Character Analysis of Celie, the Color Purple Essay

Celie Being a black female in the south during the early 1900’s, at a time when white and blacks were socially segregated and women were absolutely inferior to men, was one of the many challenges Celie would be faced with in her lifetime. Born in 1895, Celie was raised on a farm in a small town in Georgia where formal education took a back seat to physical labor and household maintenance, and the Church was the main focal point of socialization among local town members. We are first introduced to Celie in 1909, when she is 14 years old, running and frolicking through the fields with her sister Nettie, then giving birth to her second child by her step-father. Soon after the newborn was taken out of her arms, an emotionless and†¦show more content†¦The mailbox becomes a symbol of hope for years to come. As the jingle of the bells echo in the distance excitement escalates with the hope of a letter from Nettie, indicating that she is alive, as death would be the only thing to keep her from writing to Celie. Shug arrives in the summer 1916 and Celie’s first real love is born. Mister’s name, Albert, is discovered during Shug’s first day at the farm. Celie watches Albert, with child-like amusement and curiosity, as he fumbles through trying to impress Shug by making her breakfast. In an effort to win over Shug, who previously declared Celie as â€Å"ugly,† she prepares an award winning breakfast that even Shug couldn’t turn away. Over time, a relationship begins to form between Shug and Celie, leading Shug to write and sing a song dedicated to her at the jook joint, filling Celie with an unknown type approval and love. Celie shows us that her capacity to love and to be loved is blooming during the scene of her first kiss with Shug. Thrown into young adulthood at the early age of 14, at 21 years old Celie now begins the true process of developing intimacy with an unlikely character for the time. A long lasting friendship and mutual love affair between Celie and Shug has begun, and will later prove to be her saving grace as her confidence, identity, purpose, and will increase. Shug plans to leaveShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Color Purple 1043 Words   |  5 Pagesin Alice Walkers novel, The Color Purple. I am going to show how the political categories of race, sexuality and gender play a role throughout. I am also going to discuss Walker’s own term, â€Å"Womanism† and how that plays throughout the story. I will be focusing on the main character Celie, as well as other characters to help me demonstrate my analysis effectively. Celie, the main character, starts out the book writing letters to god, a god of her understanding. Celie writes these letters to gainRead MoreEssay on Race and Class in Alice Walkers Color Purple1622 Words   |  7 PagesEssay on Race and Class in The Color Purple  Ã‚     Ã‚   An important  Ã‚  juncture in Alice Walkers The Color Purple is reached when Celie first recovers the missing letters from her long-lost sister Nettie. This discovery not only signals the introduction of a new narrator to this epistolary novel but also begins the transformation of Celie from writer to reader. Indeed, the passage in which Celie struggles to puzzle out the markings on her first envelope from Nettie provides a concrete illustration Read MoreThe Color Purple: A Story of Transformation Essay1231 Words   |  5 Pagessomething fundamentally different from masculine experience of social encounters? Is there such a thing as underlying feminine character structure which always and everywhere differs from the basic character structure of the male? 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The one color contain two completely opposite colors which represent price of royalty and nobility. The Color Purple using epistolary style to describe black woman Celie and herRead MoreFinding Your Voice: an Analysis of the Color Purple1864 Words   |  8 PagesFinding Your Voice: An Analysis of The Color Purple â€Å"Who do you think you is? he say... Look at you. You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all.† (187) Alice Walker, the author of The Color Purple, focuses on the struggles of a poor and uneducated African American girl, who is verbally, physically and sexually abused by several men in her life. She feels worthless and becomes completely submissive. Her only way to express her feelings is through privateRead More Compare racial and cultural struggles in Alice Walker’s The Color2850 Words   |  12 Pagescultural struggles in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple as well as Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye. 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Cecile protects Nettie from her father and allows her to experience a relatively basic idea of freedomRead MoreAnalysis Of Alice Walkers The Color Purple2079 Words   |  9 Pages In Alice Walkers The Color Purple, she explores the thin grey line that stands between survival and living. Through her protagonist, Celie, she examines the dramatic shifts of empowerment; focusing on the young black girl in the 1850’s. Walker introduces the reader to the protagonist, Celie, through a series of letters. In these letters the reader finds Celie amidst her mother’s death. The author chooses to address her letters to God, giving Celie a greater willpower to survive. Celie’s upbringing