Novel Project: Essay

The Color Purple: Essay
The historical significance of The Color Purple is based on a time when men and women were seen very different in everyone eyes such as the wife obeying her husband’s rules. The importance of this novel was to give every African-American women who was feeling as if the didn’t have any control over their life, the power to keep hanging on. The story is based mainly on a character named Celie, who is forced to get married off to an older man and take care of his four rude and disobedient children. There are other women in The Color Purple who face many difficult challenges as well such as, Sophia, Nettie, Shug, and Squeak. As said by the San Francisco Chronicle" a work to stand beside literature of any time and place," this is absolutely true.

There is many importance of the novel and a lot of that is proved in the book as well as from critical essays. Many of the best criticism come from other essays. An author published "There is a strong relationship between Celie and Nettie not just because they are siblings but because Nettie is one out of two people Celie loves, and this doesn't exist between Celie and any other of her siblings." That was a big statement because there weren’t many people that Celie could talk to and trust because she was afraid of her husband and the things that he might do to her. As written in the story Celie explains that she could never look at a man in a romance way, because she had been forced so many times to have sex with her husband, and the man who says he’s her father. With her suffering from all of those issues in her life how could anyone expect her to love a man. Then there’s Shug Avery the one and only person that she will actually love besides her sister Nettie, and this is in a romantic way. As I read in another critical essay, "The relationship between Shug and Celie cuts very deep. Both of them help each other become what they really need to be. Both Celie and Shug were very oppressed people. Celie was oppressed by her lack of caring, and by her lack of self-esteem. Shug is caught in other people's image of her. She is not free to become what she really wants to be, which is a loving member of a loving family, which she never really had." This shows that the life of all of the women in the story wasn’t fair.

In the story there are many statements that you will come across to see and feel the pain of the women. For example, "Celie’s no good she’s spoiled, you can take her." This was a quote from Celie’s known father who wants to marry her off, in this day and time you wouldn’t speak of a woman in this matter. Then there’s Sophia who’s married to Harpo the son of Celie’s husband, and he’s learned how to disrespect women as well from his father. "Harpo had more cuts and bruises than Sophia," this meaning that Sophia wasn’t afraid of her husband she stood up to him. It took a lot of courage for Celie to finally stand up to Mr._______, her husband. Within due time and help from Shug, Sophia, and Nettie, her sister, she was no longer afraid to speak up for herself.

This book is really worth studying in literature class because it puts many thoughts in your as if it was you living this life. It would help to show many girls how our ancestors had to fight for their freedom and rights, when it basically came naturally to the men. You could see how many things have changed over the years and how many haven’t changed. The Color Purple is a great story to read anywhere and any time not just during literature class. Alice Walker has won the Pulitzer Prize for this story so it could be a big impact on someone.