Projectionism In The Color Purple By Alice Walker

Projectionist theories often appear to disprove religion; despite this many devout believers cling to faith while knowing about them. Marx, Feuerbach, and Freud contribute three significant ideas to projectionism. Marx claims that people cling to religion because it is a painkiller and helps them forget the suffering they endure from those who control them. Feuerbach suggests that what a person knows affects and contributes to their view of religion; their upbringing determines how their god appears. Finally, Freud believes that a personal need motivates a view of god and a mass need creates a religion (i.e. the need for a higher purpose). In The Color Purple, Alice Walker analyzes both of these theories using her protagonist Celie and her†¦show more content†¦She has never known anyone else who could appear as God, therefore, her mind tells her that her father is God. This clears up some confusion for the reader; Celie respects her father not only due to physical fear but b ecause she believes he is god. Later in the book, Celie encounters more men in her life this changes how she refers to her father. She no longer calls him god, but Pa. The more she experiences, the more her perspective shifts. Later, Celie begins to lose faith in God, but she continues to stand up for Christianity. Shug and she discuss her life and how religion affects it. This loss of faith could be caused by her no longer needed a ‘pain-killer’ in her life, without that need there would desire for a god. Marx argues, â€Å"It [religion] is the opium of the people† (1). Celie says that she no longer trusts God because he acts like every other man she knows; she believes God is a man because that was the universal religion. When discussing who God is, they bring up important arguments for why they would believe God looks the way they believe God does: God wrote the bible, white folks had nothing to do with it. How come he look just like them, then? She say. Only bigger? And a heap more hair. How come the bible just like everything else they make, all about them doing one thing and another, and all the colored folks doing is gitting cursed (Walker 96)? Celie tries to call Shug