& # 8217 ; s Rise Above Oppression Essay, Research Paper

Celie? s Rise Above Oppression

From the twelvemonth 1910 to the twelvemonth 1945 the United States had undergone some of the most important adversities. Within this clip, the Great Depression took topographic point go forthing many people unemployed and many people left without nutrient or proper necessities. There was besides World War I, and the inflow of foreign peoples to the United States. In the South, the major job was racial tenseness. Although there was an egress of African American civilization, there were besides serious jobs such as segregation, the development of the Ku Klux Klan, and the innovation of the Jim Crow Torahs. Another issue confronting this clip was sexism. Most of society believed that a married woman was owned by her hubby and she must obey and follow his regulations. 1910 to 1945 were besides the old ages in which The Color Purple, by Alice Walker took topographic point. Celie, the chief character, is an African American adult female with great wealth, but of small importance due to the colour of her tegument. However, in this novel the racial and sexual adversities the oppressed ( Celie ) faces merely makes her stronger.

The manner Celie was treated as a kid is a premier illustration of sexism. Her male parent had raped her several times overruning her with an incestual gestation. He did this as her female parent was deceasing. This shows how the male parent saw adult females as an object, instead than human existences with a right to populate, and unrecorded healthily. If this had happened this twenty-four hours and age I am certain that it would non hold gone unnoticed. Consequences of such a disgusting offense would be rough. As if this was non bad plenty, her father gave her to Albert without any consent of Celie herself. He claimed that he would non give up Nettie, and that he better take Celie because she knows how to cook, clean, and take attention of kids. Albert hence takes Celie without any want of love, but with the premier consideration that she would be his belongings willing to take attention of his land and kids. This is absolute sexism.

Throughout the novel it is evident that Celie is seeking for love. It seems as if love would bring around all her hurting. She ne’er finds love through the work forces in her life. Work force in the South during this clip period do non handle Celie as a adult female to care for, but instead a adult female to be beaten when bad, and crush when good. Men held a great high quality over adult female during the full continuance of the book. The times in which adult females are stronger than work forces result in calamity. For case, when Sophia battles Harpo she seemingly stands as the stronger 1. She finally ends up in gaol for the same strength that made her superior. In the South during the old ages 1910 to 1945 there is no manner to travel around the sexism that presides. Walker does a nice occupation showing this actuality. She shows it dominantly through Sophia? s calamity. Sexism defines the clip period, and although Celie is a chief topic of this subjugation, this helps her to happen existent love and the realization of herself. In the terminal, it works out for her instead than take her to a life of sadness.

It is a common stating that? what doesn? t hurt us makes us stronger, ? and in the instance of Celie I find that to incorporate great truth. In the beginning of the novel Celie has a great deficiency of self-pride and a immense guilt for the incidents that take topographic point with her? father. ? She takes on this immense guilt because society? s beliefs have ingrained into Celie? s head that it is ever the adult females? s mistake, and that work forces will ever be superior. Toward the center of the novel, the sexism gets stronger and Celie? s esteem beads even lower. Albert treats Celie as a ownership and beats her consistently. She envies the strength of Sophia, and envies the strength of Shug. She besides envies the love between Shug and Albert. She has ever been a topic of emotionless sex, and an passionless matrimony. However, she

has to confront this because both her male parent and Albert have controlled her to the extreme point. As clip goes on, Shug teaches Celie how to be strong, but largely, how to love. This love gives Celie the strength to lift above the subjugation. It is the one thing that Celie has been looking for her whole life. She uses this newfound love, and the subjugation of the work forces in her life to lift above the sexism. She so becomes superior to Albert and holds the ability to non allow the reverses of the clip interfere with her felicity. Walker uses sexism as a major subject in the book, and overall a major subject of Celie? s development.

Another chief factor of subjugation that faces Celie in this novel is racism. Segregation is evident throughout the South where the novel takes topographic point. In this clip, the Whites were at an utmost high quality. It didn? t affair how much money you had, or what your respectable standing was in the community. When it came down to it, if you were black you had less rights than a white. Walker gives a premier illustration of this in The Color Purple. In so many words we learn that Celie is of high standing in the community. She has a great trade of wealth, obtains the most valuable plantation in Georgia, is slightly educated, and works with the church in town. Another African American character in the book, Corin, is a well-groomed, well-bred, educated, respectable, and affluent adult female of the North. However, when both Corin and Celie go into the store where there is an uneducated, immature, white clerk, they become inferior. He treats them as trash of the Earth merely because he was a Caucasic adult male. Besides, as a immature adult male of the white race he merely assumes that the black adult females are uneducated and will non reason with him seeing as they are lower than him. This is improbably dry because the shop that the white clerk is working in is owned by Celie. Possibly Walker, as an African American herself, is mocking this behaviour and clip period. If this is what she is making, than she is making it truly so, and is making it successfully.

During this incident, it is apparent that Celie has accepted these conditions. She has been so used to this subjugation that she has become accustomed to it. She neither challenges it nor disapproves of it, she merely accepts it. As the novel goes on, Celie finally begins to move different. Both the sexism and racism she has faced has led to the lifting strength within her. Shug was merely a accelerator for these alterations, but the built up subjugation is what the chief cause was. After catching Albert concealing Nettie? s letters, after eventually happening love that neither Albert nor her? male parent? gave, and after coming to the realisation that her male parent wasn? T truly her biological male parent, Celie gets the strength to travel past these past subjugations and rise above them. She moves to Memphis with Shug and Squeak and starts a trade name new life. She starts her ain concern as a pants-maker. She becomes really successful as an African American adult female, and at last she feels that she is above it all. She is content with her life and no longer lives in repression.

If there was one word to sum up Celie in this book it would be? survivor. ? Celie has faced many obstructions throughout the book. Although Walker doesn? t present the jobs Celie? s faces as an outward look of subjugation, if you look into it, it becomes evident that the cause of these jobs was precisely that. Possibly we wear? t semen to instant realisation of this because Celie accepts it as her manner of life. Possibly we wear? T see it because Celie frequently saw these obstructions as her ain mistake. However, the roots of subjugation run deep throughout this book. In the terminal nevertheless, Celie conquers them and becomes a human being who realizes her ain worth, instead than being the ultimate topic of racism and sexism. She additions strength, and survives.

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