The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Book) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Book) - Essay Example Celie’s husband, who obtained her in exchange of a cow succinctly stated the causes why Celie and her ilk are at a disproportionate risk for such criminal victimization i.e., â€Å"Look at you. You’re black, you’re poor, you’re ugly, you’re a woman, you’re nothing at all†. This ‘nothingness’ gives anyone the license to do anything his whims and caprices dictate him. Poverty ranks first in the list of causes that render women so vulnerable to victimization. According to Mawby and Walklate, â€Å"the poor and socially vulnerable often find themselves trapped on environments where their risk is increased and in ways they are powerless to prevent (53). In Celie’s case because they were so dirt-poor and her own mother was so uncaring to the point of being oblivious to her existence and because she has nowhere to run to, she had to bear the incestuous rape perpetrated on her by her ‘father’, who later turned out to be her stepfather, the pain of seeing her children being snatched from her grasp to be given to strangers and the ignominy of being bartered in lieu of a cow to a man much older than she. This impoverished man mistreated her, beat her, habitually raped her and forced her to take the role of a surrogate mother, at the age of 14, to 4 unruly kids. Because of poverty she became a virtual slave, a workhorse and a sex object. The incestuous rape was so destructive to Celie’s psyche that for years she can’t even smile nor talk and her only outlet for communication is her letters to God and the subsequent letters to her sister Nettie, the only being who ever loved her. These letters were being used by author Alice Walker to present the bitter odyssey of Celie’s life from a 14-year old two-time mother sold in marriage to a cruel husband (portrayed by Danny Glover) to her release from a despicable, ignominious life. This pattern of sexual abuse , first perpetrated