Personal Synthesis & Feminist Analysis

    I found The Color Purple to be sort of a roller coaster ride.  It was empowering and depressing all in one.  I thought that Alice Walker did an amazing job of telling the story in the way she does.  At points it was a very depressing story especially discussing uncomfortable topics such as rape, incest, gender roles, class, race, and religion.  I feel like this book is an explosion of controversial issues, and I love it for that.  I think some of these things need to be discussed and talked about because they are real and can't simply be ignored.  I think we saw in class how uncomfortable some of the discussions got because of the nature of the book.  I believe this is why we saw the changes we did between the movie and the book.  The main religious, violent, and sexual scenes were cut from the film, trying to make it less controversial. 
     I thought that the critical essay I read was very interesting in describing how the black women were supposed to be domestic and mammies.  I thought that this fit in very well with our class discussions on how women's lives are almost always focused around children, housework, or other "motherly" things.  In particular Sophia is almost the complete opposite of domestic, she would rather be patching a roof or working outside rather than sewing or cooking.  When Miss Millie just assumes that because she is a black women with "clean" children, Sophia would be honored to work as her maid.  It is obvious how different the black and white races and classes were from each other.  It was upsetting that it seemed that being a mother or mammy was all anyone in the book thought that the black women could do.
     The friendship between Shug and Celie, I thought, was very important to the story.  It showed how in some of her darkest days Celie over came her depression and found a friend that would prove to be life changing for her.  Shug helps Celie to find God again and with that her voice.  I thought that this scene in the book was so powerful how the women talk about God and for the first time that I have ever heard, referred to God as an it not a he.  I thought this moment was empowering for the women, showing that they were not just helpless inferior beings.  Celie had over come the sense that the men were superior.  In my opinion the sexuality between Celie and Shug was also an important part of the book, although it was not part of the movie.  I think that even though lesbianism is being more accepted, it still scares people.  Maybe it scares men because they are not part of the relationship as they are so used to being.  This sexuality was defiantly very controversial during the time the novel took place.
     The Color Purple is so raw that to some people it may be too much.  I encourage everyone to read this novel and experience it first hand.  It is far from the traditional make you happy inside book, and it takes awhile to appreciate that.  Alice Walker wrote an explosively controversial novel describing the life of a beaten down young child as she grows into a woman with, for once in her life, her own voice.  The Color Purple is truly an experience.