Women Empowerment In Alice Walker's The Colour Purple (Essay Sample)

Women empowerment highlights a major topic of society dating back to 1848. Alice Walker’s published 1982 novel, “The Color Purple”, explores the true meaning of women's empowerment and the strength of numbers in a 1900s setting. Walker explains the importance of female bonds and communication in relationships. Throughout her novel, she uses letters to explain the connection that sisters have and to explore her faith. Walker includes specific messages of love and hardships to build the importance of relationships. Through the use of epistolary and allegory, Walker elucidates the effect of sisterhood and trauma and stresses the importance of communication and relationships. 

The importance of communication plays a significant role in the story because it allows for a cycle of maturity and growth throughout all characters. Celie, the main character, writes letters to God and her sister Nettie. Through these letters, Walker explains Celie’s feelings, actions, and connections. Because of this, “the words belong to Celie”(McGowan), we can see the power and expression writing gives to not only Celie but also her sister Nettie. Walker uses Celie as a voice to speak out against oppression and express herself through someone she feels loves her. One of the letters in Walker’s book states, “But leave it all to God.” (Walker 143). These letters she writes to God in themselves are dynamic because Celie switches her perception of the letters, “the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgitful, and lowdown.”(Walker 192). Her letters instate feelings into readers and explain Celie’s trauma. However, Celie goes from feeling ashamed of her stories to feeling empowered and using them. This cycle of maturity comes when she begins to embrace her feelings. This quote from Shug Avery, Celie’s first love, explains how Celie changes her perception, "I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you feel that, and be happy to feel that, you've found it." (Walker 195). Because of this, Celie feels as if she can open up, she can grow in her hope, and for once, she sees a future for herself. 

In addition, women empowerment is a prominent moral throughout “The Color Purple”. Strong female-led bonds are very important throughout the story because they are each other’s support. According to Modern American Literature, “redemptive love requires female bonding. The bond liberates women from men, who are predators at worst, idle at best.”(McGowan). Without each other they are nothing. This theme is important because throughout Celie’s hardships comes happiness and we see most of this through her best friend Shug Avery. A great quote for this states, “But I’m a woman. I love you, I say. Whatever happen, whatever you do, I love you.”(Walker 251). Throughout the story, we see a dynamic change in the bond between Shug Avery and Celie. Together they can do anything, they give each other courage, they refind themselves, they even fall in love. Black Literature Criticism States, “Her work is an exploration of the individual identity of the black woman and how embracing her identity and bonding with other women affects the health of her community at large.”(Krstovic). These critics show the contribution of having strong women empowerment positively represents Walker’s writing. The morale boost is shown in Walker’s writing whenever Celie takes a stand and reinstates herself, “You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong, I say. It’s time to leave you and enter into the Creation. And your dead body is the welcome mat I need”(Walker 199), and, “I’m pore, I’m black, i may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I’m here”(Walker 207). This quote takes place whenever Celie takes a stand against Mr.___; without Shug, she would have never had the confidence to leave him and run away with her. To conclude, Walker transitions her writing into a feel-good moment to add to the novel's idea of what bonds look like. Walker uses Shug to state, “Us each other’s peoples now, and kiss me,”(Walker 187). 

The bond between Nettie and Celie reveals the importance of sisterhood. This stands out majorly in the book because even though the two sisters are separated, their love and connection is everlasting. The book states, “Dear Nettie, I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, friends and time”(Walker 215). This quote, towards the end of the book, when Celie’s letters shift from the main focus of God to writing Celie’s letters to Nettie. This shift is very important because we see the connection between the two. Even from the start of the book, Celie states how Nettie is her only happiness, and even through their tough times together it never changes. This bond adds to the illusion of family and what it looks like. Adding to this point, “But all things look brighter because I have a loving soul to share them with.”(Walker 243). This quote, in one of the letters Nettie wrote to Celie to explain the relations between the two girls and the love they have for each other. Nettie states that she feels her world will all work out because she knows Celie is there for her. These family bonds contribute to Alice’s morals and create a feeling and hope for the readers. Even through Nettie and Celie’s roughest times we can see their strength and hope for each other. 

A hidden moral in Walker’s writing reveals that men will always have power. This is significantly greater in the period of the 1900s but we can still see this message today. An example of this is the way that Celie’s father treats her or even the way any man she’s met has treated her. The book states, “There is a way that the men speak to women that reminds me too much of Pa. They listen just long enough to issue instructions. They don’t even look at women when women are speaking.”(Walker 162). This quote stands out because it highlights how powerless women feel in a man’s society. Another quote is, “He doesn’t want a wife, he want a dog.”(Walker 64). This quote has extreme power, it shows us how women are expected to act. Men didn’t want someone to love and care for, they wanted someone to control. This moral illustrates the book because it contributes to the growth of the female characters and allows them to recognize how they are and will always be treated. Consecutively, It allows the female audience to connect and sympathize with Celie. 

Lastly, one of the most prominent topics of the book, trauma, is significant throughout the novel because it promotes optimism and hopefulness. Every character in the novel has a great portrayal of trauma because we can see the character behaviors develop around their trauma. Celie, for instance, because of her mental and physical abuse often doesn’t show emotions. Celie easily loses faith in herself and doesn’t have any hope for her future. In one of Celie’s letters she states, “the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgitful, and lowdown.”(Walker 192). This quote points out her hopefulness and expresses that she feels so low as to not even trust God. Another character who lives out their trauma is Sofia. In the novel, Sofia, who grew up in a house full of men, learned to fight at an early age. This is useful to her until she beats the white mayor and becomes his slave. While she isn’t the main character, she portrays this theme well because she can sympathize with Celie and with her trauma. Sofia states, “All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my daddy. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men. But I never thought I’d have to fight in my own house”(Walker 40). Sofia, like everyone else, experiences trauma in a different way. But, because of this, it makes her stronger; in fact, it makes all the characters stronger because life experiences develop character. Without our own past experiences, we would be nothing. Walker beautifully promotes a hidden curriculum  in her book to show the readers to not be ashamed or scared because there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Epislatory and allegory contribute to Walker's point of love because it contributes to the effort of communication and the bond it takes to be in love. With strong lead female characters, hardships, mistreatment from men, setting, and connections we see how the story shifts from depression to a sincere form of adoration. Celie, the main character, is a dynamic character that beautifully develops and brings awareness to the theme of the novel. Through Celie and the other main female characters, we see empowerment with strength in numbers.It is important to explore Walker’s writing because she brings awareness not only to women's suffrage of the past but also brings light to women's suffrage of today, tomorrow, and the future. Walker’s writing points out the strength of women, she exclaims how important we are, more specifically, how important we are together; and to close, she highlights our hardships and turns them into something beautiful.