'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker shocks us with rape and violence.

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Nushian Taj 12PO

The Color Purple

‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker shocks us with rape and violence. Since the novel was written there has been controversy about what Alice Walker has revealed to the public about the men of the black community. The critic Tony Brown wrote for the Carolina Peacemaker an article on his opinions toward ‘The Color Purple’. As Tony Brown is black himself, we get a different angle on he way black men are.

The first point that Brown makes about the black community is that ‘rape and incest can’t be generalised’. The opening of ‘The Color Purple’ is extremely dramatic, it explains how Celie is raped by her father but she is too naïve to figure out what is happening to her. Therefore she realises that the only person that she can confide in is God. She explains in her letters that ‘he push his thing inside my pussy’, she goes on to say that her father verifies that ‘you better shut up and git used to it’. As the reader we feel sympathetic towards Celie as she is only fourteen of age and has little knowledge of what is happening around her. This is shown by the grammar used in her letters, ‘I ain’t gonna’. Celie uses a letter to communicate with the reader; this is a fist person narrative. The format and structure of the letter seems as though a salve has written it. As in the early 1920’s slaves wrote letters of this type so that people in different generations would find them and learn of their sufferings.

As the novel continues we realise that rape in the black community is common. We realise that Celie’s father has performed this act of injustice on Celie not only once but several times. Violence towards women in the novel is extreme. We find that through out the novel there have been a lot of women that have been victims of the extensive violence that has been caused by men. For example Harpo’s mother is killed by one of her boyfriends. If we look back on the history we find that black men have always been violence. For instance in October 1845 there was a march consisting of 15, 200 black women that rebelled against the violence that they were having to tolerate. The march took place in the U.S. one of the main slogans that the women were using was ‘us black women are treated like rag dolls by men of the same race. We want action……….

Through out the novel Celie is having to face violent acts aimed to hurt her feelings or physically. The violence all comes around, as black men are more favoured than black women. Through rapes and beatings she is completely dominated by Pa, who treats her like a slave. The only living person who provides Celie with friendship and comfort is her sister Nettie. This shows that even men who are expected to take care of their family are taking advantage of their own daughters. Celie is also hit on her wedding day by one of Mr___ son’s. As she is a woman she is no position to say anything about it. We see that even small boys are given power, in this case the power should be in Celie’s hands, but she is totally powerless. Celie is also sexually abused. Celie is strongly disempowered by sex. The novel starts with her being raped by Pa, showing an immediate inability to resist on her part. When she is married to Mr. _______, he mistreats her as much as Pa did. Celie describes sex as something that is done to her, but never as something that she enjoys. Thus, sex with Mr. _______ reduces her status to that of an object that lies there and waits for it to be over. As the reader we are aware of what is happing to Celie but she herself is unable to relate to the violent acts in a serious manner because the narrative makes out that Celie is naïve and uneducated. She uses improper English and includes her accent in her grammar. She uses words such as ‘gonna’ and ‘ain’t’. Her language brings her character to be an innocent victim.  

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The responding critic shows that ‘If the reader is disturbed then it may be because reality is uncomfortable’. Alice Walker has written the novel about what she has heard, experienced or seen. But the only limitation is that Alice Walker has chosen characters that don’t represent every single man in the black community. It would be rather difficult to write a novel about all males in one community.

Another comment made by Tony Brown is that ‘men find it difficult to express positive emotions’. Referring to the novel we can see that most of the men in the novel ...

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