Go Tell It, Miss Celie: Alice Walker's Challenge to Negative Female Character Types in The Color Purple

The issues facing the African-American race in regards to their racial, national, and sexual identities seem innumerable. The multiplicity of the guidelines by which this race of people seeks to identify itself becomes an almost confusing jumble of multiple threads attempting to form one unified strand. Men and women within the race struggle with their identities, seeking to understand how to be men, women, American, Black, and a variety of other things at once while remaining true to their "true selves." Through the examination of and battle with these continuously warring elements, the African-American race has defined and redefined the standards of "being Black."

Among the greater debates and long-lasting identity struggles lies the problem of gender. I refer to gender as a "problem" in the same lines as DuBois when he suggested the question, "How does it feel to be a problem?" (The Souls of Black Folk 10) in regards to being Black and American. In the same way that being Black in an America dominated by Whites seems a "problem . . . men and women become members of two different camps, now battling for their own identities separate from their male and female counterparts.

This debate becomes highly visible in the literature of African-American authors. Both male and female Black authors discuss and examine the gender problem through their own particular scope of experience. Rather than discussing whether or not an author provides a positive or negative image of Blacks, the debate becomes whether or not the image provided reflects positively or negatively upon Black men or Black women.

The particular issue which became increasingly prevalent with the emergence of the popularity of female African-American authors- such as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston, and especially Alice Walker- was the image of the female in African-American literature. With the presentation of Alice Walker's ideas of womanist literary criticism and formulation, a focus on the particular issues of the African-American woman began to surface alongside the formerly male-dominated literature. Along with the focus came a change in the particular and overall view of the female in Black literature. While in African-American literature many male authors- and specifically Richard Wright- seem to depict females as catalysts for negative male behavior and nature, Alice Walker's representation of the female, especially in The Color Purple, challenges this notion, presenting them rather as catalysts for positive change.

Despite a general move toward a racial identity embracing the unity of all its members, there emerged in the literature of African-American men a tone toward women contrary to this union. While women in these works may at times have positive roles in regards to their male counterparts, in general they seem to represent weakness and serve as agitators or deterrents to their male-protagonist counterparts. In Frederick Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he presents himself as the self-made man, where his action in reclaiming his stolen identity contrasts sharply the silence of his mutilated female counterparts. Elsewhere women, even the mistress he describes as "a kind and tender-hearted women" (31), play their own role in the degradation of the slave; though this kind mistress introduced him to education, within the same text her nature changes, and she "finally became even more violent in her opposition than her husband himself" (31). In James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, each of the two key female figures has positive characteristics. Both Elizabeth and Florence, in their own ways, possess more strength than the main male in their lives, Gabriel. While he appears to lord over them, it does not escape notice that without their presence he has no power, giving them to a certain extent a level of power over his own. However, each also represents a different, perceptually negative view of the Black female. Elizabeth represents the weak female who accepts her circumstances and lives in "the shadow . . . [of] fear" (155), while Aunt Florence represents the woman attempting to rule over man, as represented through her ever present threat of the letter and the truth of Gabriel's past (213):

‘Maybe,' she said, ‘I ain't got long for this world, but I got this letter, and I'm sure going to give it to Elizabeth before I go, and if she don't
want it, I'm going to find some way - some way, I don't know how- to rise up and tell it, tell everybody about the blood the Lord's
anointed is got on his hands.' (214)

Among the African-American male authors, Richard Wright's presentation of the female seems to particularly engage the negative image of their roles in relation to Black men. Wright's female characters are stock figures representing one of three main categories for which they are fitted; the sufferer, the sensual- almost animalistic in nature- and the avenger, who is perhaps the most "positive" of his female representatives. Despite their differences in characterization, each female-type for Wright is portrayed primarily within the confines of their relationships to male counterparts, be they lovers, sons, husbands, or assailants.

In many ways, Walker's representation of female characters may be viewed similarly to that of Richard Wright. Both present figures that fit an almost formulaic structure. In place of Wright's Sarah, Walker offers Shug Avery, whose sensuality rivals that of the lonely housewife. Where Wright presents Lulu as the suffering wife, Walker gives the role to Celie who suffers to a greater extent than what seems imaginable. The strength of Aunt Sue seems mirrored in the battling nature of Sophia, who refuses to let anyone beat her down without a fight. Yet these mirrored images only go so far; the reflection, beyond this point, becomes more of an inversion that mimics yet strongly contrasts the original image.

