The Color Purple

There are many racial components in this novel that are easy to point out. These take place in the American South and also in Africa. It starts with the way that all the black men and women are treated at the start of the book. The main character’s real father was a successful store owner who was black. This man was hanged for a reason that is known only as him being a successful black man. All the characters that we are introduced to in this book by Celie are exploited by the fact that they are black. Sophia is beat up and jailed for her refusal to want to work for a white women. Of course she stood up for herself and the white element tried to tell her where her place was. There is also an intra racial theme that starts at the beginning of the book that is hard to actually believe. But to me it would make sense after awhile, because if the people tell you something over and over you would start to believe and accept it. This is shown by the acceptance of what happen to Sophia by her peers. Albert shows this with his denial that Celie could do anything well because she is a black, poor, ugly woman. If there was not any self disapproval among these people than that Albert’s black comment would not be prevalent. All the black characters in the book with the exception of Shug are poor and have a bad educational back round. It does not describe these characters as stupid just not well educated. This is inflicted by people selling them on how it is wrong to educate a black person.

The feminism components are more main stream than the racial issues. The women at the start of the story are expected to cook, clean, and lay down when told to. They are beaten when they do not obey their husband or man. The men act as if Women are there to serve the man. Celie is forced to have sex with her step father and her husband because she is not strong enough to say no to Albert or her step father. “He just climb on top of me and do his business” says Celie. As if the women are there just to open her legs and let the man do what he wants to do. The real first theme of feminism is the act of Nettie to not give in and let Mr.__ have his way with her. In this act it showed him that he was not going to be able to take from a woman. That is a change because he had always gotten what he wanted because Celie was just too scared to stand up to him. As the story moves along Sophia is the next one to stand up for herself and she does it by treating Harpo as an equal not as a superior. Harpo does not like this because he realizes that she might be bigger, stronger and more capable than him. He asked his father Albert what to do and he says beat her. But then Celie shows how scared she is of being her own person by giving Harpo the same advice. As the beatings go on Sophia hits back and beats him just as well as he beats her. Then Sophia has the power to just leave. This is the first set that shows power of a woman because of how Harpo feels like he is not a real man.

The next character that brings a feminist view to the novel is Shug. She is a loud out spoken and talented blues singer that makes her own money. When she is brought back to the house by Albert it is strange to see the effect on him. He seems to treat her like more of an equal. She first shows no concern towards Celie because of jealousy but then starts to take her under her wing. Shug brings an element of acceptance to the story. That not only is it ok to stand up for yourself (like Sophia does) but it is ok to enjoy men, women, and sex. She is a liberal in every sense of word. Her sense of herself is one of the strongest messages of the book. She does do what she wants but she is never happy because people including her father don’t accept her.

There is also the theme of love in this story between a group of women. Walker tells people that it is ok to love women because they are the same as the other women in the fact that they just want to be safe and loved. There is a controversial relationship between Celie and Shug in the book that breaks barriers of the time. But this is very strong message because it showed our main character that it was ok to love and Shug was the first person that loved her in return besides her sister Nettie. The main feminist ideals in this book are that women were equal but not treated that way. It was that women were more than just breeders but that needed to show the world. And those women were just a capable as men and they were not give that chance. In the novel these characters teach each other and the reader that it is ok to be a black woman. Your body was yours and no one could have it if you did not want to give it. These were all issues of the time and were depicted historical events that happened.

The characters developed through the book by the changing of the time. The fist letter of the book you read about the horses and carriages.