Lisa Kong

"The Color Purple," is a novel written by Alice Walker. It is a story about a young girl name Celie. Celie struggle for independent in her life. In order for her to accomplish this, she has to discover how to love and let others love for who she is. Celie was known as the narrator of the story. "The Color Purple," was a tragedy novel that took place in the twentieth century in a small African-American community at Macon County, Georgia.. The conflict presented in the story is man vs. man.

Celie

Celie is a young uneducated black girl who constantly writes letters to God. The letters shows Celie struggle to stay strong due to her horrible life. She was raped by her father when she was fourteen and got impregnated with two children, who had been sent away by her father. Celie does not know who to tell her story to so she wrote letters to god. She was born into a poor family, her mother was sick, she have many brothers and sisters. Celie does not know how to fight, she only wonder why all of the horrible things happen to her. These things make her seem worthless. When Celie mature into a young woman, she married to a cruel man, Albert who wanted to married her sister, Nettie. Celie was weak, but Shug who was her husband’s mistress taught her to become stronger. Sofia who was Celie’s daughter in law also shows Celie to stand up to men. As a result, Celie became strong physically and spiritually. The changes are exemplified in the quote, "You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong, I say. It’s time to leave you and enter into the Creation. And your dead body just the welcome mat I need." Celie finally expresses her feeling about Albert who did not treated her with human rights. I feel that Celie is a very strong character who can survive her life with all the misery. She have gone through sexually abuse and treated cruelty by both her father and her husband, but she finally overcome this misery.

Shug is a singer who is selfish and self-centered, but she helps Celie get her self-esteem back. She became Celie lover. Shug is free in nature, and Albert is her lover. When she was ill Celie have to take care of her. Shug sings because she wants to express her feeling and show people her wild nature. As a result of her wild nature she brought Celie back to life. Her unique and originality change Celie life forever. From the quote, "You are sure ugly," suggested Shrug honesty and courage, she is not afraid of calling a person that she never met "Ugly." Shug had 3 children with Albert, but she did not show any sign of being a mother until she met Celie, who shows her the love in life. Shug is wild in nature, she seems to be independence and she stands up to herself because she was the one who is in controlled in her relationship. She goes to Albert when she feels like she wants him. Her wild nature had influence Celie to stand up for herself. I feel that Shug life is very simple and not as complicated as Celie, therefore she looks much younger and prettier.

Albert is a weak and evil character who abuses Celie and treats her like a slave. He is evil because he does not know what he wants. His father is his role model, which cause him to be self-centered and an irrational person. He is also a selfish person because didn’t care about Celie, he only cares about Shug. From the beginning, he never wanted to marry Celie because she is not a virgin and she is not pretty. Albert is weak and coward in relationship, he liked Shug, but he is afraid to asked Shug to married him because he couldn’t control her in their relationship and he is afraid of her wild nature. When Shug and Celie left him, he transforms into an understanding old man. The transformation in Celie of becoming independent helps Albert to realize that his cruelty backed him from enjoying new Celie when they were married. I feels that Albert is not a bad character, he didn’t realize the way he treated Celie was wrong until he lose her. Albert didn’t want to be with a woman who he doesn’t have feeling for and who he thinks is ugly. I think that if Albert looks at Celie inner beauty, he will realize how pretty it was.

Chapter 1 was a start to Celie’s horrible life. Celie was fourteen years old when she was sexually abuse by her father. Besides being abuse by her father, she is the housekeeper and has to take care of many of her brother and sister. She doesn’t have anyone to tell her problems to, except for god. This chapter led to further conflict in the story because the cruelty of her father, made Celie feel useless. Celie have been abused so much that she istooweak to stand up for herself.

Chapter 11 is also a conflict, it started out when Nettie runs away from home and she stay with Celie and her husband. Nettie shows Celie to be patient with children and to take charge of the children. Beside this, Nettie told Celie to fight back, but Celie only know how to survive. Albert fell in love with Nettie. When Nettie refuses to have sex with Albert, Albert makes her leave. Before Nettie leave, she promised Celie that she would write letter to Celie. This chapter led the separation of Celie and her sister. Nettie is the one pleasure that Celie have in her miserable life. Now that Nettie is separtated from her, Celie is basically too weak, without anyone to be there for her and supports her.

Celie found out that her husband has stolen the letters that her sister has been writing her, Celie plans to express her anger by leaving Albert. In chapter 74, it shows the climax that leads to the resolution. It was during the dinner, Shug said that she and Grady is leaving for Memphis, Shug also announce that Celie is going along with them. Albert thought Celie is finally happy with her life, so he didn’t understand why she is leaving. Celie told him with great anger the pain that they have caused in her life. Celie finally expresses her thoughts and her feeling to Albert. Celie is no longer weak, she had finally overcome her weakness.

THEME

Celie have gone through many hardships and miserable in her life before she finds happiness. In the end, however, Celie is reunited with her sister Nettie and her children, Olivia and Adam. She lives in her childhood home with Shug Avery and she runs a successful business. She also becomes a friend with her ex-husband. The author is applying to the reader that blacks have suffered the period of violence and racism in the society and in their home. Blacks didn’t do anything to stop the violence, but instead they cause more problem that destroy their unity by abusing women mentally and physically. Black women are second class citizens in the society and they are also considered second class citizens at home. Therefore the black women could not enjoy human rights in the society and at home. They did not have the rights of their ownership, their independence and their rights to express their feeling. The author also shows the unity of woman. When the women finally realized that they could get a better treatment from the men if they work together, until men finally show some respect. The theme show people that in the world there are racism and sexism, the only way to overcome these problems is by uniting and working together to improve their status rather than to destroy themselves. The theme also show me that as a woman I should always stay true and strong. There may be various problems in the society, instead of destroying people in the community we should always try to help one and another in order to create a better world where respect are shown.

I believe that this book is a tragedy that helps me to understand the world more. It shows me that the community can destroy themselves when they begrudge the people of their community. I would recommend this book to the people in the world who are being abuse by their love ones. This novel can helps them to stay strong and show them that they are not the only one in the world who are physically or mentally being abuse.