A Psychoanalytic Reading of Celie in The Color Purple

摘要

This article explores the protagonist, Celie, in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Celie who is ugly, lacks of mother’s love, and oppressed in a universe of men. She admires Shug who is a beautiful woman. According to Lacan’s theory, Celie’s love for Shug is a metonymic hunting for her mother’s body. Celie’s hunting process is along the metonymic chain of signifiers. And finally Celie finds her happiness even though the chain of signifiers continues.