Finding Your Voice an Analysis of the Color Purple Essay Sample free essay sample

â€Å"Who do you believe you is? he say†¦ Look at you. You black. you pore. you ugly. you a adult female. Goddam. he say. you nil at all. † ( 187 ) Alice Walker. the writer of The Color Purple. focal points on the battles of a hapless and uneducated African American miss. who is verbally. physically and sexually abused by several work forces in her life. She feels worthless and becomes wholly submissive. Her lone manner to show her feelings is through private letters to God. An emphatic subject in this work is that showing one’s ideas and emotions is indispensable in order to develop an interior sense of ego. In the beginning of this novel. Celie is a immature and naif stripling. She is victimized by her step-father who rapes and impregnates her repeatedly. Her letters to God are her lone flight. She hides inside herself. Scared. she writes. â€Å"I am 14 old ages old. We will write a custom essay sample on Finding Your Voice: an Analysis of the Color Purple Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I am I have ever been a good miss. Possibly you can give me a mark allowing me cognize what is go oning to me. † ( 1 ) She looks to God for support. â€Å"†¦long as I can spell G-o-d I got person along. † ( 26 ) A few old ages subsequently. Celie is forced to get married a barbarous adult male who beats her. forces her to hold sex. and treats her like a slave. She is wholly powerless and inactive to those who abuse her. As her life advancements. she goes through a extremist alteration. Her hubby. whom she calls Mr. ___ . deliberately keeps Celie separated from the lone individual that she loves. her sister Nettie. When Celie discovers that he has been concealing letters from Nettie for several old ages. she wakes up and wants to kill him. This gives Celie the ability to show her choler. â€Å"I expletive you†¦ Until you do right by me. everything you touch will crumble†¦ Everything you even dream approximately will fail†¦ Every lick you hit me you will endure twice. I say. † ( 187 ) She eventually becomes expressive. A repeating subject in the novel is that happening a voice is indispensable when constructing one’s ain individuality. After many old ages of being a victim of force. Celie finally finds her interior sense of ego. She achieves independency and becomes a confident adult female who can stand up for herself. When she leaves Mr. ___ . Celie affirms her authorization over her barbarous hubby. â€Å"I’m pore. I’m black. I may be ugly and can’t cook†¦ But I’m here. † ( 187 ) Two important inquiries that arise from the text are: Why does Celie allow the work forces in her life rule her and why doesn’t she stand up for herself? After reading the novel. the response to this inquiry is still non clear. Celie is an object of force. She becomes pregnant by her step-father at the immature age of 14 and has to cover with her mother’s sudden decease. Celie is brought up with the impression that adult females are inferior to work forces. She is repeatedly exposed to sexist positions of society. â€Å"Wives is like kids. You have to allow ‘em cognize who got the upper manus. Nothing can make that better than a good sound whipping. † ( 42 ) Celie is to a great extent abused from a immature age. Suppressed and censored. she has no 1 to state her feelings to. She can non show herself because she is scared. Most of the people in her life are work forces who invariably degrade and disrespect her. For illustration. her step-father thinks really lowly of her when repairing her up for matrimony. â€Å"I got to git rid of her†¦ She a bad influence on my other girls†¦ She ugly†¦ She ain’t smart either. and I’ll merely be just. you have to watch her or she’ll give away everything you own†¦ And another thing – She state prevarications. † ( 18 ) Celie’s self-pride is about non-existent. This affects her greatly. She can non stand up for herself. Celie feels that she deserves the intervention that is imposed on her because she is black and a adult female. Until she is influenced and triggered by other adult females to contend back. Celie is finally powerless. Her narrative can besides be compared to Melinda Sordino’s in the book Speak. Melinda is a victim of colza and has problem coming to footings with her state of affairs. Melinda stops talking because of her traumatizing memories. She literally loses her voice. In an attempt to cover with the hurting the colza has caused her. this immature miss uses art as a g et bying method merely like Celie. who writes letters to God. much like journal entries. Once Melinda builds up the bravery to talk out. she is protected and congratulated by her household. friends and classmates. Celie goes through the same type of experience. Though this is the personal narrative of merely one black adult female fighting for alteration. it represents that of many other African Americans life in the South in the early 20th century and still today! Symbolism is one of the major literary devices used in this novel. The colour purple itself is a important symbol. It is foremost mentioned when Celie goes shopping for a violet frock. â€Å"Somethin purple†¦ But us look and look and no purple. † ( 28 ) Purple is the colour of royalty. It can besides stand for luxury. wealth. love affair. feminism. passion and edification. The fact that Celie could non happen any violet stuff represents all the above attributes that she can non tie in with herself. She ends up purchasing bluish stuff. The colour blue is cold and depressing. Buying the bluish cloth symbolizes her suffering life style. Later. a friend of Celie. Shug