and Celie are the only ones that treat each other like blood family. The sisters are happy until kicks Nettie out and tells her that she will never hear from Celie again because she refuses to sleep with him or give him any kind of attention. “ Celie is banished to the deep inferno embodied in who is just another avatar of patriarchal orders and its power over the subversive feelings of sisters” (Weisenburger). is a black male obsessed with domination and he is trying to control Celie and her sister Nettie. Life with quickly becomes unbearable, and Celie is left alone in a house and marriage where no one loves her and she loves no one. All Celie can do is survive. Celie’s life gets a little better when brings his mistress home and insists on Celie to nurse her back to health. Celie becomes fascinated with Shug and eventually they is friends and Celie fall in love with her.