Bing a black female in the South during the early 1900’s. at a clip when white and inkinesss were socially segregated and adult females were perfectly inferior to work forces. was one of the many challenges Celie would be faced with in her life-time. Born in 1895. Celie was raised on a farm in a little town in Georgia where formal instruction took a back place to physical labour and family care. and the Church was the chief focal point of socialisation among local town members. We are foremost introduced to Celie in 1909. when she is 14 old ages old. running and frolicking through the Fieldss with her sister Nettie. so giving birth to her 2nd kid by her step-father. Soon after the neonate was taken out of her weaponries. an emotionless and oppugning Celie is found internally speaking to God while walking behind her mother’s coffin. who was said to hold died from a broken bosom. Raised in an autocratic manner by her male parent and permissive manner by her submissive female parent. she is repeatedly chastised and shamed by her step-father. which is apparent during his debut of Celie to “Mister” when inquiries arise about matrimony.
Shamed and overruled. Celie is given to “Mister. ” therefore get downing her new journey of matrimony at the stamp age of 14. Overtime Celie becomes progressively submissive. reserved. and diffident as “Mister” provides a similar reign of panic and dictatorship over her that her step-father one time held. merely this clip she doesn’t have the love and trust of her sister Nettie. Though we know really small about Celie prior to the birth of her 2nd kid. we can presume she has met the first two phases of her life in conformity to Erikson’s psychosocial phases of development by her love and trust of her sister Nettie. Shug and Sophia which come subsequently in her life. Her “will” is viewed early on when she is larning to read and go educated with Nettie’s aid. Though her hope and will are inhibited on infinite occasions as Celie travels through life. the general capacity to hold them is at that place. During her early adolescence. Celie has become a female parent. a married woman. the caretaker of another woman’s kids. and basically the house clasp amah. otherwise known as the “mammy. ”
Nettie. the one individual who she loves. trusts. and in bend who loves her dorsum. has been replaced ( non by pick ) by Mister. who dictates her functions and duties. as first noticed during a scene when Celie is combing a immature misss hair and Mister stands up. slaps her across the face dictating that she will make what he says when he says it. This first act of control over her life and her being leads to a hereafter of emotional. verbal. and physical maltreatment and debasement. Her single individuality has been stripped from her and any opportunity of fidelity was lost one time she was handed over to Mister. Repudiation develops as function confusion additions. Her perceptual experience of herself is ugly. worthless. and non equal to the adult female Mister was intended to get married. as he made clear on infinite occasions. It wouldn’t be until subsequently in life that fidelity and single individuality would be developed. as a affinity between Shug and Celie develops. and Celie leaves Mister. acquires her childhood place and creates a concern. Hope arrives months subsequently in the signifier of Nettie.
Mister allows Nettie to remain at the farm with them. rekindling life. love and hope within Celie. taking us to believe that Celie’s babyhood provided her with adequate love and attention to let her to develop hope. Frolicing in the Fieldss. playing games like school kids. and larning to read and compose with Nettie allowed Celie to develop the beginning phases of Competence. She begins to read words and understand significances. practising her accomplishment and intelligence by reading Oliver Twist and developing an elaborate kitchen system for hive awaying pots and pans. Though her school age old ages developed tardily. they matured as clip passed and as Celie’s will to larn and go educated increased. Hope had been restored with Nettie’s reaching merely every bit rapidly as it was abolished. Mister kicked Nettie off of the belongings. taking away the lone individual Celie trusted and loved at the clip. taking to another enchantment of backdown and entry to Mister. The letter box becomes a symbol of hope for old ages to come.
As the jangle of the bells echo in the distance exhilaration escalates with the hope of a missive from Nettie. indicating that she is alive. as decease would be the lone thing to maintain her from composing to Celie. Shug arrives in the summer 1916 and Celie’s foremost existent love is born. Mister’s name. Albert. is discovered during Shug’s foremost twenty-four hours at the farm. Celie watches Albert. with child-like amusement and wonder. as he fumbles through seeking to affect Shug by doing her breakfast. In an attempt to win over Shug. who antecedently declared Celie as “ugly. ” she prepares an award winning breakfast that even Shug couldn’t bend off. Over clip. a relationship begins to organize between Shug and Celie. taking Shug to compose and sing a vocal dedicated to her at the congee articulation. make fulling Celie with an unknown type blessing and love. Celie shows us that her capacity to love and to be loved is blossoming during the scene of her first buss with Shug. Thrown into immature maturity at the early age of 14. at 21 old ages old Celie now begins the true procedure of developing familiarity with an improbable character for the clip. A long lasting friendly relationship and common love matter between Celie and Shug has begun. and will subsequently turn out to be her salvaging grace as her assurance. individuality. intent. and will increase.
