Alice Walker’s The Color Purple is a heroic narrative of an African American woman, who in a social context of intense agonizing relationships, eventually reaches safe grounds in issues of feminism and racial liberation. It is a bildungsroman of a female protagonist Celie, who commences her journey as being a tragic heroine to the final attaining of a heroic status, by utilizing an empowering subjectivity that will eventually resonate with all other African American women she is surrounded by. In the end, she will finally reach the “heroic selfhood [which] is achieved when the protagonist successfully subverts those conventions of the established social order that oppress and subordinate her [when] she creates an identity that embodies her unique perceptions of self and when she discovers or creates a ‘community of equals’ that sustains or promises the survival of her newly-created self” (Smith, 2009, p.6). Consequently, by being surrounded by social outcasts such as Shug Avery, and being taught how to appreciate herself and her sexuality, by taking back the identity she has been stripped off from an early age by abuse and sexual exploitation, Celie will emerge as the victor and sole proprietor of her own happiness.
At the very beginning of fourteen year old Celie’s odyssey to selfhood, she finds herself at the initial stage of the female hero quest paradigm, where she is compelled by catastrophe, alienation, disillusionment or anger to embark on her quest and to leave behind the people on whom she has been dependent, and who have been perpetuating the very conditions that oppress and subordinate her (cited in Smith, 2009, p.6). She grows up constantly being told that she is ugly and stupid, and she eventually succumbs to this belief herself, which is buttressed by the fact that she is physically and sexually abused by her (step)father, Alphonso. To ensure that his wicked deeds are never found out, he threatens her with the words “You better never tell nobody but God” (Walker, 1985, p. 1). Threatened and frightened, without a soul to turn to for comfort and shelter except for her sister Nettie, she finds her only solace in laconism and anonymity.
Subsequently, she creates the only outlet available under these harsh conditions: writing letters to God. At first, her letters are an addled child’s epistolary effort of finding shelter and consolation from someone, anyone. God is for her just an old white man with a beard who may or may not listen to what she has to say, but, most importantly, she is telling her story to someone and this is the genesis of her narrative, which will eventually set her free. She will embark on a journey to liberation which will transfigure her perception of God from the white Christian God to the black, animistic all-pervasive God without a fixed image” (cited in Juneja, 2008, p.83). With the help of Shug, Sofia and Nettie’s letters, Celie will re-engage in her epistolary communication with God, previously neglecting it for some time due to the revelation of her true parentage: “Yeah, I say, and he give me a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won’t ever see again. Anyhow, I say, the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful and lowdown” (Walker, 1985, p. 199).
However, Shug helps Celie to reinvent and revitalize her own perception of religion, urging her not to deny the presence of God just because she was catechized about God from the Christian perspective. The view of religion that Shug urges her to find within herself is closely intertwined with the whole universe around her, including her own self that she has yet to find. Only when an individual manages to transcend the all white, male imposed limitations on religion, can faith truly be experienced as it should. At a slow pace, Celie discovers the ubiquitous presence of God in everything that surrounds her, managing to transform the austere image of the ancient, bearded judge of sinners into an incorporeal, genderless entity that is one with the universe and everything in it: “Well, us talk and talk about God, but I’m still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?)” (Walker, 1985, p.204). It is exactly because Celie identifies God with all men that she needs to recognize that she cannot reject one’s oppressors, cannot escape them, but only fight them, by initially redefining them in her mind. Shug teaches her that she does not need to reject the presence of God in her life, just as she does not have to reject the presence of men. In addition, Celie learns that there is life beyond what only men state life is, that she has the power to reorder the perception of the world, because at the very end of the novel, The Color Purple will reveal itself completely in all its intricacy of meaning - the redefining of traditional gender roles and sexual orientation – with Celie as one of the most powerful characters.
Shug Avery presents the catalyst to Celie’s inner development of mind. This fictional blues singer evokes the 1920s classic blues divas, and inspires Celie’s and Albert’s transformations because she is the novel’s moral agent, but hers is not a perceived morality, because when judged by conventional standards, she is deemed profoundly immoral (cited in George, 2009, p.127). Yet, from the very start, Celie sees something more in Shug, something deep and caring, that will later develop into the relationship that will subject her to a whole new life experience. Despite the fact that Shug reminds Celie of her “mama,” Shug is anything like Celie’s birth mother, downtrodden and overpowered. She has enrooted a domineering personality and sternly refuses to be the stereotypical, subjugated female African American.
