No Fighting = Survival

Topic: How Celie’s lack of resistance to the male dominant side of society has lead to her survival.
 

The Color Purple presents to the reader two women in Celie's life that that has successfully rebelled against the norms of society and the domination of men. One person is her step-son's wife, Sofia while the other is her dear sister Nettie.

 
Sofia is a hard headed women that has been forced to fight against the norms of society all her life, which is the idea that men are the dominate gender which can easily be seen in two different examples. First of all, Sofia is constantly shown to fight with Harpo, who constantly tries to except his power and dominance over her by continuously trying to beat her, but Sofia's stubbornness is shown though her ability to avoid his beatings and instead beat Harpo up (page 37). Another example of Sofia trying to fight against the norms of society is when she assaults the major who was trying to get her to work as a maid (page 85). There is sadly a price to rebellion, in the example of her husband, Sofia was forced to leave the one love of her life in order to keep her independence (page 68) and in the example of the mayor Sofia was terribly beat up and thrown into a jail cell, all for her independence (page 86).

Nettie on the other hand is a women that has avoided men all her life and has never been tied down by one in marriage due to the fact that she always managed to avoid any man that wanted to rape her, including her father. One such example is when Nettie moved in with Celie and her husband Albert. Albert would continuously compliment her on how she looked, but Nettie would always ignore it and pass on the same compliment onto her sister, Celie. This simple act of ignoring men lead to Nettie being free of the control of men, but also lead to her being kicked out of the Celie and Albert's home (page 16) where Nettie is never heard from again and is thought to be dead according to Celie (page 18). Due to Nettie's ignoring of men she was thrown out of a home and left to fend for herself in the wild, which led her to her death.

There are two similarities between these two independent women in Celie's life, they both lived on under their own power, but both suffered in the end. Celie knows the truth behind independence and that is the reason she has lived for so long, she does not strive for independence and instead accepts the male dominance of Albert over her. Throughout Celie's life she has endured all the beatings, all the hassle, and all the pain by not fighting for her independence for one reason, it is the only way she knows how to live (page 17).

The Topic of Dichotomy: The Color Purple

                 The Color Purple  creates a system of dichotomy where there is a passive, shy, emotionless woman who does what she is told as well as believes herself to be lower than a man. Celie is the stereotypical passive woman. However, at the other side of  the spectrum is Shug Avery. She is a feminist, strong-willed, free-spirited woman who cannot be held down by a man. This creates a tension and helps convey Alice Walker's purpose behind this. Celie's complete passiveness when responding to Shug's departure as "I don't say nothing. Feel like I felt when Nettie left....He beat me when you not her, I say" (76) demonstrates how she wants to say something but she lowers her self-esteem and her self-image so she doesn't have to stand up for herself or say what she thinks. Walker uses this character as a medium to show the stereotypical image of an average African-American woman. However, with Shug Avery's character, Walker is able to create the polar opposite of Celie such as the response to her complaint "I won't leave, she say, until I know Albert won't even think about beating you."(77) Shug is strong-willed and very feminist but she is also extremely mean and can be over-bearing as well as irritating in some instances. With this character, Walker is able to illustrate what the ideal woman would be: defiant, opinionated, superiority complex. However, Walker, through Shug's character, shows some problems with this approach as a solution to the one that Celie is in. Thus, there is the middle ground character, Sofia. Sofia is strong-willed, however, she also respects men and their role in society. Celie describes her as "Some womens can't be beat, I say. Sofia one of them. Besides, Sofia love you. She probably be happy to do most of what you say if you ast her right. She not mena, she not spiteful. She don't hold a grudge" (66). Sofia knows that she holds power, she doesn't overestimate it, like Shug, but she also doesn't underestimate it, like Celie. She is the ideal woman and that is what Walker was trying to convey through this novel.

