Celie and Her Mother
Ever since Celie can remember, her father always overpowered her mother. In fact, Celie remembers her mother dying from being "sick", but who knows what the actual reason is. My guess is that her father killed her mother and obviously he wasn't going to get in trouble for it because he was a man. If a woman ever did anything like this she would be harshly punished. Celie's mom couldn’t stand up for herself. Her inability to stand up for herself led to history repeating itself and Celie therefore not being able to stand up for herself.