Oppression, literature and how it translates into society…

“Wives like children. You to let ’em know who got the upper hand” — Alice Walker, The Color Purple

African-American women have endlessly suffered throughout their lives, they have been hit with violence left right and centre. I have recently read the novel ‘The Color Purple’ by Alice Walker where a major theme is Violence and the suffering it causes to the characters. This novel is a reflection of what many African-American women had faced through their lives and still face to this day. Reading this novel has allowed me to perceive the battle women had to face in order to gain more freedom. I was able to observe this through Celie’s character where she struggled to strive for her equal rights and stand up against the dominance and violence of black men.

It boils my skin knowing what these young women had to face at that time! They had to deal with physical and emotional violence within their black community as well as white racial oppression of black people… all at the same time.

The fact that Celie’s first letters were written when she was ONLY fourteen infuriates me. She was a child that had been living a traumatic life growing up however from this novel I realised that a black child doesn’t get to be child.

Her first letter that she wrote broke my heart. She specifically addressed it to God as she felt abandoned and had not one soul to turn to. Her innocent words were “Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me”.

The more I read on, the more it was disturbing. Celie’s mother had died leaving Celie to take on the ‘mother role’ which in this case is a usual occurrence for several families. The first time Celie ever introduces her father in the novel is by describing him to “never [of] had a kine word to say to [her].”

“Just say You gonna do what your mammy wouldn’t. First he put his thing up gainst my hip and sort of wiggle it around.” After reading Celie’s disturbing graphic description of what her father did to her, I was suddenly conscious that Celie had been repeatedly raped by the man she believes to be her ‘father’. In all honesty, after reading that I felt like throwing up. The first thought that came into my mind was, is Celie okay? But It gets worse. Celie is endlessly dehumanised, she is forced to marry a man her father’s age where she is repeatedly raped and beaten. It’s sad to say that Celie had no value as a woman whatsoever. Violence for these men was considered as ‘ordinary’ which is what raged me the most. But Celie wasn’t only just experiencing physical violence she was also receiving emotional violence from her own family. How could her own community let alone her own family treat her like that? The constant use of forceful threatening language she had experienced had caused her emotional damage. And it is sad to say that many women to this day still experience this.