Shug plans to go forth in September of 1916. months after her reaching. and Celie is determined to go forth with her. to interrupt free from “Mr. Jail. ” Hope is lost as she watches Shug’s auto thrust off without her in it. Overcome with emotion. Celie collapses. wholly dissociating herself from the universe and the state of affairs. By the winter of 1930. some 14 old ages subsequently. Celie begins demoing marks of Adulthood in her general attention for Sophia and her kids. At the general shop Celie provides hope and religion to Sophia when recovering all of the points on the food market list for Miss Millie and gesticulating to maintain her caput up as she is driving off. She has cared for Sophia’s kids during her 8 twelvemonth gaol sentence. as seen during the return of Sophia on Christmas twenty-four hours. During this period of clip we see a alteration in Celie’s perceptual experience of herself through her vesture. organic structure linguistic communication. and her function within her extended household. The spring of 1936 Markss another dramatic turning point in Celie’s life. A freshly married Shug returns to the farm. a missive is received from Nettie at the manus of Shug. and Celie finds out that Nettie is alive and that her two kids are alive and have been raised by Nettie in Africa.
Tonss of letters from Nettie were found in Albert’s ( Mister ) secret box. one time once more reconstructing hope. love and aim within Celie. Reading the letters she imagines the African seashore and the life Nettie and her kids have lived. Their every experience becomes a concrete experience and idea within Celie. Her assurance has reached a climatic point and her voice and ideas are eventually heard after Easter dinner when Shug declares they will be go forthing and Celie would be traveling with them. and protests break out. Though Celie remains unagitated and poised at first when explicating to Albert why she is go forthing. it subsequently turns into a conflict of volitions with Celie keeping a knife to Albert’s cervix and cussing him. Driving off in the dorsum of the auto provides her with freedom from shame. ridicule. and lower status therefore leting her to now populate her life. Light is shed on Celie’s yesteryear during the winter of 1937. after her “pa’s” decease.
She learns that her existent male parent was lynched sometime after Nettie was born. her female parent married her “pa” two old ages subsequently. and her kids were non her brother and sister as antecedently thought. She acquired a house. land. and a shop forepart with the passing of her stepfather and began her function into maturity. perpetrating to the attention and length of service of her friends. pull offing her house-hold. and reflecting on the yesteryear. She created her ain concern. “Miss Celie’s Folkpants. ” which began her fiscal independency as a adult female and solidified her competency as an person. By late summer Celie’s sister arrives from Africa with her two kids and the four of them are reunited in a dear minute. reigniting the love for one another they ever had and solidifying the hope they held their religion in. Overcome with joy. Celie and Nettie embrace as their closest household and friends watch in the distance. At 42 old ages old. Celie is now successfully going thorough maturity. fixing her for late maturity.
Based on Ruth Bennedict’s Cultural Determinism. Celie did non travel through her life phases in a uninterrupted manner. Her life phases became compartmentalised around or about after her Play Age of 3-5yrs old. when her female parent remarried the adult male whom would beget her kids and physically and mentally mistreat her for old ages to come. Though she did finally travel through the phases. they were out of order. get downing with the birth of her kids at 12/13 and her matrimony at 14.
[ 1 ] . Erikson’s life phase of Adolescence. 12-18yrs old. Ego Quality developed is function confusion as her individuality was defined by her stepfather. who sexually abused her and convinced her that she was ugly and had the ugliest smiling this side of creative activity. and Albert. who beat her and take her to believe she was worthless and non the adult female he was intended to get married. The premier adaptative self-importance of Fidelity was non developed until later in life with Shug. though it was apparent she felt love and trueness to her sister Nettie. The Core pathology of renunciation was developed and was apparent in her deficiency of ego assurance and her hesitance to show herself. as in the scene with Shug and standing in forepart of the mirror concealing her smiling. Her developmental undertakings for this clip period are skipped and learned subsequently in her life. [ 2 ] . Erikson’s life phase of Infancy is apparent in her hope. The psychosocial crisis for this phase is trust vs. misgiving. It is apparent that this phase was met in that she maintains the capacity to swear. though overtime her trust gives manner to distrust as her caretakers ( Father and Mister ) are cold. indifferent and rejecting towards her. Her get bying mechanisms become suppression. disassociation. and reaction formation.
