Effects of Celie Being Raped and Abused and the Psychological Problems - Essay Example

? Celie 8th, November, Effects of Celie Being Raped and Abused and the Psychological Problems It Causes Perhaps, the literary work that best illustrates the issue of psychological problems resulting from abuse is the novel “The Color Purple.” In this novel, Celie is repeatedly raped by her step-father and consequently gets pregnant severally. According to her, the father, Alphonso, goes ahead and kills the first girl Celie had. More sadly, the father also abducts the second child that Celie had when she is raped again by her father. However, the worst is yet to come for Celie when, Mr. Johnson offers to marry he but Celie’s father denies her the chance. Instead, he tricks Mr. Johnson into marrying an old ugly woman consequently making both Celie and Mr. Johnson to live sad and unsatisfied lives. It is apparent from Celie’s life that indeed, the rape and abuse she experienced dramatically changed her self-being. This is even more understanding considering that she began being raped at a tender age when she was supposed to be developing in different aspects of life. Notably, Celie’s psychological problems caused by the rape ordeals makes her do good things and bad things too. For instance, After being freed from Mr. Johnson, she results to making pants an industry once she finds her way into the industrialised world. The psychological trauma of being raped repeatedly pressures her to take careers in life that would empower other women and more importantly, protect them from experiencing the same ordeal she experienced as a rape victim. Now, it can be argued that Celie becomes selective career wise and takes a career path that saves the society from experiencing her past injustices. In the process of making pants, she finds a way of economic liberation and a source of empowering women. Arguably, she makes unisex pants in the endeavor of making men and women equal. Another effect of Celie being raped and abused is her perception of God as a supreme being. In the beginning, Celie did not have any meaningful or notable relationship with God. However, she experiences the worst in life during the rape ordeals, which also result in death or disappearance of the children she gets in the process. However, she is so psychologically affected that she beings to find her own definition of God. Actually, this is one of the reasons why she begins writing to God and telling him of her predicaments. The psychological trauma forces her to think of God as a male who is insensitive. However, Shug enlightens her and tells her that God is indeed not a white male. Shug assures Celie that God’s attributes cannot be clearly defined, but certainly, they cannot be bad attributes (Walker, 1982). Celie gets a new dimension of thinking about God and renews her faith. However, it is safe to argue that Celie’s prior thoughts and after thoughts are all predetermined by her psychological problems she experienced because of being raped by her stepfather. Celie’s world view is largely determined by her state of mind consequently caused by the rape experiences. Certainly, she had one of the most traumatic and sorrowful experiences as an adolescent. Therefore, she viewed life as one long journey of pain and suffering. It does not come by surprise that she sees her private parts as purple due to sexual violation. The psychological trauma make her to detest life and see herself as an object of pity, one that is ruled by circumstances. It is only with Shug’s intervention that Celie begins seeing life differently (Walker, 1982). At this point, it can be argued that Shug helps Celie to recover from her painful psychological ordeal and makes her adopt a new world view. However, it can be noted clearly that one of the effects of rape is perpetuation of the same to other parties. For instance, Celie has experiences so much violence and psychological trauma due to rape and violence that she perpetuates the same to other people in her life. This is clearly seen when she openly encourages Harpo to violently settle scores with Sofia simply because she is overwhelmingly envious of her strength as a woman. At this point, she seems to believe that everybody should be experiencing the same traumatic and distasteful life as herself. Other characters such as Harpo also take on the same course of action. For instance, Harpo perpetuates violence since his father propelled him to be violent to Sofia so that she could see him as more of a man (Walker, 1982). The most notable effect of Celie being raped is indeed the shift of the traditional gender roles associated with both men and women. Traditionally, women are supposed to take care of homes as men secure the source of livelihood. However, Celie’s rape experiences become so entrenched in her psychological being that she later seeks to find gender equality. Notably, a woman’s love to a man swiftly fade in her and she no longer experiences feelings of love towards men. For Celie, a love relationship blossoming into marriage would be hard to materialize since her psychological state of mind is certainly not the best. This is the same predicament experienced by people enduring the pains of sexual and marital violence. Just like most rape or sexually violated victims, Celie develops notable psychological problems such as low self-esteem and lack of assertiveness. It does not come by surprise that Celie endures the ordeal of a loveless marriage where she was expected to take care of her husband’s children although her own children were killed by her stepfather. Consequently, she continues to experience increased physical and sexual violation since her psychological state of mind reduced her to an object of mistreatment. Although she continues to experience violence in her marriage, she does not master enough courage to face this pertinent issue due to low self-esteem, predominantly entrenched in her psychological problems. Only after, making a strong company with Shug and Squeak does Celie master enough assertiveness and self-worth to face her challenges and make meaning out of her life. Reference Walker, A. (1982). The Color Purple: A Novel. New York: Phoenix. Read More