Violence and Oppression of Women in The Color Purple

Introduction

Alice Walker gives the reader a glimpse into the minds of her characters through her unique expository style. Through the eyes of Celie, we discover that violence is a means of control. Violence is a part of the cultural experience of the African-American woman in the South (Magill, Kohler, and Mazzeno). It is a way of life with roots that run deep into the heart and soul of gender differences in the Old South.

This paper explores the culture of violence as seen through the eyes of Celie, Sofia, and the other women in The Color Purple, and how it reduces the women in the story to nothing more than livestock. Using evidence from the novel, it supports the thesis that violence from a man to a woman was not only tolerated but was expected, and that women were regarded as nothing more than property.

Violence and Oppression

The first incidence of violence appears when Celie's own father rapes her. Celie describes it this way: "He start to choke me, saying You better shut up and git used to it. But I don't never git used to it. And now I feels sick every time I be the one to cook" (Walker, Part 1, p. 11). This quote demonstrates several points about the acceptability of violence. The first is that Celie can expect the violence to continue — this is not a one-time occurrence. Celie is expected to "git used to it." The quote also suggests that this type of behavior is considered a part of what it means to be a woman. It has been suggested that this scene is a reenactment of the heroine Philomela, and that Walker is consciously invoking this archetype (Cutter, p. 161).

Celie does not understand what is happening to her and cannot comprehend morning sickness. She is kept ignorant of even the most practical matters of life. All she has been permitted to learn is subservience — even the basic facts of life have been withheld from her. She will learn by experience. Through violence, Celie is learning the hopeless course that her life will take as she grows up.

When Celie gives birth to two babies fathered by her own father, they are taken from her and sold in town. She is led to believe the infants have been killed, ensuring she will not try to search for them later. This also demonstrates the extent to which people — and women in particular — are treated as property in this culture. Celie's father shows absolutely no compassion when he sells his own grandchildren. She is being treated as a breeder, not as his daughter.

A Woman's Place

Violence against women is treated as a normal part of the daily routine. When Harpo asks his father how to control his wife, his father replies, "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" (Walker, Part 1, p. 42). Women in the South were taught that they had a fixed place in life, one permanently subservient to men. Black women, moreover, were forced to be subservient to all white persons, including white women (Salzer, p. 8). Racism persisted even after the Civil War had ended. Black women were not officially slaves, but they were still treated as such.

Men could speak openly about abusing women, but women did not dare respond in kind. When Sofia was asked by the white mayor's wife to work as her maid, she replied, "Hell no." The mayor slapped Sofia. Sofia punched him back. She was arrested and beaten nearly to death. Her purple bruises stood as a warning to other Black women about what would happen if they stepped out of line:

"When I see Sofia I don't know why she still alive. They crack her skull, they crack her ribs. They tear her nose loose on one side. They blind her in one eye. She swole from head to foot. Her tongue the size of my arm, it stick out tween her teef like a piece of rubber. She can't talk. And she just about the color of an eggplant" (Walker, Part 2, p. 87).

Conclusion

Throughout the novel, Celie remains the seemingly perfect, subservient figure that Black women were expected to be. She is juxtaposed against Sofia, who embodies what they all may feel inside but cannot show. In the end, when Celie discovers Nettie's letters hidden by Mr. ____, she too contemplates violence — revealing the inner turmoil that oppressed women must constantly suppress. As Celie begins to recognize her own beauty, a transformation takes root within her (Byerman, p. 321). She is the novel's heroine precisely because she must overcome the mental anguish of her beatings while still performing the role of the perfect wife and woman as defined by the dominant culture (Bloom, p. 181).

Evidence from the novel supports the thesis that violence from a man to a woman was not only tolerated but expected, and that women were regarded as nothing more than livestock. This issue remains a central theme of the book and paints a picture of a South that was deeply stratified along lines of race and gender. The color purple is used throughout the novel to signify the oppression of Black women in Old South culture. Walker uses Celie as an image of the woman who knows her prescribed place, and uses Sofia to show the degree to which Black women were compelled to suppress their feelings — even when they were entirely in the right.