Length: 1181 words (4.3 pages)
Rating: Red (FREE)      
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Celie and Albert in The Color Purple  

 

The relationship between Celie and Albert went through many changes throughout this novel. Albert, or Mr._________, was a man who seem to be a person who was very angry, powerful and hateful. His father was a man who believed that love was not the point while trying to find a good wife, obedience was. The woman didn't have to be attractive, rich or one who was in love, all she had to do was cook, clean and tend to the children. Albert was taught that this was the way to an successful life. Albert feel in love with Shug, they did not marry. Mr.____ was controlled by his father even as an adult. His father wouldn't allow his son to marry Shug. His father didn't want him to actually love, because he never loved himself. Albert married a woman his father approved of, and he treated her how his father taught him to. Margret cooked, cleaned and tended to the children. After his father took shug away from him, he hated his father, but was so controlled by him that he could never stand up to his father. She later died and left behind a house to be cleaned, cooking to be done and children who needed to be tended to. He fell in love again with Nettie, but she was not allowed to marry him. Albert was forced to find a quick replacement for Margret. So instead he married Celie. He beat her not only because of the angry towards his father, but also because she was neither Shug nor Nettie. In the marriage of Celie and Albert there was no love or devotion. They were just stuck with the other. Celie married Albert because her step father told her too and Albert married because he wanted a full time maid. They just went one day to the next with Albert giving the orders and Celie carrying out these orders. It was like boss and employ, except Celie was anything but rewarded for carrying out the orders.

The women in those days were thought as something that a man owned. Once the women was his he was to do what he pleased with it. Celie was thought of as a item that Albert purchased, like cattle, and once he had purchased her she was his and no one else's. She was to obey him and only him, she was to be with only him, he could be with anyone else he wanted. Celie was like a slave bought and branded for life to Albert. "He does his business on top of me." This is a quote that Celie wrote in her journal. This shows that having sex wasn't to deal with love or even passion it was just Albert doing what he had to do. Celie had been raped as a young girl by her stepfather so she got the impression that men were do that and a women was to just take it whether she wanted to or not.

Throughout this book it was a fight for Celie to find her identity.Since she was a small child, people told her and treated her as nothing. She was to do and act as her father told her, then later as her husband told her. This is why Celie thought that Albert was just being a normal husband. She didn't know that she deserved respect just like her father and husband demanded from her. When Shug comes to stay with them, Albert realizes through Shug that Celie is a person just like Shug is and that Celie deserves the same respect Shug does. Through Shug Albert begins to see that Celie is a person not just the wife he was stuck with. "Albert was so funny. He kept me laughing. How come he ain't funny no more? she ast. How come he never hardly laugh? How come he don't dance? She say, What happened to the man I loved?" This quote proves to Celie that Mr____ was once a kind human being. Celie starts to become curios about Albert and the side of him that she had never known.

After Shug and Celie found the letters that Albert had been hiding, Celie turned her back on god. She blamed god for letting Albert hind Nettie's letters. Albert hind the letters from Celie because he didn't want Celie to love and be loved back by someone that he could never have. Celie resented him for this, but resented god more for letting Albert do should a thing. Here Celie begins not to blame so much on Albert, she just started to realize that he wasn't always such a bad person and wasn't brought help to be this way. It wasn't completely his choice to act the way he did.

At the end of he book it seemed like Albert realized what he had done was wrong and accepted it as a mistake. Once he realized what was wrong he began to work on it and then came to know his true self, not the part of him that his father had drilled into him. He became calm, relaxed and came to peace at mind. After he had changed himself he began to accept that Shug and him would never be together again and that it was time to move on. Celie learned stop just being a tree blowing in the wind, but to feel and respond on her feelings. She learned that she too deserved all the things others did. Both Albert and Celie grew throughout the novel. They might not of realized it at the time but in the end they knew they were different people with different views in life now.

Celie and Albert found that they had one thing in common, their love for Shug. They forgave each other for loving her. They began to learn about each other and who each other were as people not just as the person they use to be stuck with. They saw things in each other that they never knew the other had. They couldn't believe it themselves that the other had so much to offer to the other. Albert started having feelings for Celie as a person, not Celie as the ideal wife. His ideas of the perfect wife changed, he not only wanted someone to do household things, but also to love. Celie would be the third person that he loved that he couldn't have. Albert didn't care if he couldn't have her he just wanted her company. Celie was not in love with him, but wanted him there for company as well. She was not going to marry Albert again because she was afraid that he or she would return to their old selves again. In the end they were content to have each other just as friends. They were both new people with a new future. They liked having someone there who they new needed them back. Both realized that its okay to love and receive love in return.