First among these female character types is the suffering woman. Wright's suffering female is characterized by silence and anguish. Her pain and suffering cause her male counterpart to engage in actions that, avoided, may have made the difference between his life and death. A prime example is Lulu, Mann's wife in the short story "Down by the Riverside." Though she never speaks, her presence is a constant burden for Mann, who spends almost the first half of the story working to save her. When considering the added burden of his wife, who was also "sick with a child she could not deliver" (63), he thinks to himself that "It just did not seem fair that one man should be hit so hard and on so many sides at once. He shifted the weight of his body . . . wondering how Lulu was" (63). Her suffering serves as the catalyst to her husband's desperate actions, including theft, murder, lying, and eventually fleeing for his life. Other minor female roles, such as Grannie and Sister Jeff, serve as constant reminders to Mann of his "obligations" as the man of the family; they put the pressure on him, urging him into action despite the flood of turmoil surrounding him already. When he worries over Lulu's condition, Sister Jeff reminds him, "‘Brother Mann, there ain nothin t eat in the house. Yuh gotta do something'" (65). Grannie causes more frustration in an already tormenting situation when she refuses to go in the stolen boat: "‘Ah ain goin in tha boat!' said Grannie. ‘Ah ain goin outta here t meet mah death today'" (69). Likewise, had Mann not been sent back to rescue Mrs. Heartfield and her children, he may have escaped the flood with his life; instead, he is thrown into conflict with the Whites who surround him when she and her son, who Mann rescued, confront him with the murder of Mr. Heartfield, and he loses his life. The women in this story serve to push Mann toward resignation, defeat, and ultimately his death.

The first key female in Walker's The Color Purple is Celie. Celie represents an inversion of Wright's suffering female, who serves as a silently negative catalyst to male action. Where Lulu's presence and struggle leads to Mann's downfall, it is ultimately Celie's presence and endurance through her suffering that lead to Mr. - -'s reform, particularly in regard to his emotional sensitivity. Mr.- expresses very early how he views Celie as a burden when Harpo asks why he beats her: "Mr. - say, Cause she my wife. Plus, she stubborn. All women good for- " (22). Yet as he and Celie reforge their relationship, once Celie acquires her independence, Mr.- begins to recognize that women are not mere objects, but human beings with feelings. Whereas before he never bothered asking Celie how she felt about anything, he later acknowledges that he recognized her feelings but was "just too big a fool to let myself care" (253). Celie, then, becomes the catalyst for Mr.- 's sensitization; where he once expressed himself violently, he becomes much more sensitive, kinder, and even begins joining Celie in self-expression through the art of stitching (272).

Where Lulu's suffering, and the suffering women with her, lead Mann to his demise, the sexuality of other women in Wright's work likewise serve as pitfalls to the men with whom they are associated. In "Long Black Song," Sarah represents this sensual female type. Sarah, like Lulu and Wright's other female figures, watches silently as the violence of the world occurs around her, refusing to take any part in changing it. Her character, however, finds basis primarily in her acts of sexuality. Wright weaves her character as mother and lover on a shared loom, providing dual images in relation to her revealing her overall sensuality; her breast, for example, serves to satisfy her baby's hunger and the White man with whom she goes to bed (135). Wright uses the sound of banging to synonymously represent her maternal care of her child- as the child "Bang! Bang! Bang"s on the clock (126) - and her sexual desire that "boiled her blood and blistered her flesh bangbangbang . . ." (137). In place of Lulu's suffering, Sarah's sensuality serves as a catalyst for the destruction of her husband who, upon realizing what his wife has done, becomes "jus mad ernuff t kill" (146) and indeed, like Mann, led him to murder (150).

In contrast to Wright's sensual female, Walker presents Shug Avery, Celie's friend and Mr.-'s lover. Just as Wright's sensual woman seems compelled by nature- Sarah watches the "green fields" (Uncle Tom's Children 127) and her husbands death from a hilltop (154-55) - so Shug herself is drawn, and draws Celie, to nature. When she shares her ideas of God, she states that the first things that took her away from the White man's image of God "was trees. Then air. Then birds . . . [That] feeling of being part of everything" (The Color Purple 195-96). She opens Celie's eyes to the fullness of nature, the emotion and action within it that suggests that all things are interconnected: "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it . . . Everything want to be loved . . . You ever notice that trees do everything to git attention we do, except walk" (196). Sarah and Shug differ in that, where Sarah's connection to nature reflects her silence and indifference, Shug's observations of and connectedness to nature are reflected in her actions and her refusal to be silenced. She is likewise responsible for the novel's slow change in Mr.-, in that her refusal to be talked down to or mastered by him continuously makes him more aware of others and their feelings. It is Shug who spoke up for Celie, as Mr.- reveals to Celie after his transformation: "But Shug spoke right up for you, Celie, he say. She say Albert, you been mistreating somebody I love" (270). Shug thus represents the female catalyst for both spiritual- for Celie- and emotional reform.