The developmental undertakings for this phase are met as she has a societal fond regard with her sister. shows emotion prior to marriage. and understands the nature of objects. She does travel through periods of backdown and experiences paranoia when seeking for letters and at her shop when she peers out the window. believing she see’s Mister. [ 3 ] . Erikson’s life phase of School Age. 6-12yrs old. The psychosocial crisis developed for this phase is inferiority. as she has been continuously overruled by her step-father and now Mister. The nucleus pathology developed is Inertia-an illustration is from the scene when Shug is foremost introduced in individual. Celie regresses to a child-like outlook. though she is in her 20’s. when watching Mister ( Albert ) prepare breakfast for Shug. Education is the declaration for the psychosocial crisis. which occurs during the scene with Nettie and larning how to read. The developmental undertakings for this phase are skipped. but are learned subsequently. [ 4 ] . Erikson’s life phase of toddlerhood. Psychosocial crisis is autonomy vs. shame and uncertainty. though ab initio this phase is met developmentally. shame and uncertainty do go the crisis and disassociation becomes her header mechanism.
As mentioned before. she has the capacity for Will. but it is suppressed by shame and lower status at times. [ 5 ] . Kohlbergs phase of conventional morality. present four. good kid orientation=gain credence. avoid disapproval. Celie prepares breakfast for Shug to win blessing of her. [ 6 ] . Kohlbergs phase of Conventional Morality. phase 5. jurisprudence and order orientation=follow the regulations and avoid punishments. One illustration of this is when a battle breaks out at the congee articulation and Celie corsets in her place. watching the action. avoiding the effects. Another illustration is when shaving Mr when she was 14. She was told non to cut him or he would kill her. She did all she could to avoid cutting him. [ 7 ] . Erikson’s life phase of Young Adulthood. This phase she was thrown into early in life when she foremost became a parent and a married woman at the age of 14. Though she is run intoing some of the developmental undertakings. others she will non develop until subsequently. when she has picks over life styles. work and mutualness among her equals. The psychosocial crisis is Intimacy V. Isolation.
She begins to develop familiarity with Shug. as seen during the summer months of 1916. when she is in her 20’s. Love is developed more in deepness subsequently in life through mutualness among friends and equals. when she is able to care about others and portion her experience. The first experience is shared with Shug. when she tells her that Albert beats her when she is non aroud. [ 8 ] . Erikson’s life phase of Adulthood. Celie is run intoing this phase as she has entered her 40’s. is pull offing her calling and family. and is able to foster her relationships with Shug and Sophia. The psychosocial crisis of generativity is met through her person-environment tantrum and creativeness. as seen in her new place and during the scene with Sophia & A ; Harpo at her Folkpants store in town. Prime adaptative self-importance met is Care. [ 9 ] . Erikson’s life phase of play age of 3-5yrs old.
We do non cognize Celie during this clip. nevertheless. subsequently on in life we are able to see that she has developed the premier adaptative self-importance of intent as first told when she is with Nettie on her parents farm-her intent was to protect and care for Nettie. The nucleus pathology of suppression took over her purpose as intense unfavorable judgment and the inability to take enterprise. brought on by her stepfather and Mister. emotionally halt Celie during her teens and throughout immature maturity. We see that Celie one time once more has intent when she discovers Nettie and her kids are alive. During her matrimony she had no intent. as evident a the statement to Sophia stating “this life would be over shortly adequate and heaven stopping points everlastingly. ” [ 10 ] . Piaget’s Concrete operational phase. Celie expresses her ability to put concrete objects in her caput when she is reading the letters from Nettie. visualising life as Nettie and her kids lived it.
She is able to be after and job solve as seen when Mister is cooking breakfast for Shug and Celie had developed an luxuriant system to keep pots and pans off the floor. Forming all of the points she normally uses. This is besides an illustration of Piagets Preoperational phase. where Celie is able to stand for objects mentally that are non physically present. Lions. elephants. bulldozers. and people are non physically present in the letters she reads. They are visions created in her head. 11Westerhoffs phases of faith-affiliative religion is foremost viewed when Celie and her sister are go toing the matrimony of her “pa. ” They are sing the religion of matrimony. In add-on. socialisation takes topographic point in the church. and is the chief focal point of religion for the town. 12Westerhoff’s phases of faith-searching religion is viewed when Celie is going behind her mother’s casket speaking to god. explicating that she is a good miss and does what she can to make what she is told. She is inquiring what she has done to merit the life she is populating.
