Domestic Violence in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple
Domestic Violence in Alice Walker’s The
Color Purple
K.R Balamurgesh
M.A.,M.Phil.
Assistant
Professor Dept. OF English
ArumugamPillaiSeethaiAmmal
College
Tiruppattur
Most readers will
remember this novel for its depiction of domestic violence, which Walker fully
develops through Celie’s mistreatment at the hands of her step-father and
husband. Additionally, there is a
powerful theme about how oppressed people can unite with solidarity to overcome
their oppressors. Most of all, however,
this book is a feminist novel about a powerful character finding out who she is
and valuing what she can become. In the
course of Celie’s search for truth, she realizes that the patriarchal culture
she has endured in the South is abusive to all women. When she meets Shug and escapes from Albert,
she learns that women can be equal to men in power, in knowledge, and in
matters of love and finance. When Celie
returns to live in Georgia near the end of the novel, she is no longer weak and
submissive; instead, she has become a competent, self-assured female who knows
she can be content without depending on anyone but herself. This is the ultimate lesson of feminism,
which Walker calls “womanism”.
The horror of domestic
violence, to both children and wives, is clearly depicted in the novel. The two main recipients of the violence in
the novel are Celie and Sofia, who both experience abuse in their childhood and
in their marriages.
Sofia tries to
combat her domestic violence by being violent herself. Because of her size and her strength, she
dares to stand up to her oppressor.
Celie, on the other hand, is, in the beginning, portrayed as weak and
submissive. She endures the incest
inflicted by Fonso in order to protect her mother and then Nettie from his
cruelty. In order to escape from Fonso,
she marries Albert, who is an abusive husband who values her only as a sexual
object and a care-taker for his children.
To make himself feel more important and prove he is the boss, Albert
regularly beats Celie. Because of the
violence she endures, Celie’s self-esteem is injured as much as her body. She imagines herself to be ugly, unworthy of
love and incapable of enjoying pleasure.
Fortunately, Shug breaks the pattern of violence and abuse for
Celie. Sofia also escapes her domestic
abuse by leaving Harpo.
The two most abused
women in the novel, Celie and Sofia, form a deep bond; their suffering brings
them together in strong solidarity. In
the past, Celie has only known the importance of standing up for other women in
her family; she has willingly protected both her mother and her sister from
Fonso’s abuse by sacrificing herself. At
first, Celie is unwilling to help Sofia in her plight; in fact, she tells Harpo
to regularly beat his wife, for domestic violence is the only thing that Celie
knows and understands. When Sofia
questions Celie about the advice given to Harpo, she admits her mistake and
works to correct it. From that point on,
she and Sofia become fast friends, quilting together, offering advice to each
other, and offering mutual aid over the years.
When Sofia is in jail, Celie nurses her wounds and gives her comfort.
Shug is another woman
in the novel who knows the value of women’s solidarity. When she finds how Albert has treated Celie
over the years, she loses her desire for him and permanently erases him from
her life. She then helps Celie and Mary
Agnes escape their lives of domestic abuse and drudgery. In the process, she gives Celie a sense of
her own unique beauty and spirit. Even
Mary Agnes learns the value of women’s solidarity. She comes into the novel first as the other
woman, the girlfriend of Harpo. She
treats Sofia poorly and wants Harpo to banish her. When they get into a fight, Sofia socks Mary
Agnes, knocking out some of her teeth; however, when Sofia is beaten severely
by the police in town and left wounded in jail, Mary Agnes tries to get her out
and is raped as a result. At the end of
the novel, when her daughter Suzie Q snuggles up to Sofia, Mary Agnes says,
“Children know goodness”.
Walker places these
first two themes inside the larger context of the misery inflicted by a racist
society. Throughout the novel, Celiegives
references to the fact that she is discriminated against to by the white
community. Nettie dreads bringing Olivia
and Adam back to America; because they have grown up in Africa, they have never
felt or experienced racism. It is
clearly racism that lands Sofia in jail.
The mayor can slap her and go free, but when she socks the mayor, she is beaten and jailed.
When Mary Agnes approaches the warden, her white uncle, about releasing
Sofia, she is raped; the warden knows he does not have to worry about being
charged with raping a black girl. When
Eleanor Jane brings her baby boy for Sofia to bless, Sofia tells her she cannot
bless him, for he will probably grow up to be her oppressor, like most white
men. Then when Eleanor Jane helps to
care for the black Henrietta, the white community is outraged that she would
lower herself to be employed by an African-American. Walker clearly indicates in the novel that
the long history of racism will be hard to overcome.
Bibliography
Primary
Source
Walker, Alice, TheColor Purple.Oxford University Press, 1982. Print.
Secondary
Source
Bloom, Harold Ed. Alice Walker. New Hork :
Chelsea House, 1989. Print.
Lauret, Maria – Alice Walker, Modern Novelists Series. New HorkSt.Martin’sPress, 2000,Print.
Light, Alison. Fear of the Happy Ending : The ColorPurple.New York
: Amistad Press, 1993.
Print.
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