Celie's Self-Esteem In The Color Purple

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker follows the dysfunctional and disturbing life of Celie during the early 1900s in the south. Celie has grown up only ever knowing what it is like to be used. From her step father raping her, having her two children taken away, and her being worth no more than a cow to her husband, it is hard for her not to have low self esteem. Throughout the first half of the novel there are multiple reasons in which causes Celie to have low self esteem and the reader can infer what the causes of her low self esteem is. Toward the beginning of the novel we begin to get a picture of Celie’s early life through her current situation at home. She has a younger sister, Nettie, and she feels it is her sole responsibility to protect …show more content…
Before she is even married, one of Mr’s kids bashes her head in with a rock but Celie is so used to being treated this way it is like another day for her. When Shug Avery arrives to town, she is so fixated on what a life would be like to be praised as much as Shug. She is used for the hard work in the fields, cooking and cleaning in the house, and raising children that aren’t hers. Celie is treated as she is not even a human and in some ways, she may not even consider herself human. Until people like Sofia and Shug comes around, Celie doesn’t have the slightest idea of standing up for oneself or taking care of yourself. When Celie had told Harpo to try and beat Sofia that was her insecurities shining through. The only reason Celie had said that was because she was jealous of how Sofia was able to say no to her husband and actually take nothing from anyone. People’s actions often reflect on how they are feeling on the inside and Celie had a very low self esteem and no self confidence. When everything comes down to it, the things that have happened to Celie, it is hard not to believe that Celie doesn’t have low self
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