Discrimination In The Color Purple

Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple portrays the hardships of the characters Celie and Nettie to represent the importance of race in the life of an African-American in the early 20th century. Born in 1944, Walker was raised in a “...small Southern town at a time when many blacks, like her parents, worked in the fields for pittance and when whites exerted control over practically every aspect of black life” (Christian). Throughout her years, Walker witnessed the division between whites and blacks and began to observe the bonds between black people. Walker’s life was filled with stories of what life was like as a slave for her elders. When Walker started to write, she let her experiences be her voice and become the root of her work. Walker used her work to fight against oppression and she used characters like Celie and Nettie to reveal the truth about the unfortunate life of an African-American in her time (Christian). Celie suffered abuse and discouragement from everyone who came into her life. She is automatically seen as less valuable because she is a black woman who lets others take advantage of her. But as Celie ages and meets other black women, she is able to improve her own view of herself, gaining individuality and confidence, and no …show more content…
Not only in The Color Purple, but “The world of Walker’s early fiction is one in which black people make victims of other black people because of white people” (“Color” 63). The Anglo-American culture is in control of the Afro-American culture and dominates over their lives and decisions and even divides them as black men treat black women like slaves, and lighter black people are treated better than darker black people. The Color Purple expounds on how much African-Americans have fought for their families, dignity, identities, and freedom from any socially superior race