Violence In The Color Purple

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker tells the story of a poor, black, uneducated woman named Celie living in the south who experiences extreme violence at the hands of the important male figures in her life. The terrible abuse she endures leads to her being shy and withdrawn, and eventually losing her faith in God. Through the help of a blues singer named Shug, she is able to find her both her voice and her inner strength and is able to forgive those who hurt her. Even from the very first page, the story is full of violence. In fact, the majority of black women in the story are victims of violence. Reading these brutal scenes may be hard for some people, which brings forth the question of why it was included.

Physical violence occurs when someone uses a part of their body or an object to control a person’s actions, while psychological violence occurs when someone uses threats and causes fear in an individual to gain control. Both types of violence are used against the women in the book, with the most common offenders being their husbands. The men use this violence to assert their dominance over their wives. …show more content…
While some women in the story, such as the main character Celie, become submissive and desensitized; others stand up for themselves and are able to fight back. Although at first glance it may seem like the book is trying to portray love and violence as being mutually exclusive, it actually does the exact opposite. As the women in the story gain the strength they needed and are able to overcome their situations, they realize that the way they were treated was not love in any

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