The Color Purple

In the Color Purple, there are a lot of sad,crazy,complicated twist and turns. The main characters that are separated and lead two very different lives. Celie's life was really difficult, but made her a stronger,better person. Nettie's life was difficult as well but in a different way, she too became a strong and better person. They both ended up with very good lives and were re-united with each other in this book. One thing that made their lives different were gender equality.
Celie has been physically and mentally abused various times which makes her unattraction for men understandable. The following quote shows us how her dad would beat her for non-valid reasons. "He beat me today cause he say I winked at a boy in church."(page 5) This next quote demonstrates how her dad would threaten her and force her to do things.

"You better never tell nobody,but god it'd kill your mammy...He never had a kine word to say to me. Just say you gonna do what your mammy wouldn't. First he put his thing up against my hip and sort of wiggle it around. Then he grab hold my titties. Then he push his thing inside my pussy. When that hurt, I cry he start to choke me, saying you better shut up and git used to it."(page 1)

Now that quote was really graphic and gruesome, I have to stop and say something about it. I mean everything her father has done is unforgivable,but this one is super messed up! If I were her I would have told my mom because my own father doing such a cruel thing would leave me scarred. No wonder she hates men.Another cruel thing her father committed was give away her children. "He took my other little baby, a boy this time, But I don't think he kilt it. I think he sold it to a man an his wife over monticello."(page 3) Her father also constantly reminds her that she's ugly and just puts her down. "She the oldest anyway. She ought to marry first. She ain't fresh tho, but I spect you know that. She spoiled twice. But you don''t need fresh women no how...she ugly."(page 7) That's really harsh and a self-esteem decreaser. These abuses that were commited drove her away from men into the arms of women, the women in this case is Shug Avery. They didn't quite get along in the beginning but later on they started developing feelings for each other. "She say, I Love You, Miss Celie. And then she haul off and kiss me on the mouth. Um, She say, like she surprise. I kiss her back, say,um, too. Us kiss and kiss till us can't hardly kiss no more." Im glad Celie found love with Shug :)
Nettie was more fortunate than Celie when it came to men only because Celie would protect her and she was smart. " I keep hoping he fine somebody to marry. I see him looking at my little sister. She scared. But I say I'll take care of you with god help."(Page 3) Celie doesn't want her sister Nettie to go through what she had to go through. In this next quote it shows us how Nettie was smart about things and passed on some wise advice to her sister Celie. "Don't let them run over you, Nettie say. you got to let them know who got the upper hand."(page 17) She's no fool, She know how to put them men in place. She was never verbally abused by anyone because she was considered "pretty". "That's a real pretty dress you got on, he say to Nettie. She say, Thank you.Them shoes look just right. She say, Thank you."(page 17) Mr_, Celies husband, complimented her each day when she stayed at their house instead of complimenting his own wife. Since Nettie didn't go through anything as bad as Celie, she was able to marry a man. His name is Samuel.
As you can see Celie and Nettie led two tottaly different lives which lead to different things but at the end their lives shaped up to be pretty decent.