convinces her to look at herself bare. â€Å"She say. here take this mirror and travel expression at yourself down at that place. I bet you neer seen it. hold you? † ( 79 ) Once Celie sees herself. she identifies that her private parts are violet. Again. this colour has a negative intension seeing as Celi e was sexually abused. For a 3rd clip. purple is compared to trouble. When Celie’s near friend Sofia is put in gaol after a violent battle. her face is bruised. â€Å"And she merely about the colour of a aubergine. † ( 87 ) Finally. Celie lives her life bitterly and does non detect or appreciate anything around her. Shug tells her. â€Å"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the colour purple in a field someplace and don’t notice it. † ( p. 178 ) Shug feels that God created beauty in the universe to do worlds happy. She feels that it is of import that people take the clip to admit everything around them. From this. Celie realizes that Shug has enlightened her. She admits that she does non appreciate the universe she lives in. This changes the manner Celie perceives her being. She begins to hold a more positive mentality on life. despite the adversity she experiences. Celie herself can besides be compared to the colour purple. She has lived her life unnoticed. Once she realizes this. Celie creates an individuality for herself and is eventually noticed amongst her community. Another of import symbol in this novel is blo omerss. Once Celie is liberated from her matrimony. she starts a pant-making concern. The bloomerss represent independency. which once more is a construct that relates to the subject of the novel. Celie can eventually supply for herself. In her â€Å"previous life† . Celie’s merely function in society was to bear kids and maintain house. The bloomerss besides symbolize a alteration in Celie’s relationship with work forces. Before. the thought that work forces and adult females had anything at all in common was wholly balmy. â€Å"Men and adult females non say to have on the same thing†¦ Men spose to have on the bloomerss. † ( 238 ) When Celie starts have oning bloomerss. she no longer feels victimized by the work forces in her life. The subject of making an individuality for one’s ego is one time once more evident. Celie can eventually see freedom. a impression she has neer known earlier. As the novel begins. Celie is a really simple-minded storyteller. She sees things for what they are and can non construe them. Over clip. her letters become rather insightful. Walker’s many symbols in this novel contributed greatly to making more complex and abstract thoughts and constructs that can be left to the reader’s reading. The point of position in this novel is peculiarly interesting. This epistolatory novel is told in the first-person in the signifier of letters. The first half of the book is told from Celie’s point of position as she writes to God. The 2nd half of the book is told in letters between Celie and her sister Nettie. Even when the narrative is narrated by Nettie. the reader still experiences the narrative through Celie’s eyes. Celie is an uneducated adult female since she was forced to drop out of school when she became pregnant. The consequence of her hapless grammar and spelling intensifies the rural and uneducated universe she lives in. Her letters are short and sharp. Celie briefly describes what she experiences and how she feels. This manner of composing forces the reader to go personal with Celie as she is a really distinguishable character. On the other manus. she does non develop or construe her ideas. Her linguistic communication is really distressing. â€Å"First he put his thing up gainst my hip and kind of wriggle it about. Then he grab clasp of my breasts. Then he push his thing inside my cunt. When that injury. I cry. He start to choke me. stating you better close up and rotters used to it. † ( 1 ) Celie provides in writing descriptions of all the maltreatment she experiences. She does non intend to be vulgar when utilizing her petroleum words because they are the lone 1s she knows. She uses the linguistic communication she grew up hearing and does non cognize that her words are improper. As Celie matures. so make her letters. She describes her life in more item as she becomes closer to specifying herself and gaining self-respect. Nettie’s point of position is contrasted to that of Celie. Her grammar and spelling are right. Because she is an educated adult female. her letters are of course much more complex. She describes human rights. faith. political relations and other topics and impressions Celie can non understand. â€Å"†¦trying to perplex out words us don’t know. it took a long clip to read merely the first two or three letters. † ( 1 34 ) Both Celie’s and Nettie’s narratives are really powerful and realistic. In decision. the novel The Color Purple unveils several facets of life – love. loss. faith. battle. religion. sistership and power. Most significantly. Celie discovers that her way to self-respect prevarications behind her voice. In a society where inkinesss and adult females are discriminated against. it is most of import to be heard. The message of this novel is one that brings hope for alteration to every individual in Celie’s place. Despite the many obstructions in her way. Celie learned that people’s differences bring them together. After holding a assortment of friendly relationships. she learns to cover with the past so release it. In malice of all the adversity she endured. she becomes a recognized and independent human being. The many literary elements present in the novel merely strengthen the impact of Walker’s chef-doeuvre!