The Strong Woman

It seems the reading material for the class has developed a trend: regular women doing regular things. At first glance, that is. In reading the first chapter of a book like The Bluest Eye or The Color Purple, one might find nothing spectacular about Celie or Pauline Breedlove. But as I wrote in my last discussion post, these women demonstrate heroism by illustrating perseverance and respect for tradition. Like the women in Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, Celie and Polly serve as reminders of universal truths. These truths are simple and revolutionary at the same time. In Alice Walker’s novel, Celie’s heroism is developed in two ways: her optimism throughout her lifeless marriage and the morals she displays to the reader.

Celie’s marriage to Mr. _______ shows her strength and her devotion to regularity and tradition. Her husband takes absolutely no notice of her. As a couple, they don’t have any interaction outside of sex. “Mr. ______ drink all through Christmas. Him and Grady. Me and Shug cook, talk, clean the house, talk, fix up the tree, talk, wake up in the morning, talk” (109). What a spectacular married life! But Celie takes it with no complaints. She concentrates on her work and her life as an individual. By taking this initiative, she asserts her strength as a woman. She doesn’t sit at home crying for her husband. In the end, she leaves Mr. ______ for a more welcoming environment at Shug Avery’s house. This image of the woman is so different from the traditional, weak stereotype that prevailed in literature for years. Our female heroes have come a long way since books like The Scarlet Letter. But even as early as Henry James, in The Portrait of a Lady, has the woman had an individual side to her. It just takes a very assertive author to bring that woman to life. Alice Walker, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, is one of these authors. Her protagonist makes her life by herself and with another woman, rather than forever submitting to an arranged marriage. In doing so, she would capitulate to both her father and her new husband. Instead, Celie forges her own path as a strong and capable woman.

Like Pauline Breedlove, Celie places huge importance on beauty and its influence in modern society. Pauline Breedlove sat in the movies and admired the stars in them. Celie, on the other hand, had a famous leading lady right in her own home, Shug Avery. She is initially drawn to Shug’s beauty from a picture her husband has. Even after they become good friends and Celie sees deep into Shug’s soul and character, Celie is fascinated by her beauty. “She wearing a long white gown and her thin black hand stretching out of it to hold the white cigarette looks just right” (51). Like Pauline Breedlove, Celie shows the reader how society places such importance on beauty. Regular heroes aren’t perfect. Even strong women have soft spots for self image. Can it be their breaking point? Their hubris, or fatal flaw? It certainly stirred up controversy in both books for the female protagonists. But since Celie blazed her own trail, looking only toward another strong woman for guidance, she is stronger than Pauline Breedlove. She gets her strength from another woman. When Shug writes she is coming home, Celie asks, “Now. Is this life or not? I be so calm. If she come, I be happy. If she don’t, I be content. And then I figure this the lesson I was suppose to learn” (283).