The objectives of this research are to reveal the factors that cause Celie to
become a lesbian and to describe Celie‟s homosexual identity development. The
researcher used sexual orientation, lesbianism and other related theories to answer
the formulated research questions.
The method used in this research is qualitative content analysis. The
subject of this research is a novel entitled The Color Purple by Walker. The data
are some phrases, clauses, and sentences related to the factors that cause Celie to
become a lesbian and process of Celie‟s homosexual identity development. The
key instrument of this research is the researcher herself employing sexual
orientation theory by Giddens and lesbianism theory by Rich as explained in the
conceptual framework. Sexual orientation and lesbianism are used as the grand
theories for the analysis. The indicators made are based on the employed theories
to gain the research data. To gain the trustworthiness, the researcher used data
triangulation technique by crosschecking the data with her consultants and other
researchers.
The findings of the research show two important points. First, the factors
that cause Celie to become a lesbian are psychological and social/environmental
factors. Second, Celie‟s homosexual identity development process covers four
stages: sensitization or emergence, identity confusion, identity assumptiopn and
first relationship