The Color Purple

Subjugation of women and sexual abuse in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple are important issues because that was a major controversy in the rural south in the early 20th century. The main character Celie was abused, raped, and mistreated in so many ways. She was a slave to the male dominant force that was unwilling to pay attention to her being the man that she called father raped her, and Mr._____, as she called him, took her away and used her. There is, however, one woman by the name of Shug Avery that came along and brought Celie so much hope and love. Shug showed her love and sexual pleasures that she never knew before, and how much she could actually enjoy it and want it how the men do. Ultimately, Walker constructs an ideal world of true love and commitment where there is no erotic tension—where there is no sexual desire or sexual pleasure (Hook 218).

The book starts out: You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy(1). Alice Walker uses epistle writing to tell the story. In the beginning, Celie never told a single soul, but God, about what she went through. She wrote all her thoughts, feelings, and dreams in letters to Him.

. . .