With the suffering and sensual female-types as the most negative images of the female in Wright's Uncle Tom's Children, perhaps the most positive female image is that of the avenger. In "Bright and Morning Star," the reader meets Wright's first potential heroine, known as "‘An Sue'" (227). She is an older woman, unlike her other female counterparts, and the mother of a grown son named Johnny-Boy. She becomes representative of an old thing in a strange, new world (225). Yet her old religiosity becomes transformed in the light of the new political world view when a group of White men come to kill her son: "She was consumed with bitter pride . . . She stood on a narrow plot of ground from which she would die before she was pushed" (239). With the capture and torture of her son, she becomes the avenger; she gives up her life to avenge his death, and even as she dies refuses to succumb to the power of her murderers (263). Yet despite her positive image, this figure for Wright serves primarily as a symbol, rather than as a person; thus is her humanity, and role as a female, lost to Wright's political commentary, and she becomes a representative image.

For Walker, the avenger female takes the form of Sophia Butler. Sophia, the woman with whom Harpo falls in love in the beginning of the novel, is a fighting woman. She refuses, even more fervently than Shug Avery, to be beaten down by anyone. "All my life I had to fight," she tells Celie (40), and advises her, "You ought to bash Mr.- head open . . . Think about heaven later" (42). Rather than lose her identity to a political cause, Sophia's struggle expresses the fight to maintain identity despite the opinions and expectations of others. Despite Harpo's desire to have her mind him, she refuses to cave in; even when she becomes the mayors maid, she does not completely lose her identity, and when she is reunited with the people- chiefly, the women, especially Celie- she loves she regains her full-spirits. In her continued struggle against Harpo's desire to lord over her, Sophia serves as a catalyst to his realization that a man need not lord over his wife. As he realizes this, he changes from a man constantly battling women's rebellion to a man who appreciates and seeks to love them: "Well, you got me behind you, anyway, say Harpo. And I loves every judgement you ever made. He move up and kiss her where her nose was stitch" (281-82).

The other noticeable difference between Wright's avenger and Walker's rendition is that Walker's female rarely takes up the fight of another. Sophia, like Shug, fights for herself. With the idea of women's solidarity, each woman in Walker's novel fights for the other in a sense, often combining their strength for one joint battle: "Shug look at me and us giggle. Then us laugh sure nuff. Then Squeak start to laugh. Then Sophia. All us laugh and laugh" (201). In this simple gesture of laughter, all the key women of The Color Purple share in an act of female defiance against the expectations of their male counterparts.

Social and political commentary may be one literary device that brings Wright and Walker together. Alice Walker, in her novel The Color Purple, offers her own political commentary. However, where Wright's dealt with an all-encompassing social view, Walker's deals primarily with re-imaging the patriarchal view of the female within society. Where Wright's political commentary takes away the female identity- as Aunt Sue loses her human and gender identity to Wright's symbolism- Walker's seeks to restore the identity of Black women. The avenger becomes the unifier; the violence of Aunt Sue is replaced by the reformed society focused around Walker's Celie and those who help her discover her identity. Emotionless, passive females who seem called to action only by political agendas are supplanted by highly active women with feelings equal to- if not, at times, surpassing those of- their male counterparts. Where in Wright the female serves as a divisive actor, and an outsider in the world of the men on whom she acts, Walker's female unifies- through female solidarity- both her own gender and the men who must thrive with her in their troubled world. Though Wright's female acts as a catalyst for negative, violent behavior in the males of his literature, Walker inverts this image, creating female figures who serve as catalysts for positive change and movement away from this violent male action.

Go Tell It, Miss Celie: Alice Walker's Challenge to Negative Female Character Types in <em>The Color Purple</em><br><br> <a href="http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/68402/go_tell_it_miss_celie_alice_walkers.html">http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/68402/go_tell_it_miss_celie_alice_walkers.html</a> <br><br> Submit your original video, text, audio and images to Associated Content to gain exposure and even earn cash. <a href="http://www.associatedcontent.com/join.html">Get started</a>. <br><br> <a href="http://www.associatedcontent.com"><img src="http://images-cdn01.associatedcontent.com/siteimg/ac_horizontal.gif" border="0"></a>

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