Celie's Lesbian Relationship

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The enduring impact of the lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug. HITHA MAUREEN, 1313228, II PSENG In the later part of the novel, Celie falls in love with her husband’s, long-time girlfriend, Shug Avery. The relationship between Celie and Shug grows into an intimate and sexual relationship that stands the test of time. This beautiful relationship between the two women leads to transformation in both the individuals . In Shug, Celie discovers her beauty and is able to see herself in a different light, as a woman with feelings, talents and intellect. Through Celie, Shug is able to see herself as a woman independent of men and the male attention. For many years, criticisms on this book revolved around many themes with…show more content…
It is then evident that creation of Celie’s character is more than just a story of one woman’s empowerment but instead it is an outright dynamic story of Celie’s homosexual identity development. Therefore the feministic ideas in the novel help in highlighting rather than diminishing one of the central themes of the novel, Celie’s discovery of her lesbian identity. This is further emphasised by the fact that Celie’s sexual discovery happens at the particular moment of her orgasm i.e she does not think about her sexuality— instead it is shockingly and instantaneously revealed to her.“Lesbian desire in The Color Purple is thus not accidental to the overarching plot of female development, or a somewhat peculiar private preference on the part of the protagonist. Since nothing in novels—unlike real life—is either incidental or unpremeditated, Celie does not simply ‘happen to fall in love’ with a woman. Her sexual orientation, her passionate investment in a female Other from whom she gradually begins to derive her sense of Self, structurally informs the story of her subjectivity, her empowerment as subject of speech and writing, and eventually also as a social agent” (Hoogland,
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