Discusses the role of the character, Celie, in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.
This paper is a look at the life, struggle, and victories of Celie in the novel, The Color Purple by African-American author, Alice Walker. The paper shows that, through Celie, Alice Walker is able to criticize the way some black women were treated in the early 20th century and uses Celie’s life experiences to express her social criticism.
“Some critics view that Shug and Celie’s relationship encourages lesbianism as a solution to the problems Black women face with their men; however, it is obvious that Walker’s purpose of their relationship is much deeper than that (River 223). Shug and Celie did not have an explicit, erotic relationship. Celie simply needed to feel loved and wanted.”