Story Of Resilience; The Colour Purple

Alice Walker, "The Color Purple"
 Alice Walker grew up in Georgia – among a community held in racist problems and dire economic condition. She has first-hand knowledge of the hardships of not solely slavery but of the oppressive sharecropping system, where they have to be deprived of the massive part of their income. Throughout her childhood, Walker had to suffer from outright violence led to by her brothers. Most notably, she was shot within the face by one in all her brethren and suffered visual impairment in one eye as a result. She travelled to the African country and different areas of Africa to find her heritage as an African-American lady, and also to uncover her roots and origin. She shares her experiences of race and gender conflicts through her characters and settings. Among her several novels, Walker's "The Color Purple" exemplifies this by telling the story of Cellie. The novel does not simply tell us about the sufferings of African American women but also enable the reader to understand the disruption of ancient gender roles among African yank societies. The main conflict mentioned among "The Color Purple" is the enslavement of the female characters throughout the first twentieth century. In Walker's novel, Cellie grows up during a world that has nothing for her except violence, rape and life as a slave. As a toddler, she suffers sexual assault by her step-father, Alphonso, and in her teens involuntarily becomes the captive of her partner or a brutal husband to whom she refers to solely as "Mr. _________". The novel, consisting of letters written by Cellie throughout her life, showing that Cellie does not even recognize her husband's name.




She is restraint not only by the society in general where ladies among black families, on one hand, were seen as servants whose sole appointment was to run the menage and fulfil their husbands' needs. As African-Americans, on the opposite hand, they had to endure racial injustice and feel the remnants of slavery and oppression that dominated societies throughout the south. She is forced to learn to adjust into a society that expects ladies to blindly show conformity to their husband's desires and completely keep themselves away from any personal ambitions and dreams they'll have. It is only with the advent of Shug Avery – associate blues singer and secret lover of mister. ________, that Cellie is able to emancipate herself from the shackles of her husband's values. Throughout "The Color Purple" we become aware of Cellie’s life within the help of letters, written by her to either God or her sister Nettie. It's just because of these letters that we come to know about the sufferings and loneliness of Cellie. These letters are means of self-expression. Cellie, for instance, continues to jot down to Nettie even when she believes that her sister is lost somewhere in the sea during the second world war. Nettie also writes letters to Celie at Christmas and Easter, even though she guesses that Albert could have prevented her letters from reaching Celie (and vice versa). Technically speaking, this device collectively permits each character to provide important information which would not have otherwise obtained, for instance, the news that Celie’s children are not the result of her incestuous relationship with her stepfather.

In short, the novel is worth reading and contains a universal appeal in teaching women all over the world to fight against the oppression and to regain their self-esteem and confidence.