Beauty and The Color Purple:
Length: 774 words (2.8 pages)
Rating: Red (FREE)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The meaning of Beauty and The Color Purple
?Though we travel the world over
to find the beautiful, we must carry it
with us or we find it not?
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
As stated by Emerson, beauty cannot be found unless carried within one?s self first. In the novel by Alice Walker, ?The Color Purple?, Celie finds out that beauty is not real unless it is first found within, so that that beauty felt can reflect for others to see. [Celie went through traumatic struggles before she ever felt beautiful starting with the treatment of influential men in her life. Although she felt more connection with women in her life, her early encounters with Shug greatly accounted for her self worth at the time. However, Celie could not be beautiful to others unless she found beauty within herself, for herself.]
For the majority of the novel, Celie was never told she was or could be beautiful by men, she was told how much of nothing she was to them. Beauty was something Celie learned was for women who enjoyed having sex, something for women who had confidence, which was something she could never feel for herself. She was constantly mis treated and told what to do by men like her father and Albert. The book opens with her being raped by her father. He tells her to tell nobody but God, and she begins to be scared of saying ?no? to men, she feels she needs to take the abuse, Celie would ?be wood? because wood does not feel pain. Her father dominates and makes Celie feel like she was bad, like she did something to deserve this. She felt she was worth little because she should allow her father to do thing like this to her. She felt controlled, dominated and therefore subordinate to men. Her self worth had gone from little down to nothing, and she was told by her father how ugly she was.
Not only had her father told her she was ugly, Shug Avery also took it into her own hands when attempting to make Celie feel ugly. Celie began to feel even worse when she first met Shug Avery, and the excitement she had to see Shug, was ruined as a dark shadow hovered over Celie, making her feel more ugly than she had ever thought. Shug Avery was spoken about by Albert like some kind of Goddess. She was the epitome of beauty for Celie because Albert had spoken about her so fondly. However when Shug first came to the house, and Celie wanted to change her dress, and clean herself up to look good when she saw the ?famous? Shug, the first thing Shug said when she looked at Celie, cackling was ?You sure is ugly?. Not only did Celie feel her smile turn to a frown, she felt horrid about herself. Somebody she hoped to like her so bad, calling her ugly and laughing about it as if it was nothing. However, Shug?s confidence and the attractiveness Shug reflected caused Celie to, for the first time begin to feel emotion, something she would not allow herself to feel before. The confidence Shug attained, attracted Celie, and she began to feel sensually toward Shug.
That sensuality toward Shug led Celie to begin to feel better about herself, and find her true beauty within. The beauty within that Celie found, transformed her and the people around her. When Celie realizes that Shug is beautiful because of her confidence, and Shug tried to tell Celie about her God, and what she sees God in. She said she saw God in nature, all around, everywhere, in the color purple in pure nature. Celie began to feel the God Shug was speaking about, and with that she began to feel more independent and confident with herself emotionally. Confidence is what Celie was so attracted to in Shug, and now that she was beginning to become more confident, she began to feel more happy, and that beauty of confidence and happiness reflected off of her, making her feel and seem more beautiful to many. She was finally being told she was a beautiful person, and feeling she was beautiful as well.
Beauty cannot be something seen, it must be something felt. To feel that beauty however, it cannot come from the eye of somebody else, it must come from the heart of the person. Beauty is only acknowledged when a person, like Celie begins to gain in touch feelings with herself, and that confidence, independence and beauty will glow, allowing others to clearly see.
Bibliography:
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Search for: [taco bell] [ten year] [set apart] [greenhouse gas]
|
Important Note: If you'd like to save a copy of the
paper on your computer, you can COPY and PASTE it into your word
processor. Please, follow these steps to do that in Windows:
1. Select the text of the paper with the mouse and press Ctrl+C. Azete.com (the "Web Site") is produced by the "Company". The contents of this Web Site, such as text, graphics, images, audio, video and all other material ("Material"), are protected by copyright under both United States and foreign laws. The Company makes no representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the Material or about the results to be obtained from using the Material. You expressly agree that any use of the Material is entirely at your own risk. Most of the Material on the Web Site is provided and maintained by third parties. This third party Material may not be screened by the Company prior to its inclusion on the Web Site. You expressly agree that the Company is not liable or responsible for any defamatory, offensive, or illegal conduct of other subscribers or third parties. The Materials are provided on an as-is basis without warranty express or implied. The Company and its suppliers and affiliates disclaim all warranties, including the warranty of non-infringement of proprietary or third party rights, and the warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. The Company and its suppliers make no warranties as to the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the material, services, text, graphics and links. For a complete statement of the Terms of Service, please see our website. By obtaining these materials you agree to abide by the terms herein, by our Terms of Service as posted on the website and any and all alterations, revisions and amendments thereto. |
ween falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Lexicographer ========================= Wonder, rather than doubt, is the root of knowle...here is much not known about this man but the few pieces of information written about him. He is believed to lived between 1100 through 800 B.C. seeing how The Iliad revolves around the Trojan War. Many historians believe him to be the first of man to write literature of the western world. The ...amp;#9788; ☼This table compares rainfall in the grasslands to other biomes☼ ☼Sometimes the summer are so hot that the grass catches on fire very easily. Fires are very often seen during these hot summer months. These fires are dangerous because they spread through the d...n June 7 the preliminary results of a survey showing that doctors do not pay due attention to their own health, and that, in most cases, they prefer self-treatment to seeking the advice of another doctor when ill. Early this year in Barcelona, a detailed questionnaire was sent to 795 doctors, of wh...