Essay: The Healing Power of Women in The Color Purple

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The life of The Color Purple's protagonist, Celie, is populated with both men and women. Whereas the men in the narrative wreak damage to Celie's self-esteem, emotional capacity, and love of life, the women around her have a rehabilitating effect on Celie. Kate, Sofia, Nettie, and Shug Avery all strengthen Celie in different ways, so that she is able to reconstruct her life and find optimism and joy in her experiences.

From a very young age, Celie is abused by the men in her life. The man she believes to be her father rapes her and takes her out of school when she has the first of his two children; the man she marries as a teenager beats her repeatedly and engages her in passionless sex. Her supposed father discusses Albert, Celie's future husband, with insulting derision: "She ugly. Don't even look like she kin to Nettie ... She ain't smart either, and I'll just be fair, you have to watch her or she'll give away everything you own … And another thing? She tell lies." These insults are thrown in Celie's presence. She absorbs this abuse, until the only way she interacts with her surroundings is with self-effacing subservience:  "I don't fight, I stay where I'm told…I don't know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive." 

The women in Celie's life slowly help her realize her self-worth, and her ability to take charge of her life. Kate, Albert's sister, visits Celie as a newlywed. She takes Celie shopping, and for the first time in her life, Celie receives a dress that is new and made especially for her. She becomes very emotional, as she is not accustomed to positive attention. "I try to tell Kate what it [the reception of the new dress] mean. I git hot in the face and stutter." Kate pities Celie and is very kind to her: "It's all right, Celie. You deserve more than this." Celie writes: "Maybe so. I think." Celie is by no means appreciative of herself yet, but Kate's attitude presents to Celie the possibility that she is not necessarily deserving of Albert's violent treatment of her.

Sofia is another woman who influences Celie on her path to self-affirmation. Although she does not often interact with Celie directly, Sofia is a presence in Celie's life and a representative of an alternative feminine lifestyle, one of independence rather than sycophancy. "I like Sofia, but she don't act like me at all. If she talking when Harpo [Sofia's husband] and Mr.___ come in the room, she keep right on. If they ast her where something at, she say she don't know. Keep talking." Implicit here is Celie's behavior – she stops talking whenever a man enters a room, and goes out of her way to please and placate the men in her life, even when doing so is inconvenient or damaging to her. When Harpo tries to beat Sofia into obedience, Celie witnesses her retaliate in kind. When Sofia has had enough of the abuse, she leaves Harpo, takes her children, and eventually finds a man with whom she has an egalitarian relationship.

Nettie and Shug Avery arguably have the most considerable effect on Celie's life. Nettie, Celie's younger sister, is a point of light in Celie's life. The two sisters are devoted to and protective of one another. Celie fears that their stepfather will rape Nettie as he has Celie, and takes every measure to prevent this, going so far as to offer herself to him: "I ast him to take me instead of Nettie while our new mammy sick." Celie also takes Nettie in when she runs away from their abusive stepfather. Similarly, Nettie is kind to Celie. After her stepfather takes Celie out of school, Nettie helps her progress with her education independently. She is also sensitive to Celie's insecurities, and compliments her after Celie's husband mistreats her: "She tell me, Your skin. Your hair, Your teefs. He try to give her a compliment, she pass it on to me. After while I git to feeling pretty cute."

Shug Avery's effect on Celie is complex. She helps Celie experiment with her sexuality and explore her attraction to women. Shug serves for Celie as an example of non-violent interaction with men, as she asserts herself with Albert and gets her way, without being obsequious or accommodating. Most important, however, is Shug's role in the redefining of Celie's perspective on life, men and Celie herself. Until now, Celie has prayed to God, whom she has imagined to be a blue-eyed white man. Shug shares her own views on god: "Here's the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God." God's ubiquity renders him a less intimidating, more relatable figure to Celie.

In addition, Shug believes god to embrace all human emotion, including sexual feelings, and to value above all human happiness: "God love all them feelings. That's some of the best stuff God did. And when you know God loves 'em you enjoys 'em a lot more. You can just relax, go with everything that's going, and praise God by liking what you like." Nettie too has a role in the redefining of Nettie's perception of God. When Nettie journeys to Africa as a missionary, she sends Celie letters. Before these letters, Celie's diary was addressed to God. After she has read them, Celie begins to address her diary to Nettie. God becomes Nettie. With Shug and Nettie's help, the ultimate authority in Celie's life becomes a black woman – a symbol for Celie of benevolence and strength.

With this new conception of God, Celie slowly finds it in her to reform her own behavior and develop the confidence she needs to love herself. She allows the empowering influence of the women around her soak in and transform her self. Celie finally confronts her husband about the endless abuse. She moves to Tennessee with Shug and even starts her own tailoring business. "I read my fortune right away. It say, because you are who you are, the future look happy and bright. I laugh." Even though Celie does encounter hardships and disappointments, she is able to assess her desires in these hard situations and navigate her way accordingly. After all of the years of oppression and abuse, she is able to look inward and think, feel and reflect, and lend her own colors to all that happens around her. Although Celie does not get everything she has ever wanted or finds eternal happiness, she does finally find herself.

Photo by @samuelabohjr

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