The Search For Self-Acceptance in the Color Purple by...

If any woman had to answer if she ever had trouble accepting herself, the response would be yes. According to Susan David, â€Å"All healthy human beings have an inner stream of thoughts and feelings that include criticism, doubt, and fear† (125-128). Depending on the person Alice Walker has as the recipients of Celie’s and Nettie’s letters, the text alters. The Color Purple is about a girl named Celie, who grows up in the south during the early 1920’s, surrounded by racism, sexism, and abuse from her father and husband. Alice Walker wrote The Color Purple in epistolary style and it traces Celie’s journey of finding her identity and path of finally accepting herself. On her journey she encounters a couple of women including one named Shug†¦show more content†¦It all I can do not cry. i make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, your a tree. Thats how come I know trees fear man (Walker 23). Mr.___, who is a violent, controlling husband, treat s Celie as a child and causes her to believe she is powerless. As a result of these tragic events, Celie writes to an unknown audience, resembling her unknown identity. In the beginning, the only person she can talk to is God. She writes her first letters to God shortly after her so-called father raped her. Each one of the letters is short, choppy and has a similar rhythm. The patterns found in her letters symbolize her state of mind; she feels depressed and weak. Celie does not think of her letters as anything else than just that, as written documents saying the things she wishes to tell the recipients she cannot speak to in person†, making God the person she has always wished to communicate with (Boynukara). Her letters in the beginning are also mostly written to God and not signed off, illustrating her lack of identity. Her conception of God is a â€Å"Big and old and tall and graybearded and white. He wear white robes and go barefooted† (Walker 195). Celie’s first letter proves that she has a low self-confidence when she writes, Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I am I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me. (1). 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