Trauma and Healing in The Color Purple

Abstract：The Color Purple is the masterpiece of the outstanding Afro-American writer in American contemporary literature， Alice Walker. This paper mainly talks about the trauma and healing of Celie， the most typical role in this novel.

Key words：Celie， Trauma， Healing

As an epistolary novel， The Color Purple is one of the most influential novels in the world， which has won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. In the novel， Alice Walker tells us the story of Celie， a black woman in the south of America. Throughout the story， Celie suffered a lot ，but she finally becomes a real woman who is self-confident， independent and unyielding.

1. The Trauma of Celie in The Color Purple

Celie is at the bottom of Americas social caste. She is black， poor and uneducated so that she is injured not only by white people but also by black men.

（1）Patriarchal Harming Cause by Celies Step-father

Fonso， step-father of Celie， who marries Celies mother for getting the fortune left by Celies father who has been lynched by white people. Fonso has done severe harm to Celie when she is only a little girl. When Celies mother is ill， he turns to Celie for his sex desire. He even abandons Celies two children， which leaves everlasting wound in Celies heart. Gradually， under the oppression of her step-father， Celie loses her self-recognition and sense of existence. To avoid pain， Celie even tells herself “ Celie， you are a tree.”

In the first letter， Celie writes “I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl .” Here， Celie deletes the first present tense “I am” and replaces it with “I have always been”， which reveals that she has lost her self-recognition.

（2）Familial Harming Caused by Celies Husband

Mr___ mistreats Celie just as her step-father does. The reason why Mr___ marries Celie is that she is so strong and industrious that she can help raise his children. In Mr___s eyes， Celie is just a servant. When he needs her， he feeds her； when not， he ignores her. In the family， Mr___ masters and controls Celie absolutely and he cannot allow any rebellion to him. To outlet his rage， he forces Nettie to be outside of his house and separates Celie from Nettie so that Celie could not accept any message from Nettie， which causes one of the biggest trauma in Celies life.

As Celies body has been raped and beat for many times， from numbness to ignorance to annihilation， Celie finally hate herself deeply. She surrenders to the fact that she is only an ugly black woman who is sick of men， sex and dislikes herself. Besides， she is full of guilt as she has relationship with her step-father. She even regards herself as the most lowest thing in the world.

2. The Healing of Celie in The Color Purple

Fortunately， Celie becomes a real confident， independent and unyielding woman after several peoples help and her trauma has been healed successfully.

（1） Establishment of safety

Shug Avery， the lover of Celies husband， breaks Celies psychological password step by step and guides her toward self-awareness. For example， Shug teaches Celie to know her own body by mirror and how to do self-satisfaction. Only when Celie writes “I stand there with the mirror”，can she find that she is a woman. To awaken Celies ignorance， Shug takes care of her， gives her respect， kisses her and eventually develops a physical relationship with Celie. From now on， she begins to know her body and know the real happiness as a woman. Shug not only assists Celie to build her self-recognition， but also tries to construct a safe environment for Celie to make Celie feel that she is protected and she lives in a safe life.

（2）Remembrance and Mourning

Telling the story of the trauma is the second stage of recovery. Firstly， Celie， Sofia and Shug work together to complete the quilt. Through quilting， Celie has chances to talk with Sofia and Shug and tell them her misery life to release herself. Secondly， Celie keeps writing letters all the time. It is one of the best ways to illustrate Celies sadness and heal her trauma. In the beginning， Celie writes to God as she can talk with nobody but God. As time goes by， Celie realizes that God can not help her at all. As a result， Celie does not regard God as a white man but a tree or something else under the influence of Shug. Then Celie begins to write to Nettie instead of God when Netties letters are found with the help of Shug， which plays an important role in healing Celies trauma.

（3） Reconnection with Ordinary Life

After Celie has already known well of her self-recognition， with the support of Shug， Celie releases her rage， angrily cursing Mr___ for his abuse. After going away with Shug， Celie spends her time in designing and sewing individually pairs of pants， eventually turning her hobby into business. Economic independence is the basis for the total liberation of Celie. At last， Celie does not hate anyone at all. Instead， she forgives Mr___ and build friendly relation with him. They can talk with each other peacefully and Celie even makes pants for Mr___.

In The Color Purple， Celie transforms from a downtrodden black woman who suffers the trauma of patriarchal and familial harming to an independent woman who achieves self-recognition and self-confidence. The Color Purple sets up a successful example for not only black women， but all the women in the world who are under the oppression of racial and sexual prejudice to fight for their own life.

【References】

[1] Walker， Alice. The Color Purple[J]. New York： Pocket， 1982.

[2] Harris T. From Victimization to Free Enterprise： Alice Walkers The Color Purple. Studies in American Fiction. 1986， 14：13.

[3] Leder， Priscilla. Alice Walkers America Quilt： The Color Purple and American.

[4] 馮丽君， 鱼戏溪. 《紫色》中的黑人女性成长特点[J]. 商洛. 商洛学院学报， 2012.

【作者简介】

刘丹丹（1991—），女，汉族，山东东营人，山东师范大学外国语学院2015级硕士研究生，主要研究方向：英语语言文学。