Character Analysis of Celie, the Color Purple
Celie
Being a black female in the south during the early 1900’s, at a time when white and blacks were socially segregated and women were absolutely inferior to men, was one of the many challenges Celie would be faced with in her lifetime. Born in 1895, Celie was raised on a farm in a small town in Georgia where formal education took a back seat to physical labor and household maintenance, and the Church was the main focal point of socialization among local town members.
We are first introduced to Celie in 1909, when she is 14 years old, running and frolicking through the fields with her sister Nettie, then giving birth to her second child by her step-father. Soon after the newborn was taken out of her arms, an emotionless and questioning Celie is found internally talking to God while walking behind her mother’s casket, who was said to have died from a broken heart.
Raised in an authoritarian style by her father and permissive style by her submissive mother, she is repeatedly chastised and shamed by her step-father, which is evident during his introduction of Celie to “Mister” when questions arise about marriage. Shamed and overruled, Celie is given to “Mister,” thus beginning her new journey of marriage at the tender age of 14. Overtime Celie becomes increasingly submissive, reserved, and shy as “Mister” provides a similar reign of terror and tyranny over her that her step-father once held, only this time she doesn’t have the love and trust of her sister Nettie.
Though we know very little about Celie prior to the birth of her second child, we can assume she has met the first two stages of her life in accordance to Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development by her love and trust of her sister Nettie, Shug and Sophia which come later in her life. Her “will” is viewed early on when she is learning to read and become educated with Nettie’s help. Though her hope and will are inhibited on countless occasions as Celie travels through life, the general
Being a black female in the south during the early 1900’s, at a time when white and blacks were socially segregated and women were absolutely inferior to men, was one of the many challenges Celie would be faced with in her lifetime. Born in 1895, Celie was raised on a farm in a small town in Georgia where formal education took a back seat to physical labor and household maintenance, and the Church was the main focal point of socialization among local town members.
We are first introduced to Celie in 1909, when she is 14 years old, running and frolicking through the fields with her sister Nettie, then giving birth to her second child by her step-father. Soon after the newborn was taken out of her arms, an emotionless and questioning Celie is found internally talking to God while walking behind her mother’s casket, who was said to have died from a broken heart.
Raised in an authoritarian style by her father and permissive style by her submissive mother, she is repeatedly chastised and shamed by her step-father, which is evident during his introduction of Celie to “Mister” when questions arise about marriage. Shamed and overruled, Celie is given to “Mister,” thus beginning her new journey of marriage at the tender age of 14. Overtime Celie becomes increasingly submissive, reserved, and shy as “Mister” provides a similar reign of terror and tyranny over her that her step-father once held, only this time she doesn’t have the love and trust of her sister Nettie.
Though we know very little about Celie prior to the birth of her second child, we can assume she has met the first two stages of her life in accordance to Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development by her love and trust of her sister Nettie, Shug and Sophia which come later in her life. Her “will” is viewed early on when she is learning to read and become educated with Nettie’s help. Though her hope and will are inhibited on countless occasions as Celie travels through life, the general