Banning The Color Purple
This is my third and final action project for my Humanities class, Forbidden Books. This unit was about diversity, and although this was a very brief unit we looked at the importance of diversity in literature, and how the lack of it can affect a society. We also read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is a story that depicts racism from the perspective of a young boy living in the modern world. For this action project we watched the movie based off of the novel, The Color Purple and then look at why the novel was banned in so many places.
When Celie was just 14 years old her father gave her away to Mister in place of her sister, Nettie. Not too long after Celie was forced into a life of servitude as ‘Misters’ wife, Nettie runs away from their father and takes refuge in Celie’s new home. While she is staying with Celie and Mister Nettie finds herself at the end of unwanted and unwelcome attention from Mister. After a terrifying experience where Nettie had to fight back Misters advances he physically threw her off of his land, out of anger. After losing the only person who cared about her Celie grew sullen and obedient in the face of Mister, spending the next several years bending to his every whim. This doesn’t change until the arrival of the woman that Mister had wanted to marry, Shug.
After a tense beginning, Celie and Shug develop a friendship that both women sorely needed. Shug shows Celie that she can be her own person and Celie shows Shug compassion that she has never really experienced before because of her reputation. Another strong woman that influenced Celie is her stepson Harpo’s wife, Sofia. Sofia, much like Celie grew up in a home of men who tried to stifle her, but unlike Celie, she never let them win. One day when Sofia is in town a white woman, who happened to be the mayor’s wife, makes a comment about Sofia being a servant and Sofia responds “Hell no” a fight breaks out pitting Sofia against a group of white men around her. After this one unjust altercation Sofia sent to prison for 7 years only to be released into another imprisonment as the mayor’s wife’s servant. All of this was enough to break Sofia’s strong will.
After all of that and even more breakthroughs, like Celie finding all of the letters that Mister had hid from her, Celie just snaps. She gives everyone who has wronged her what they deserve and walks out of Misters home with Shug and Shug’s new husband to never return. Years after Celie freed herself and built a life with the people who care about her she is finally reunited with her sister and her children who she thought where dead.
This entire works together to tell a story of a woman that endured what many women through out history lived. Even though The Color Purple is so powerful, honest, and painfully realistic, there are people that are too sensitive to handle the book so they ban it.
One such case happened in 1963 in Ohio, when the book was banned from a school library because several parents claimed the book was “anti-white”. They used the storyline when Sofia has to defend herself against the mayor’s wife and many of the white men of the town. She was punished for resisting institutional racism. A system in which white people are the powerful and privileged and everyone of any other race is below them. These parents, presumably white, were unable to handle the truth of the history of oppression in America, and banned in because they felt like they were being targeted.
Another time The Color Purple was banned took place in Duval County, Florida in 1992. They chose to ban it for several reasons, one of them being statements that are defamatory towards woman. This can be seen over and over again when Mister speaks easily about beating Celie and insisting that his son, Harpo should beat his wife.
A third time that The Color Purple was banned was in all of the school libraries in Morris, Manitoba in the year 1982 for multiple reasons, one of them being excessive violence. An example of this is seen very early on in the story when Celie is trying to brush Mister's daughters hair. As no one has brush the girls hair since her mother was alive the process was painful enough to cause her to scream. Mister was apparently not willing to deal with his daughters pain he yells at Celie to shut the girl up. At this point Celie was only just 14 and had not become subordinate to Misters demands, so she tells him that it was hurting her so she could not stop the girls cries. As a response to this Mister slaps Celie across the face with extreme force.
Although I can understand the second two ideas for banning The Color Purple, I do not think the banning itself was right. There are people who are uncomfortable confronting the themes and topics of the story, but the reason for this discomfort is due to the dismissing and censoring it through out history. The story shows the history of racism, sexism, abuse and so many other subjects that are indeed horrific, but they must never be forgotten. These issues are still relevant and apparent today and it is about time we face up to it.
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When Celie was just 14 years old her father gave her away to Mister in place of her sister, Nettie. Not too long after Celie was forced into a life of servitude as ‘Misters’ wife, Nettie runs away from their father and takes refuge in Celie’s new home. While she is staying with Celie and Mister Nettie finds herself at the end of unwanted and unwelcome attention from Mister. After a terrifying experience where Nettie had to fight back Misters advances he physically threw her off of his land, out of anger. After losing the only person who cared about her Celie grew sullen and obedient in the face of Mister, spending the next several years bending to his every whim. This doesn’t change until the arrival of the woman that Mister had wanted to marry, Shug.
After a tense beginning, Celie and Shug develop a friendship that both women sorely needed. Shug shows Celie that she can be her own person and Celie shows Shug compassion that she has never really experienced before because of her reputation. Another strong woman that influenced Celie is her stepson Harpo’s wife, Sofia. Sofia, much like Celie grew up in a home of men who tried to stifle her, but unlike Celie, she never let them win. One day when Sofia is in town a white woman, who happened to be the mayor’s wife, makes a comment about Sofia being a servant and Sofia responds “Hell no” a fight breaks out pitting Sofia against a group of white men around her. After this one unjust altercation Sofia sent to prison for 7 years only to be released into another imprisonment as the mayor’s wife’s servant. All of this was enough to break Sofia’s strong will.
After all of that and even more breakthroughs, like Celie finding all of the letters that Mister had hid from her, Celie just snaps. She gives everyone who has wronged her what they deserve and walks out of Misters home with Shug and Shug’s new husband to never return. Years after Celie freed herself and built a life with the people who care about her she is finally reunited with her sister and her children who she thought where dead.
This entire works together to tell a story of a woman that endured what many women through out history lived. Even though The Color Purple is so powerful, honest, and painfully realistic, there are people that are too sensitive to handle the book so they ban it.
One such case happened in 1963 in Ohio, when the book was banned from a school library because several parents claimed the book was “anti-white”. They used the storyline when Sofia has to defend herself against the mayor’s wife and many of the white men of the town. She was punished for resisting institutional racism. A system in which white people are the powerful and privileged and everyone of any other race is below them. These parents, presumably white, were unable to handle the truth of the history of oppression in America, and banned in because they felt like they were being targeted.
Another time The Color Purple was banned took place in Duval County, Florida in 1992. They chose to ban it for several reasons, one of them being statements that are defamatory towards woman. This can be seen over and over again when Mister speaks easily about beating Celie and insisting that his son, Harpo should beat his wife.
A third time that The Color Purple was banned was in all of the school libraries in Morris, Manitoba in the year 1982 for multiple reasons, one of them being excessive violence. An example of this is seen very early on in the story when Celie is trying to brush Mister's daughters hair. As no one has brush the girls hair since her mother was alive the process was painful enough to cause her to scream. Mister was apparently not willing to deal with his daughters pain he yells at Celie to shut the girl up. At this point Celie was only just 14 and had not become subordinate to Misters demands, so she tells him that it was hurting her so she could not stop the girls cries. As a response to this Mister slaps Celie across the face with extreme force.
Although I can understand the second two ideas for banning The Color Purple, I do not think the banning itself was right. There are people who are uncomfortable confronting the themes and topics of the story, but the reason for this discomfort is due to the dismissing and censoring it through out history. The story shows the history of racism, sexism, abuse and so many other subjects that are indeed horrific, but they must never be forgotten. These issues are still relevant and apparent today and it is about time we face up to it.
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