Each female helps Celie in her own way and does their best to show her that they love and support her even when she thinks nobody does. That understanding allows Celie to speak up in anger against Mr. ___ and no longer be submissive and weak. With the help of Shug and Nettie, Celie uncovers love for herself, and finds God again. It is important to realize that there are other women who helped Celie in someway, women like Sofia, who is strong and fierce. At first Celie was bitter and jealous of Sofia because of her strength to stand up for herself to men and women. Sofia’s refusal to downgrade herself is what almost leads her to destruction.
Celie’s jealousy really shows when she encourage Harpo, Sofia’s husband, to beat her. From there Sofia let Celie know how weak and submissive she is. In that moment Sofia dares Celie to be a stronger women and from that moment their relationship is significant. “No writer has made the intimate hurt of racism more palpable than Walker.
In one of the novels most rending scenes, Celie’s step-daughter-in-law, Sofia, is sentenced to work as a maid in the white mayor’s house for sassing the mayor’s wife” (Smith). Racism is very visible in Walker’s work, throughout the novel you read about many different characters being victims of racism. From reading the letter’s Nettie sent, you can see that the theme of separation is not just in America but Africa too.
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“Sofia was a generous sister and friend, and a devoted mother. After the public altercation with the white mayor and his wife, Sofia goes to prison where she is beaten and her strength and spirit is almost crushed” (Bloom 49). Even though Sofia survived awful beatings while being in prison. In the process she suffer for being herself, and Sofia loses a lot of her self-respect and hardiness.
Her firm refusal to be the mayor’s wife maid is ultimately crushed, and she is forced to work first doing laundry without pay in prison, then as the mayor’s family maid. Sofia becomes a stranger to her own children. Celie realizes that Sofia is somebody to look up and not someone to destroy. Another important female who helps Celie, is Mary Agnes also known as Squeak. In a way Mary Agnes is like Celie; both are timid and submissive to their partner and both are sexually abused by someone in their family.
Mary Agnes is sent by Harpo to go talk to the warden who happens to be a relative of Squeak’s. When Squeak goes to talk to the warden about releasing Sofia, the warden rapes her. After the assault and revealing it to everybody when she gets back, Mary Agnes gains power to stand up to the rest of the people who didn’t even acknowledge her as a person.
When Mary Agnes spoke about the rape at the table, that helps Celie to acknowledge that they are alike. Mary Agnes eventually fights against Harpo and leaves him to become a singer. Squeak transformation into Mary Agnes the independent person is also like Celie’s transformation. In The Color Purple, follows Celie transformation from unlovely duckling to gorgeous swan.
In The Color Purple to stop the men from being violent and abusive the females had to come together. Mr. ___ transform into Albert the nice guy only when Celie goes off with Shug to Memphis. “When both Celie and Shug abandon him, his character is gradually transformed; he realizes that, by his cruelty to Celie, he deprived himself of a good woman.” (Bloom 48). “This female bonding, which occurs over an extended period of time, enables Celie to resume her arrested development and continue developmental process that were thwarted in infancy and early adolescence.” (Proudfit).
The female bonding Celie goes through allows her to begin again, because her childhood is stolen from her. Celie is mistreated at an early age and doesn’t get to experience life growing up as a normal child with loving family and friends. The women in The Color Purple form a bond around themselves. “All the females share in each other’s pain, sorrow, laughter, and dreams” (Bloom 63).
The novel close with a celebration, there was no more abuse or separation and everyone is living a better life than before. To understand the celebration at the end of the novel, you as the reader has to understand the growth the characters made. “Coming after Celie has achieved both economic independence and emotional security, the reunions at the end of The Color Purple testify to the independence of kinship to the happiness of every individual” (Selzer).
