Casualties & Warriors; Celie and Dana
African-American Females Survive in Kindred & The Color Purple
Oct 24, 2009
Oppressed and victimized, African-American female protagonists in Octavia Butler’s Kindred (Dana) and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple (Celie) exemplify the word casualty.
What Determines a Casualty
The late Caribbean-American feminist poet Audre Lorde (1934-1992) suggests that many such casualties can also be termed “warriors,” in acknowledgement of the battles undertaken to better their lot; however, Celie can not initially be called a warrior. This young woman is the ultimate victim of socio-economic oppression exacerbated by early loss of mother, incestuous rape, unexpected pregnancies and children taken away, forced separation from a beloved sister, and an abusive, unfeeling husband. “Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr. ____ say, Cause she my wife.” (Walker 23)
Throughout the first half of the novel, Celie is anything but a warrior – not even a reluctant one. Although on some level she realizes her life is unhappy, what separates Celie from other protagonists (such as Butler’s Dana) is that she lacks the most fundamental weapon that a warrior must possess: a sense of entitlement.
Surviving Versus Living
Unless taken in extreme, wherein all to which other people are entitled is unjustifiably compromised, a sense of entitlement reflects a healthy mind-set. Women or men must believe in their right to be fighting, be confident of their reason for waging war or rebellion upon those whom they identify as oppressors or enemies. They must believe that they are entitled to win whatever war in which they find themselves engaged, and – just as importantly – they need to fight to win that war, not merely survive the combat.
Whereas Dana’s 1970’s life is fulfilling, worth fighting for, only bare-level survival matters in Celie’s abysmal, dismal world. She is totally apathetic about herself, and therefore doesn’t care to resist. “I don’t fight, I stay where I’m told. But I’m alive.” (Walker 22)
From Surviving Casualty to Living Warrior
There is no question that Celie is a casualty/victim, but she definitely is not a warrior/soldier – until she learns that the one thing in life she to which she has ever felt entitlement has been denied her. Her sister’s long-withheld letters serve to awaken this enzombied woman from her slumber of self-apathy and emotional atrophy. Nettie’s words beckon her to other, better ways of life, faith and hope, the promise of a future and – most of all – the fact that someone truly loves her, despite the years of imposed silence and imprisoned letters: “I miss you so much . . . I love you with all my heart.” (Walker 133)
Emboldened, Celie is ready to begin the transformation from mere casualty/victim to warrior/soldier, culminating in that glorious day when she finally tells Mr. ___: “It’s time to leave you and enter into Creation [because] You took my sister Nettie away from me . . . and [when she come home] all us together gon whup your ass.” (Walker 207)
The Greater Warrior
In contrast to Celie, Kindred’s Dana faces her trials with an immediate sense of entitlement—partially due to her ostensibly stronger personality, but heavily underscored with the African-American socio-economic advancements made in the half-century or so that separates the novels’ time-frames. Still in all, the word “ostensibly” is deliberately used above because Celie’s character is probably the stronger; she has none of Dana’s advantages or reasons to live, but emerges from the battle just as victorious – if not more so, given all her obstacles. This victim, then, has earned not only a casualty’s Purple Heart, but a true warrior’s Medal of Honor as well.
Audre Lorde would no doubt agree.
Butler, Octavia. Kindred, 1979, Beacon Press, Boston(ISBN 978-0-8070-8369-7)
Walker, Alice. The Color Purple, 1982 Simon & Schuster, New York, 295 pages.
(ISBN 0-671-72779-6)
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