How Does Celie's Change In The Color Purple

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In addition to leaving the people who abuse her physically and mentally, it takes Celie a great amount of time for the realization to kick in that she deserves better. The characters who contribute to this change in Celie are the strong, female characters in the novel. The first independent women Celie is introduced to is Harpo’s wife, Sophia. Sophia is a type of character that Celie has never been exposed to in her life since she has been gifted with her “mother's crisis of self-comprehension” (Berlant 11). Speaking of Sophia, “She is the first women Celie knows who refuses to accede to both the patriarchal and the racist demand that the black woman demonstrates her abjection to her oppressors” (Berlant 12). Sophia helps Celie with the…show more content…
___ and fight for herself including Mr. ___’s mistress, Shug Avery (Katz 69). Celie’s close connection with Shug transforms her as a person, but it is not until Celie finds out that her sister Nettie is alive that she has a great deal of motivation to leave Mr. ___. With knowing that her sister is still alive changes the thought of leaving the men who only hurt her. “I don’t say nothing. I think bout Nettie, dead. She fight, she run away. What good it do? I don’t fight, I stay where I’m told. But I’m alive” (Walker 21). Discovering that Nettie is alive led to an enormous change in Celie’s perspective and style of narration. Since Nettie’s letters are written in standard English, it provides contrast between her character and Celie’s. Even though Nettie writes the letters from her point of view, Celie still controls this narrative because she introduces them within her letters and in her commentary (Gates 43). This proves that the interaction between Celie and Nettie is positive and provides Celie with knowledge and perspective outside of her small town (Naplerkowski 57). Her letters become a source of how Celie escaped her lack of consciousness, contributing to her sense of hope for a brighter future for herself. She begins to identify how the world works more from Nettie’s letters; one would not be able to recognize how impactful the letters were without the use of the epistolary…show more content…
Alice Walker’s use of narrative and voice in The Color Purple controls the point of the epistolary novel, to tell the events in the book in a new way. She shows one how capable Celie was to grow as a character once she let go of her fear while continuously changing the reader’s perspective. Through the empowerment gained from the strong women in the novel Celie was able to escape from the damaging people in her life. The novel allows one to see events as they unravel by Walker encompassing the new technique of the epistolary form. Celie gained insight from her sister’s world changing her voice and allowing her to transform. The Color Purple is so crucial to the canon of literature for it is a new way of sharing a character's life in a thorough way. If the epistolary narrative was not incorporated in the novel the state of its success would be tenuous. Alice Walker should be praised for integrating it into the story in such an effortless
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