Color Purple Term Paper

Color Purple

While setting is extremely important in most stories, it is essential to Alice Walker's The Color Purple. Celie's life is extremely tragic, but it is important to the outcome of the story for one to view Celie, not as a victim, but as the protagonist, and, eventually, the hero. In order to view Celie in this manner, it has to be clear that she begins the story without any options as to how to escape from her father and later, Mister. In a time and place where child protective services and women's shelters provide options, it is hard to understand Celie's mindset and her life circumstances. Therefore, it is necessary to be transported to the South during the Jim Crow era.

It is only within the context of this setting, where men where prized above women and blacks had few rights, that one can really understand what a strong person Celie is. When being raped by her father, and believing that he is murdering her babies, Celie does not have the option of turning to the police or speaking with a school counselor.Instead, she lives with the abuse. What is amazing is that, even without a good role model or someone to help her, Celie is clearly a good person. She knows that she is powerless to end her father's abuse, but she acts to keep him from abusing her sister, Nettie.

Setting is also essential later in the story, when Celie leaves Mister. Resigned to living with a man who, although no longer physically abusive, offers her little, Celie only leaves Mister when she discovers that he has been hiding Nettie's letters. Leaving a husband and living single, at that time and in that place, was an amazingly courageous thing to do. Furthermore, the fact that Celie leaves Mister, not in a hateful manner, but matter-of-factly, indicates what a wonderful person she is. Celie is not ruled by hatred, but by love, and is her love for Nettie, not her hatred for Mister, that causes her to end that relationship.

As a huge fan of the book, The Color Purple, I….....