Emotion from the Passionless

Walker employs narrative voice through an address to juxtapose emotional responses along with sequences of events in order to characterize Celie and further the ideas of the text. In the 34th letter to God, on pages 74-75, Celie confesses the true side of Albert to Shug who is unaware. This obliviousness mirrors the thematic ideas of the novel which shows or represents the division amongst people during this period in history, and the lack of knowledge of Shug to the true character of Albert represents the white perspective in a sense, because her life has been focused on materialistic objects with little meaning. Moreover, the emotional responses are from the perspective of Celie to God, so the way she depicts how each other character responds characterizes herself in a way, because the emotions that Celie can't recognize in herself; she sees in others. This can be demonstrated through the Strength that Celie wishes she had from Sofia, or the confidence and beauty that Shug possesses. There has never been a point in the novel that actually says that Celie is a beautiful person directly, but there are hints that she may not be as ugly as she explains to God. However, if Shug is willing to sleep with Celie, then she isn't obviously as ugly as everyone points out. Moreover the animalistic side of racism is shown through what happens to Celie out of pure impulse from the other characters, for example, having to sleep with Albert. This is how Walker shows the stereotype of the black man, and what others believe to be true through their knowledge or background. The purpose in setting up these strong stereotypes is to create an image which is horrible enough for the reader to not want to believe they are true, at which point, Walker will dispel these ideas. Walker does this later on in the novel on pages 130-136, when Celie reads the long lost letters from Nettie who tells her that education and first hand experience have made her believe that what she thought to be true, which was that all black men were animals actually is not true, and the life that they lived isn't the only one that they can, and Nettie tells Celie to fight back. In a sense, Celie is living vicariously through the experiences of others, but in order to feel what they feel, Celie believes she cannot be allowed to feel anything good herself, otherwise how she feels through the other characters won't be as strong anymore. Celie may not "git mad," but close to the middle of the novel, Celie starts to think and say what she feels, and her ideas of fighting back and "killing" Albert are a sign that she may begin to fight for the life that was taken from her when she was 14 and her father first raped her.

Masculinity in The Color Purple

Throughout The Color Purple gender stereotypes are discussed and questioned. Feminism is shown greatly through the characters of Shug and Sofie. Masculinity however is not as directly addressed. The two major male characters examined are Albert and Harpo. Albert is shown to be the stereotypical male of this setting. He is abusive and dominant to Celie, as demonstrated on page 22. He feels that women are meant to simply conform to male power. Harpo on the other hand is displayed as a rare case. He at first questions a system which would give him power above others. On page 22 he is the reason Albert attempts to justify his opinion. However Harpo does eventually just go along with the system, as shown by his discussion with Celie on page 63. As Harpo states the same ideas as his father, that women should simply fall in line, it gives the sense that men not only follow those before them in what they believe is right, but they also become stubborn in the idea that it can not change. Though Harpo is dominated by his own wife, he refuses to accept that men are not intended to always control women. THe statements made by Celie in this passage concerning Shug, also then support the control that women have over men. Albert loves Shug, and therefore respects her. Shug is able to manipulate Albert even though she's a woman, because she has his emotions.

Masculine Femininity

Throughout the novel there has been a constant power struggle between the empowered and the disenfranchised. This power struggle is interesting, because, as a reader, the initial thought process is that the struggle is males vs females, however it is more of a masculine persona vs a feminine persona struggle. The inherent difference lies in the masculinity of some female characters, such as Sofia, who is slightly portrayed in the masculine archetype "I rather be out in the fields or fooling with the animals. Even chopping wood" Walker 59). On the other hand, there are people like Harpo, who struggle to assert their dominance and therefore are regarded as more feminine: "But he [Harpo] love cooking and cleaning and doing little things around the house" (Walker 59). What makes the majority of the power struggles interesting is the belief that beating your spouse is not a morale or social wrongdoing. For example, Harpo believes that physically abusing his wife is a respectable thing for to do, because "...the woman sp'ose to mind" (Walker 35). His inherent belief is that he is aiding society by ensuring that his woman is in her "rightful place". These excerpts from the book highlight how power struggles differ from the stereotypical power struggle in African American culture.

