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Adult Learning Through the Filters of B.F. Skinner & The Color Purple
Adult Learning as Seen Through B.F. Skinner and The Color Purple
The main character in the novel, musical play, and film The Color Purple is Celie, a fourteen-year-old girl living in rural Georgia between the years 1909 to 1949. Celie has been abused and oppressed by men throughout her life. Her father raped and impregnated her. He took her children away from her and let her think they were dead. Finally, her father gives Celie to Albert in marriage, even though Albert wanted to marry Celie's younger and prettier sister, Nettie. Shug is Albert's mistress who rotates in and out of his life, and in so doing, eventually aligns with Celie, becoming her mentor, protector, and lover. Celie's time with Shug is instructive and fosters many changes in Celie's thinking about religion, her own body, sexual relations, independence and oppression, and -- importantly -- about Celie's own capacity for change. The Color Purple is an epistolary story told through the letters that Celie writes -- first to God for help and in protest of her miserable life, and then to her...
Shug informs Celie that Albert has hidden away letters written to her by her sister Nettie, who has become a missionary in Africa. A more worldly, wise, and educated Nettie shares her first-hand observations about life in Africa in her letters to Celie. The letters are a poignant counterpoint to Celie's life in the South -- and they help Celie understand that women in Africa are also oppressed by men.
Celie's Character Arc
Celie's life is chock-a-block full of learning opportunities. Most of those learning opportunities involve negative reinforcement and, over time, Celie was able to orchestrate the negative reinforcement to her own benefit and that of others. Certainly Celie's learning was consequential and grounded in the direct, concrete experiences of her life. It is fair to say that the stakes were very high for Celie's capacity to learn from her mistakes and to recognize opportunities when she came upon them. Celie's character arc in the story is based on the changes she makes as a result of her learnings, which eventually enable her to form trust-based relationships again and to garner the strength to be independent.
Shug acts as Celie's muse and mentor. Through her relationship with Shug, Celie receives individual coaching that opens a way for her to reflect on life events, relate them to the expanded story that Shug tells, and generalize from her shared experiences with Shug to the new experiences that open around her. Through the mentoring Celie receives from Shug, she is able to move beyond a basic understanding of her life circumstances. Celie models herself after Shug, whose lifestyle and attitudes are far-flung from the other…
References
Skinner, B.F. (1972). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York: Vintage Books.
Smith, L.D.; Woodward, W.R. (1996) B.F. Skinner and behaviorism in American culture. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press.
The Color Purple (1985). Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved http://www.rottentomatoes.com / m/color_purple/.
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