Tammy Tellez

Tammy Tellez

Mr. Janosch

AP Literature 1

April 7, 2019

The Obstacles and Process of Overcoming Trauma

What are obstacles and how can someone achieve peace and happiness after trauma? The

book “The Color Purple” written by Alice Walker, talks about a lot of different themes and one

of them is trauma. According to an article about 60% of adults have reported abuse during their

childhood. The main character in “The Color Purple”, Celie experienced trauma as a child and

those traumatic experiences influenced her adulthood. Celie went through a lot ever since she

was a child and because of that she struggles a lot in her life. Throughout the book Celie changes

as a person and questions herself and questions her beliefs. The setting and the language show

how Celie is feeling and how the environment she’s in changes her.

​ Celie had no self love in the beginning of the book, she didn’t think highly of herself and

because of all the trauma that Celie faced she didn’t know her worth.​ Celie saw two characters;

Shug Avery and Sofia as her superego. She saw these two people and envied the way they were.

She was jealous because there was these two women that broke gender stereotypes and Celie

wanted to be like them and at first she had doubted herself. After everything she had

experienced, on page 6 Celie finds a picture of Shug Avery and says the following “Shug Avery

was a woman. The most beautiful woman I ever saw. She more pretty then my mama. She bout

ten thousand times more prettier than me”. Celie sees a picture of Shug and sees a beautiful
 Tammy Tellez

woman and says how she’s way prettier than her. After seeing this picture Celie admires the

picture so much. Whether it’s because ​Shug is pretty or because Shug looks so free in the

picture, Celie simply admires it. Celie sees Shug as someone that she wished was her​.

Later on in the book Sofia is introduced as this strong character that doesn’t let her

husband push her around. On page 36, Harpo asked Celie what he should do so that Sofia listens

to him and this is what she said “I don’t mention how happy he is now. How three years pass and

he still whistle and sing. I think bout how every time I jump when Mr.___ call me, she look

surprise. And like she pity me. Beat her. I say.” Celie gets treated horribly and Sofia is this

woman that doesn’t let anyone control her and Celie feels that Sofia feels bad for her so because

of that she does tell Harpo to hit Sofia. Celie doesn’t think much of herself because no one has

ever made her feel beautiful. She hasn’t been in an environment that makes her feel safe nor feel

loved. The setting and conflicts she has been through affect the way she looks at other women

and how she feels about them.

Throughout the book her feelings for Shug and Sofia change. She becomes very close to

them and you can start to see a difference in her. Shug starts to talk to Celie about her sexual life,

on page 78 Shug gives Celie a mirror so that she can look at herself down there and says “It a lot

prettier than you thought ain’t it”. Thanks to Shug Celie explores this side of herself, all through

her childhood she had been sexually abused so that made her scared to open up to someone and

be open with herself.

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Based on an article, there are three phases for trauma recovery. The last phase is called

Reconnection and Integration. This phase is where you start a new future and look at yourself

differently. Celie went through this phase when she decided to leave and go with Shug. She left

and had a fresh start, she opened a business which was amazing because a lot of sexism was

going on and she completely broke that. But most importantly she was able to stand up to

Mr.___ which is something that took her a long time to do. When Celie tells him that she’s

leaving he tells her that she’s worthless but she leaves anyways. The fact that she was able to

leave is what makes her so powerful.

Celie eventually faces the man that she thought was her father; the same man that

sexually abused her when she was a child for years. That was a very important moment for her.

Does this necessarily mean that she has to confront a person that hurt her a lot in order to move

on? Later on towards the end of the book, Celie and Mr.___ became friends and she did forgive

him. ​Is it necessary for her to forgive this person in order to live in peace? Overall she forgave

him but not for him but for herself.

Celie changed as a person for the better. She really improved and found it in her heart to

find forgiveness. Not because they deserved it but she owed it to herself to have peace in her life.

It was a long road to recovery for her to overcome everything. She faced many challenges but

she really changed. At the end of the book she was much stronger and she was truly happy with

how things were. Yes it was a long way for her to find happiness but the important thing is that

she found it.

 Tammy Tellez

Work Cited

https://www.samhsa.gov/trauma-violence

http://www.recognizetrauma.org/statistics.php

http://trauma-recovery.ca/recovery/phases-of-trauma-recovery/