The Color Purple: Celie vs Nettie
Author: Billy Lau // Category: The fiction novel, The Color Purple by Alice Walker talks about two characters lives and their similarities and differences. Celie is very shy, but later on her personality strengthens through adversity. Nettie is a bit more stronger and is willing to stand up for herself. Nettie is much more faithful in God than Celie, however they both face gender inequality in their societies. Through out the book, Celie and Nettie both have very similar problems, but they both handle these problems completely differently.
In the beginning, she is portrayed as a girl who is in need for God. Celie takes religion very seriously because she is desperate. She needs religion to help her go through her many problems. When Nettie leaves, and Celie gets left behind with Albert she is even more hungry for God. She writes, “ ... She run way from home. She say she hate to leave our stepma but she had to git out..." (pg 16) However, God does not respond and Celie starts to lose more and more faith. In the end, She stops writing to God altogether. “Well, us talk and talk about God, but I’m still adrift. Trying to chase that old white man out of my head. I been so busy thinking bout him I never truly notice nothing God make. Not a blade of corn (how it do that?) not the color purple (where it come from?). . . . “ She also looks at religion as an answer to gender inequality and racism, but still no response. As the book goes on, she loses more and more faith because God has not done nothing to help her out. Celie is shaped by God, because this toughens her up so that she can stand up for herself later against Albert and not need God.
Albert is one of the few characters who hurt Celie and Nettie, because he thinks that they are all inferior to him. He disrespects both of them and by this they both are affected by gender inequality. Celie believes that women are made weaker than man, and it was always like this from birth. She gets beat and whipped if she does something wrong, even though she does not have to do that task.Celie is so sick of all this bad treatment from men, so she writes to Nettie that “Well, you know wherever there’s a man, there’s trouble.”(pg 205). Celie did not want to get married in the first place, and she sees most men as trouble. I think this leads to why she has feelings for Shug than for other men. “Us sleep like sisters, me and Shug.” Another time in the book, a girl named Sofia stood up against her husband, and left him when he tried to beat her. Sofia mentally hit her husband where it hurt the most. Celie looks up to this too, and soon copies what Sofia did. Celie then leaves her husband, and overcomes gender inequality. Eventually, Celie gets a different life now due to their choices on what they did to solve gender inequality.
Nettie on the other hand, is completely different from Celie. She escapes bad men and does not have so many problems. Therefore it is easier for her to believe in God. Religion is a huge part of Nettie’s life from the start to the end. She has a heavy belief that God will always be there to help her through out her life. Nettie uses religion differently to solve problems, because she is not solving her own problems but others. She goes to Africa as a missionary to convert people to Christianity and she also gives the kids in Africa an education. Nettie has faith in God and she believes in him with all her heart. In conclusion, Nettie has a hard life , but she still gives thanks to God from time to time.
Nettie also faces gender inequality. When in America, Albert keeps looking at her and stalking her in a weird way. One time Albert makes a move, but Nettie fights back which results in Nettie getting kicked out of the house. “...You sure is looking fine Miss Nettie and stuff like that. I tried to ignore him and walk faster… I started to fight him, and ... hurt him bad enough to leave me alone.” (Page 127). In Africa, males and females play a different role. The society in Africa makes it so that women can never be alike men. She observes others being hurted because of their gender. As a result, Nettie never overcomes gender inequality.
Celie and Nettie are two different characters who have different personalities and views on gender inequality and religion. Celie is treated horribly due to her weakness of not wanted to stand up for herself, but later learns from others how to not get taken over, while Nettie has conquered most of her problems with the help of God. That is how each solves their problems. Nettie finds openings to fix her problems in her life while Celie deals with them straight on. I think Alice Walker’s point is to show conflict between faith in God and in gender inequality. She also hints at to never let others overcome you and that through God problems could be resolved.