Moreover, she remains unafraid to sing about and live her life outside the confines of society’s mores and gender roles (George, 2009, p.127). She offers advice in her songs for other women, to be wary of men and their ways, engendering a story that testifies to the cyclical nature of racism. The abusers of The Color Purple are up to a certain point, pure stereotypes of African American males as being one of the two extremes on the spectrum of traditional, male behaviour: cruel or weak. Still, it is not Walker’s intention to buttress these stereotypes, but to imply the readers to uncover the formation and perpetuation of such stereotypes as embodied in white Southern racist and sexist socialist structures (George, 2009, p.128). It appears that the patriarchate has enslaved the black community with these racist tactics, where the black men’s plight with racist stereotypes underpins the women’s struggle with sexism, locking the two in a perpetually nefarious cycle of racism and sexism.
Thus, those who propagate violence and abuse through their actions, are often themselves victims of this vicious cycle of paternally imposed racism. For instance, Harpo resorts to beating Sofia only after being told by his father that his lack of control over how Sofia behaves and what she does, emasculates him in the eyes of his peers. Similarly, Celie herself advises him to beat Sofia into subordination, not out of malice and hatred, but purely for not knowing how to react in a different manner to the jealousy she harbours over Sofia’s assertiveness and power. In addition, Mr. _____ is abusive due to his own family’s cycle of physical cruelty. This fact is reminiscent of the white plantation owners being abusive towards their slaves, and such behaviour being passed down from generation to generation. Thus, by feeling socially inadequate due to this, the black man’s only outlet is physical abuse of his spouse, the only one he believes he has the power to control and exert his supremacy over.
Despite the fact that the characters are aware of the fact that their socially imposed behaviour is wrong, it is extremely difficult to break out of this enchanted cycle of abuse. In the character of Shug, Walker creates a blues womanist figure able to conceive of a black community free of sexist, racist and religious constraints imposed by the elite white South (George, 2009, p.129). She proves that only by forcefully taking one’s life back into ones hands and refusing to be treated like an object, while demanding respect, can these women free themselves from tyranny. Only by finding their voice and talking back can they make the men who abuse them see them as women who love them, and not as mere sexual objects. Thus, once Celie is surrounded by all these empowered women, like Shug, Sofia and Squeak, she can start gaining her voice and building her power to say “no” to abuse. Eventually, her memory of not just the female characters that nurtured her friendship and love, but also of male characters urged to plunge into abuse by racist stereotypes, Alphonso, Albert and Harpo, will serve as a “collective story about blues violence – a memory that displays the cultural trauma of racism and sexism and simultaneously proposes a womanist solution of cooperation and love” (George , 2009, p.129).
Furthermore, Nettie’s letters serve a very relevant purpose in expanding the range of the novel, taking the narrative as far as Africa. In an effort to aid black people of the world, she is equally lonesome as her sister, and she witnesses the same behaviour Celie does: oppression is a widespread manifestation of human nature. While Celie is surrounded by oppression of women by men and blacks by whites, Nettie witnesses the imperial enslavement and cultural clashes. Additionally, despite the fact that Nettie is clever and ambitious, she still succumbs to being silenced, when Mr. ____ conceals her letters to Celie. It is when Celie, aided by Shug, recovers her letters that she finally possesses enough strength and courage to be aware of the full power of her narrative selfhood. Her affirmation of power reaches its peak in her finally unloading years of psycho-physical abuse and cursing Mr. ____. She reaffirms her own identity and ultimately starts voicing herself.
On her journey to self-discovery, Celie must also reawaken a new perspective of her physical existence, meaning learning to love her body, in addition to someone else’s. To confront the body is not only to confront an individual’s abuse, but also the abuse of women’s bodies throughout history; it is the external symbol of women’s enslavement, a reminder of her degradation and her consignment to an inferior status (Ross, 2008, p.4). Thus, to anaesthetize the pain she feels, Celie initially resorts to numbing herself: “It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That’s how come I know trees fear man” (Walker, 1985, p.22). She still does not have the strength to fight the abuse, and thus, sees the lone solution as making herself detached from the pain. It is far easier to perceive her body as someone else’s, because she is unable to fight just yet.
Her bodily fragmentation is most strongly reinforced by the way her stepfather presents her as a less than whole woman to her future husband, convincing him to marry her, with the words: “She ugly God done fixed her. You can do everything just like you want to and she ain’t gonna make you feed it or clothe it” (Ross, 2008, p.9; Walker, 1985, p.9). Thus, to be able to overcome the physical abuse, she must first realize that she is not stupid, she is not ugly, and her body is not there for the amusement and abuse of men she has been subdued to. She must define herself as a sexual being, accepting this side of her own personality, and explore it to its very core. For this, she is in dire need of guidance in the guise of a highly sexualized and liberated woman, Shug.