 Likewise, Albert ensures Celie stays in her place of no power by beating her for no apparent reason other than "...she my wife" (Walker 22). This is also seen after Albert's sister, Kate, tries to give power to Celie, immediately after learning Celie may receive a minute amount of power, Albert sends Kate home. This yearn to remain empowered offers insight into African American culture: Males are fearful that if they become disenfranchised, there will be no coming back. This also highlights the innate human instinct to desire power. The desire for power is perfectly exemplified by Shug's relationship with Albert-Albert does not have any power over Shug, and he would not fathom beating her. This gives Shug power, because she is more revered and respected than many other females, and perhaps even males. What is interesting about Shug and Albert's relationship is that Shug is more masculine than Celie, therefore her masculinity is directly tied with her ability to have power. Again, Sofia shows more masculinity than Celie, as well as Harpo, and she holds more power than Celie as well, not only at home but also in a social setting. By showing Albert's reluctance to allow Celie strength, Walker is saying that we, humans, do not give up power, even if it means hurting the ones we should love. Then, by showing that a woman's masculinity is tied to her power, Walker is saying that women need to be more masculine in the world's patriarchal society to have power and be successful. All encompassing, Alice Walker is saying the only way women can create a more balanced society is by taking the power of men, which can only be taken when women become more masculine.

The Destruction of Self and the Establishment of Wonder.

"You better not...of these children." pg.1



Walker begins the passage with an italicized quote, speaking of keeping matters quiet and only telling them to G-d. This has an incredibly significant effect on the entire passage. It introduces an element of secrecy, importance and drama to the what is about to happen along with an element of wonder, wondering what can't be spoken of, wonder of what had occurred. Furthermore at the beginning of the passage Walker crosses out the words "I am" this alters not only the passage, but the entire novel as a whole in a significant way. It destroys what power of self Celie had from the very beginning, by destroying the idea that she could be something. By doing this Walker reinforces the idea of the lack of power Celie has an African American woman. Furthermore by crossing out "I am" Walker establishes this idea of self loathe that Celie has for herself expressing the idea that Celie has no possession over her own life.

Celie's Rebellion

In the novel The Color Purple, the author, Alice Walker, presents an interesting dichotomy throughout the story, one that consists of feminism, male dominance, and different forms of rebellion. There is a certain dichotomy presented when looking at the different female characters, and this is prevalent throughout the book.

First of all, Celie, the main character, is probably the least rebellious of the three most significant women in this novel, and she is characterized as weak and conforming to the men in society, who take advantage of and threaten the women. Unfortunately, Celie embodies the stereotypes of African-American women at the time. This idea is reinforced when Celie explains that she never gets angry: "I can't even remember the last time I felt mad" (47). On the other hand, there is Sofia, Harpo's wife.

She is on the other extreme, not listening to her husband at all, and beating him if he even tries. For instance, when Sofia finds that Celie told Harpo to beat her, Celie justifies it by saying: "I say it cause you do what I can't. What's that? she say. Fight. I say" (46). Celie shows jealousy of Sofia, because she is essentially who she looks up to. Sofia is shown as a strong and independent woman, refusing to submit to the norms of society, which is the idea of male dominance. This is also displayed when Sofia assaults the mayor, when he asks her to be his maid. She does not want to conform to a man all her life, and she is the embodiment of a strong feminist.

Lastly , we have Shug Avery. She is a famous singer, one that Celie has strong feelings for. She is in between the other two woman, primarily acting as a support for Celie throughout. She sympathizes with her, even staying with Celie until her husband stops beating her. On her own, however, Shug is relatively independent, at least when referring to Albert, Celie's husband. She doesn't say anything to him about beating Celie, but does not let him do anything he wants to her specifically. There is also a very strange contrast between how men, specifically Albert, acts around Shug and Celie. With Shug, he acts shy, nervous, and even scared. However, with Celie, he does whatever he wants. This is another idea that supports the fact that Celie is a lot weaker than Shug in terms of fighting.

As we can see, there is a very strange dichotomy between how these three women act, and very different outcomes of their stories.