[LESBIANISM IN THE COLOR PURPLE]
Celie and Shug Avery developed a strong female bonding between themselves. The male in the novel are epitome of patriarchy and they desire more of a master-slave relationship rather than a husband-wife relationship. Celie yearned for love and so the other black women like Sofia, who wanted love rather than slavery. Shug Avery made Celie realize of her sexual organs that forms a major trope of lesbianism in the novel.
As sexually abused, Celie is never conscious about her body and sexual pleasures. Shug introduces Celie to the pleasures of sex, and after lovemaking, Celie feels true love for the first time. This lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug appears not to be indecent but natural and affectionate. Celie has never been loved by any man hence for Celie, lovemaking and being loved completes her sexual journey to selfhood. When she wakes up with Shug the next morning, she declared that it feels really good. This is the first time Celie has ever awakened feeling secure and loved. At this stage, Shug’s initiation of Celie to her body is one of the main steps that help her to emancipate. By realizing and then accepting her own body, Celie is now able to initiate a yearning for selfhood. By listening to Celie’s problems and stories, Shug enabled Celie to open up emotionally and release the pressure and pain that had masked her throughout both childhood and adulthood. As she writes in one of her letters, “My life stop when I left home, I think. But then I think again. It stop with Mr. _____ maybe, but start up again with Shug.” Her friendship
File: “94450be1-1cf0-45a1-86ba-68194a5e7fff”
with Shug becomes a lifetime union and accompanies Celie throughout her struggles with both Mr. _____ as well as with the remembrances of her childhood hardships.
Shug is stunned by Celie’s history of sexual abuse. Like a mother, Shug wraps Celie in her arms, trying to comfort her, to make up her past. For the first time in novel, Celie is abandoned enough to respond naturally through tears. As she tells her awful tale, she confides that no one ever loved her, but Shug reassures Celie that “I (Shug) love you, Miss Celie. And then she hauls off and kiss me on the mouth”.
Shug teaches Celie to know her body, to enjoy herself, and to value her female productive organs. As a result of this, Celie is able to gain selfhood through spoken language. As soon as she owns her productive organs, she becomes able to express her repressed desires as well. Therefore, she informs Mr. _____ that she is going to join Shug in Memphis. She revolts against Mr. _____’s patriarchal ideology which restricts her all the time, and follows her dream of freedom with Shug. She enjoys her life as the possibility of revolt gives her happiness of being independent.
Celie is able to break free from male domination and begins to establish identification through a network of female relationships. Therefore, sisterhood helps Celie to emancipate and free herself spiritually, physically & economically. The relationship with Shug helps her to love herself and her body. Thus, it opened the door for potential in herself.