The Color Purple Book Analysis

The Color Purple Book Analysis

Literature plays an integral in society both at personal and community levels. Narratives have always been used to address social and political issues in various societies while at the same time to challenge the perspective that the audience holds towards various their community or that they interact with regularly. “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker is a book that achieves the need to disturb the comfort of the audience by offering a fresh perspective into social issues, particularly attached to the African community in the period of 1930s. The book revolves around the life of African American women in the 1930s living in the Southern Parts of the United States, mostly Georgia. The story is told from the perspective of the protagonist named Celie, who has been a victim of various trauma surrounding families in which she lived. The book, therefore, is powerful in its power of narrative through Celie’s eyes while also capturing the lives of those associated with Celie, who became victims of oppression. This essay will analyze the impact of “The Color Purple” on the audience and its efficiency in storming reality.

The book is effective in compelling me to look at life differently, especially when it comes to the oppression commonly faced by women. Throughout history, we have encountered various stories of women fighting for a sense of equality and equity as a way of eradicating both silent and salient oppression by the opposite sex. Nonetheless, most of the time, what the media captures is the surface level trauma that women have had to endure while conforming to the patterns of society where men dominate their life both at home and in society as a whole. The selected narrative, however, offers the atrocities vividly in a graphical way through the eyes of Celia, who is the center of the story. One of the key apparent things is that women have always been oppressed in more than one way. Throughout history, most men achieved this by denying them access to essential resources like education.

The author portrays that Celia as uneducated, poor, and 14-year-old girl living in the remote areas of Georgia. In turn, this reflects that men understood that the best way to practice their dominance over women was to deny them the chance to education, which would lead to financial freedom and only feed them on the faith of religion. It is because of this that Celia did not know of any other way to escape her traumatic reality, but through writing letters to God. It is this that led to Celie believing that her only liberation would be through marrying Mr.??? (Walker 9). Therefore, it is evident that men understood that the best way to have power over women, was by controlling their thoughts and creating a sense of dependence as it was in the case of Celie.

The book is additionally effective in demanding that I adopt a different way of thinking towards women’s liberation from oppression. The narrator of the novel drags the audience into seeing the lives of different women and how they challenged the varying issues that they faced. The common solutions that one can see in the book are conforming as it was the case Celie and Shug Avery, run away as it was with Nettie, or fight back as Sofia and Mr.???’s sister Kate. However, in the presented option, the change only came with fighting back and challenging the common thought that women should always submit to men. A good example is when Kate decides to challenge his brother Harpo always to work as it is not only the role of women to do everything in the house and even challenges Celie to fight for herself (Walker 23). The conversation indicates that there is a need to realize that the only way rights and equality can be achieved in society is by individually standing to fight back against the oppressor. The statement of encouragement from Kate to Celie regarding fighting back underpins the idea that though women can rally and push for their rights, it still narrows down to what each person wants for themselves. It is this attitude that later helped Sofia when he left Harpo and also encouraged Celie to follow suit, thus unburdening her from the atrocities that she had to endure.

The book influences the way that I think about family and community in general, especially by revealing that family in itself is not where love prevails. Still, it is within the community that love can be found if people stand together. It is commonly believed that it is within families that love abounds most, but the book proves otherwise as it reveals that the root of injustices is in the family. A good example is the life of Celie. Celie was abused severally by a man he regarded as his father, Alphonso, who also played a key role in influencing Celie and Nettie to believe that life is cruel in itself. Mr.??? also creates an environment where women oppression prevailed by encouraging Harpo to try and treat Sofia as inferior. Celie, later, gets beaten severally by Mr.???. Later, Corrine, who was a missionary and married to Samuel, develops animosity towards Nettie on the suspicions that Nettie had an affair with Samuel. All these reveal that people often believe that it is within the family that people feel most safe, but it is otherwise. The biggest form of injustice often occurred within these families, and it is clear that Nettie and Celie’s children had a better life as they were taken in by people who were not their immediate families. Nonetheless, it is when people come together as a community that they can address inequality and abuse. The book ends with the women who were once inferiors having a peaceful life away from the traumas they encountered, and this only occurs because they inspired and supported each to fight back against the oppressors.

In conclusion, the book, “The Purple Color,” by Alice Walker uproots reality and hence creating a new awareness towards oppression faced by women, women’s liberation, and the sense of safety within the family framework. What I once regarded as a norm or the truth of reality is challenged by the narrative, and it triggers the need to always look at issues beyond the face value offered by media and society. It is thus arguable that the story achieves its purpose through the life of Celie and those of the other women who had to endure trauma within the family setting. It is through reading the book through its vividly described explicit content that I can suspend what I thought I once understood about women’s oppression.