I am excited to announce that I have recently began reading the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker, a story of a 14 year old poorly uneducated girl named Celie who experiences abuse and rape by her own father, deciding to write letters to God, describing her ordeals and conflicts at home. The most horrid unresolved conflict that is very predominant within the first few pages is her relationship with her father. It is clearly evident that the Celie’s father, has no limitations within the spiritual and physical liberty of his wife, and kids. This is reflected through the letters of an innocent little girl who has little knowledge knowing little of what her father is doing to her. The instant I opened the first page, I was immediately greeted with extremely graphic interactions the father has done with Celie. It appears to me that in choosing to not specify the name of the father the first few pages of this novel, as well as titling their father by Mr. ______. and “he” implicitly symbolizes the type of tone resonated by Celie, not wanting to glorify or state the persons name who puts her under constant emotional and physical abuse.
As I continue to read on, Celie and her sister, Nettie, plans to absorb all the knowledge and information from school and with it, manage a way to escape her abusive father. This is how I see the protagonist and her sister escaping the atrocity the burden the father laid upon them at such early ages, which I am afraid will impact their future relationships with new faces they meet. Hopefully as I dive deeper into the book, both sisters can find a way through and away from the monster they call their father. I argue that children can be like flowers. A precious gift of life and unimaginable potential. To read about the abuse of (fictional) characters sickens my mind knowing that at early ages in life, the neuroplasticity is super malleable in the early stages of one’s life, and just like a flower, the way they were grown and treated affects the way they turn out in the future.