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The Color Purple and Indian Horse

 

            "People find meaning and redemption in the most unusual human connections," states novelist Khaled Hosseini. Oppression, where one is prolonged to cruel or unjust treatment or control, can be defeated as a result of connecting with family and friends. In comparison, the novels "Indian Horse," by Richard Wagamese and "The Color Purple," by Alice Walker, display how the protagonists overcome obstacles of abuse through the connection between them and their loved ones. It is apparent that despite their different experiences of abuse, both Celie and Saul go through the same process of transformation; from oppression to liberation. The abuse creates serious physical, emotional and psychological effects on the two. However, they overcome the trauma from their abuse when they connect with their families and friends, and as a result become independent and free people.
             The abuse Celie receives results in physical, emotional and psychological effects. With Celie's mother out of the picture, her step-father, Alphonso, rapes her repeatedly to satisfy his sexual desires. The sexual assault affects her physically as her body begins to transform: "When I start to hurt and then my stomach start moving and then that little baby come out of my pussy chewing on its fist, you could have knock me over with a feather I got breasts full of milk running down myself" (Walker 12). The sexual abuse Celie goes through because of her step-father leads to two pregnancies with his babies. Not only is the physical affect shown through her body formation, but also through the physical pain it causes to carry and deliver the babies. Celie is in a compulsory marriage with her abusive husband, Albert. Her love life is something she does not desire nor makes her happy. When her friend asks her how she feels sleeping with Albert, she says "(she) feels that the sexual intercourse with Albert is an act the she "(does not) like at all.


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