Their relationship develops slowly. While everyone believes that Shug’s morals are all too dubious for her to be considered an upright woman, with her sharp tongue and unwillingness to consent to the image of the stereotypical woman in the African American community, she reminds Celie of her mother, an image that will be reinforced by the two of them taking turns caring for each other. Even before seeing her in flesh, Celie perceives Shug as “the most beautiful woman I ever saw,” but she goes beyond this mere physical portrayal of Shug’s complex and rebellious being (Walker, 1985, p.7). She is instinctively aware that there is more to Shug than initially meets the eye, and also, she is attentive enough to notice Shug’s suffering: “Her eyes serious tho. Sad some” (Walker, 1985, p.7). Thus, the perception of common suffering will forge an immediate bond with Shug in Celie’s growing consciousness (Smith, 2009, p.10). Shug will slowly become Celie’s nurturer and protector, simultaneously helping her find her own voice and identity.
Most importantly, the two will develop a full sexual relationship, which will make Celie redefine her own existence within the confines of sexuality. Shug offers a new and distinct perspective of virginity: since Celie has never had a pleasurable sexual act - she has never experienced orgasm - that makes her a virgin. This perspective transcends the biological definition of what a virgin is, and focuses instead on the pleasure aspect. Sex is devoid of meaning unless it is consensual and represents an act of two sexual subjects, while so far, Celie has only experienced being objectified sexually. Her intimate relationship with a woman subverts the myths of virginity and romantic, heterosexual love, while moving Celie’s development beyond the constraints of conventional marriage (Smith, 2009, p.10). Shug will become everything to Celie: mother, friend, lover, confidant, and with Shug’s gentle nurture, she will finally reach a stage in her life, where she will be fully aware of her identity and self-worth. She will eventually, cease to make herself numb and wood-like, and will open up to Shug, with the flow of her personal narration becoming effervescent.
In addition to teaching her about identity and self-worth, Shug teaches Celie about the dangers of revenge. When Celie succumbs to her pent up emotions, her primal instinct is to inflict the same amount of pain to Mr. ____ by slitting his throat. However, Shug literally and figuratively takes the razor out of her hand, helping her realize that revenge is the ultimate capitulation to patriarchal codes of behavior; giving in to her violent impulses will only chain Celie to the very social order from which she is struggling to free herself (Smith, 2009, p.11). Instead, she urges Celie to fight this cyclical nature of racism and sexism through relying on strong female relationships and through channeling her pent up pain and rage into an artistic outlet. After the argument Sofia and Celie have regarding Celie’s advice to Harpo on how to make Sofia more obedient, the two women reach mutually beneficial closure through making a quilt: “Let’s make quilt pieces out of these messed up curtains, she say. And I run git my pattern book”(Walker, 1985, p.44). This quilt and sewing that Celie will take up serve as a potent symbol of her decision to fight the enchanted cycle of racism she has been trapped in, instead of succumbing to it. A quilt represents a unity of different and unique patterns sewn together. Thus, symbolically, it represents a unity of different people, merged together in one fully functional unity, which is all the more beautiful exactly because all its pieces are so different. It is a community of acceptance and love, where these diverse, dissimilar patterns stand as symbols of people with different religious beliefs, sexual orientations and races, and provide loving support and acceptance of one another’s differences.
Similarly, Celie’s sewing business represents much more than a successful business endeavor. It is yet another means of fighting racial as well as gender based segregation, by redefining sewing as not merely an inconsequential labor executed by women, but a profitable and advantageous business that offers the previously subjugated women a new liberated identity of being their own providers and creators of their own happiness.
Finally, the novel offers a sort of a fairy-tale ending, with Celie being at ease with herself, establishing her identity, with her business flourishing, and in addition, being reunited with her sister, as well as her children. Her life has been anything but easy, wrought with abuse and daily torment. Yet, with the help of society’s outcasts like Shug, Celie recovers her long-lost identity and sense of self, managing to recapture the crucial experiences of life that have been cruelly taken away from her. In the end, with a fully constructed ego, the victorious Celie can finally celebrate her existence.
References:
George, C., 2009. “My Man Treats Me Like a Slave”: The Triumph of Womanist Blues over Blues Violence in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. In: K. LaGrone, ed. 2009. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. New York: Editions Rodopi B.V., pp.119-148.
Juneja, O. P., 2008. The Purple Color of Walker Women: Their Journey from Slavery to Liberation. In: H. Bloom, ed. 2008. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. New York: Infobase Publishing, pp.79-88.
Ross, D. W., 2008. Celie in the Looking Glass: The Desire for Selfhood in The Color Purple. In: H. Bloom, ed. 2008. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. New York: Infobase Publishing, pp.3-20.
Smith, B. R., 2009. We Need a Hero: African American Female Bildungsromane and Celie’s Journey to Heroic Female Selfhood in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. In: K. LaGrone, ed. 2009. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. New York: Editions Rodopi B.V., pp.3-22.
Walker, A. 1985. The Color Purple. New York: Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, Inc.
