The Strength of the Black Woman Revealed in The Color Purple The story tells of a woman who, through fruition and hardship, discovers that the competent woman, happy and proud is repressed inside a young girl "with her mouth closed". The Color Purple, the third novel written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker, has been respected and rebuked in numerous essays and reviews. While critics agree to disagree on many aspects of this novel, one thing is clear, The Color Purple affirms “the survival and liberation of black women through the strength and wisdom of others.” (Draper, 1810) According to Walker's personal point of view, the history of the black woman is divided into three phases; the suspended woman, the artist thwarted and hindered in her desire to create, living two centuries in which her main role was to be a source of cheap labor in American society, and in the modern woman. (Washington, 139) Feminist Alice Walker writes in a circulatory pattern. Her female characters move in a common cycle of three phases: 1) the suspended woman, cruelly exploited, and mutilated spirits and bodies, 2) the thwarted woman, who desires most to be part of mainstream American life, and 3) the woman modern -shows the qualities of the emerging developing model. Before Celie, our protagonist, enters the cycle, the story places her as a child, eager to learn, love, and enjoy life. She and her sister Nettie attend school regularly, complete all of their household chores, and still find time to talk, play, and/or just spend time together. Then, just as Celie reaches womanhood, she finds her way into the first phase: the suspended woman. The suspended woman plays the role of the inclement undertaking with a deformed spirit as well as a body. Celie's body is first desecrated due to her stepfather's sexual misconduct. To accomplish this, the sexual and physical abuse by her husband, Mr. ______, continues. Here Celie slips into the second phase: the thwarted woman. At this stage the character desires most to become part of mainstream American society. In most cases, they are also victims of psychological abuse that alienates them from their roots and real contact with the world. Despite the desecration and abuse her body survives, her spirit is broken when not only are her children taken from her by her stepfather, but Nettie is forced, by Albert, to leave his and Celie's home..