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What is interesting about this statement is the fact that Celie used to see herself as a tree that fought back her negative emotions.
Shug is instrumental in Celie's mental growth. She becomes Celie's confidant but, more importantly, Shug helps her view God differently. For example, Celie's earlier impressions of God are that he is a man that behaves much like the other men she has encountered in her life. She writes that God is "just like all the other mens I know... Trifling, forgitful and lowdown" (199). It is through Shug that Celie begins to recognize God is inside her and "inside everybody else" (202) and he is not a "he or a she, but a it" (202). Furthermore, she helps her see that God "ain't something you can look at apart from anything else, including yourself. I believe God is everything" (202). Shug's ideas help Celie understand God on a deeper, more personal level, which ultimately allows her to appreciate herself as well.
Shug and Celie are also very different people is regards to authority figures. In the beginning of the novel, Celie has a profound respect for Shug who had authority over Mr. ____, which is a complete contrast to the relationship Celie had with him. Celie is weak and literally takes the verbal...
She never questions it and never fights back. (43) Through the help of others, she begins to realize this and slowly she evolves into a woman who believes she can rise above such treatment.
She becomes assertive and can even face herself and life chooses to throw her way. Later in the novel, she writes, "I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook... But I'm here" (214). This statement reveals how she believes that she can make something of her life. Close to the end of the novel, she admits that she is "at peace with the world" (255). These developments illustrate how Celie overcomes her weakness to men and their authority over her.
To conclude, She and Celie represent two very different personalities in Walker's novel the Color Purple. Celie undergoes a dramatic transformation through her relationship with Shug. She not only learns to view men differently, but she also learns how to see God and herself in a more positive light. Shug is assertive and serves as a foil to Celie's character. Without Shug's influence in her life, Celie would have never come to mature as a woman and a human being.
Works Cited
Walker, Alice. The…
Works Cited
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Pocket Books. 1982.
Janie in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Celie in Alice Walker's the Color Purple The main character and narrator of Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Janie, has much in common with the narrator and main character Celie within Alice Walker's novel The Color Purple (1982). Each speaks authentically, in her own voice: the too-often ignored voice of an African-American female in
Heroine If there is anything that we as a society love deeply…it's a hero. Both children and adults alike are drawn to heroes in both reality and fantasy. Children grow up being regaled by stories of the prince saving the princess and adults beam over happy endings in movies where the hero saves the day. Most people would describe the role as hero as someone, who defies the odds, is
Color Purple- Film and Book The Color Purple is a deeply through-provoking and highly engrossing tale of three black women who use their personal strength to transform their lives. Alice Walker's work was published in 1982 and it inspired Steven Spielberg so much that he began working on its film version as soon as the novel won accolades for its brilliant storyline and powerful narrative. However the movie, though it
As a character, Celie's own experiences have not engaged her on the same levels that Shug's sexual experiences have. This is to say that Celie's life and collection of experiences have not been personally gratifying or freeing in the way that Shug suggest sexual experiences should or can be. To Shug, sex is more about the personal gratification and the freedom of bodily and emotional expression that comes with
I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain't safe in a family of men" (46). Sofia is brazen and outspoken and has little in common with the often-beaten and intimidated Celie. Celie says, "I like Sofia, but she don't act like me at all. If she talking when Harpo and Mr. ____ come
However, she soon realizes that she has given Harpo that advice because she is jealous that Sofia is capable of fighting back against abuse, when she herself is not. Sofia responds that her close bond with her five strong sisters has helped her. Throughout the novel, the theme of women bonding to fight oppression emerges and re-emerges. Sofia is a strong and independent woman who refuses to be oppressed. When