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This time Mr._____ insulted Celie and tried to knock her down by saying some bad words to Celie:
29 “Mr._____ try to act like he don’t care I’m going. You’ll be back, he
say. Nothing up North for nobody like you. Shug got talent, he say. She can sing. She got spunk, he say. She can talk to anybody. Shug got
looks, he say. She can stand up and be notice. But what you got? You ugly. You skinny. You shape funny. You too scared to open your mouth
to people. All you fit to do in Memphis is be Shug’s maid. Take out her slop-jar and maybe cook her food. You not that good a cook either. And
this house ain’t been clean good since my first wife died. And nobody crazy or backward enough to want to marry you, neither. What you gon
do? Hire yourself out to farm? He laugh. Maybe somebody let you work on they railroad. . . . .He laugh. Who you think you is? He say. You can’t
curse nobody. Look at you. You black, you pore, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all. . . .Shit, he say. I should
have lock you up. Just let you out to work.”Walker, 1982: 212 – 213
Mr.______ said those things when Celie wanted to go out from house and follow Shug to Memphis. He said she had nothing, got no talent, dumb, and black.
During her marriage Celie had to experience a terrible verbal abuse by her husband. That was why she hated her husband so much.
4.2.4 Slavery
Slavery is a form of forced labor
in which people are considered to be the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture,
purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive
compensation such as
wages . Evidence of slavery predates written
records, and has existed to varying extents, forms and periods in almost all cultures
and continents
. In some societies, slavery existed as a legal institution or socio-economic system, but today it is formally outlawed in nearly all countries.
www.wikipedia.comslavery
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Women can also be victims of slavery, especially black women. They are forced to work harder and sometimes underpaid. Black women are usually
regarded as servants or slaves because of their inferiorities in society. Even they not only work harder for their bosses but also for their husband. In their own
house their husbands treat them like servants. Their husband forced them to do the whole households or often to do men’s jobs.
Celie as a major character was also forced to do the whole jobs in her own house. She was treated as a slave. It can be seen in the following statement by
Harpo: 30
“Women work, he say. What? she say. Women work. I’m a man.”Walker, 1982: 22
The conflict started when Kate Mr. ____’s sister came to their house and asked Harpo to help Celie’s work. But Harpo refused to help. He thought that man
was a king in the house so he did not need to work. Woman would do the whole works.
Sofia was also treated as a slave in Mayor’s house. It can be seen in the following statement:
31 “One of Sofia children break in, the oldest boy. He tall and handsome,
all the time serious. And mad a lot. He say, Don’t you slaving, Mama. Sofia say, Why not? He got me in a little storeroom up under the house,
hardly bigger than Odessa’s porch, and just about as warm in the winter time. I’m at they beck and call all night and all day. He won’t let me see
my children. He won’t let me see no mens. Well, after five years they let me see once a year. I’m a slave, she say. What would you call it? A
captive, he say.”Walker, 1982: 108
In the statement above, Sofia’s son came to see her and asked her why she wanted to be the white’s slave. Sofia said that her master only gave her a little and
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cold room. She had to work all day long and no rest time at all. He would not let her to see her children and her husband. She suffered from that. Mayor treated her
badly as a black woman.
4.3 The Main Character’s Struggle to Fight against Sexism.
