The Color Purple

Sherelle Rozier

English 2001

South University

Thesis: Celie, an abused child and wife, Shug, a strong independent woman who was once a town whore, and Nettie, the sister of Celie who left the United States to become a missionary teacher. All these strong women need affection and love, and bond together to find their own voice. Celie’s story is about an abused child and wife who finds her independence. Celie was a slave to her husband and his children. Celie is able to gain her own security with the help of Shug and her sister Nettie’s letters. Celie finds independence and courage after years of abuse and other incredible obstacles. Nettie’s story is about a woman who left the United States to study becoming a missionary and hopes one day to reunite with her sister again. Nettie finds a good family and leaves the United States. B. Nettie keeps writing letters, hoping her sister will one day read them.

III. Shug’s story is about a strong independent woman who was once the town whore and seeks love from men and helps Celie find love and courage to live on her own. Shug’s father did not want her to sing sinner’s music. B. She is known as a whore, but she presents herself as a strong and determined woman .

In the novel The Color Purple, Alice Walker creates a woman who faces struggles and hardships as a child and as an adult. This story is narrated by Celie, the main character who has never be loved by no one but her sister Nettie. This is a story of a black female who lives in a racist town in Georgia in the mid 1900‘s. Celie lacks self-respect, love, faith, sexuality, and also encounters racism. Her sister Nettie was the only one who taught her the lessons she missed in school, but Celie had to depart from Nettie and get married. Later, Celie had to find out who she was as a person and who she could trust. She began to doubt herself and do things that were beneath her. With the help of other characters in the novel like Shug Avery, Celie eventually learned valuable life lessons. Celie, an abused child and wife, Shug, a strong independent woman who was once a town whore, and Nettie, the sister of Celie who left the United States to become a missionary teacher. All these strong women need affection and love, and bond together to find their own voice. These women and their lessons gave Celie strength that helped her better her life, gave her courage, and helped her get to know the woman she became.

At the age of 14 Celie encountered problems that no child should have ever endured. The major premise in The Color Purple was violence. Celie was a sex slave to her own father. Her father abused and raped her constantly and as a result she gave birth to two of his children. He did not allow her to get an education because he felt she was too stupid to learn and she was pregnant "The first time I got big Pa took me out of school. He never care that I love it....You too dumb to keep going to school, Pa say. Nettie the clever one in this bunch" (Walker, pg. 9). . Celie had a passion to learn but her Pa would only allow her sister Nettie to attend school. A man by the name of Albert but was referred to as Mr. asked Celie’s Pa to marry Nettie but Pa liked Nettie so much he would not allow her to marry. Mr’s only option was to marry who Pa says knows how to cook, clean, and watch the kids. Soon Celie was giving over to marry Mr., a much older man. “Confined to the boundaries of her husband’s land, Celie becomes both a domestic and sexual slave” (Webb, pg. 1114-1115). Sex is suppose to be pleasurable but instead is used as a form of punishment. Nettie was now her Pa’s sex slave, but Nettie was not going to let Pa do to her what he did to Celie so she left home and moved in with Celie. Mr. beat Celie every day and she thought that if Nettie came to live with them Mr. would stop beating her but he never did. Eventually Mr. could not have Nettie the way he wanted to so he kicked her out of the house and Celie never saw her sister again. Nettie said she would write but she never did so Celie thought she was dead.

Nettie’s story is about a woman who left the United States to study becoming a missionary teacher and hopes one day to reunite with her sister again. Nettie refused to take the abuse of any man. Once Nettie and Celie had to part, Nettie wrote her sister letters everyday. The letters from Nettie were a major significance in this novel because they gave Celie self esteem. The letters were to be a comfort for Celie, but she never received them and since Nettie never heard from Celie the letters became a comfort for Nettie. In the south discrimination among black women were racial, abuse, and gender discrimination . Mr. brought his ex named Shug to live in his house. Shug began to show Celie love and affection, something Celie never received before. Shug helps Celie gain security and self esteem. She helped Celie find her sister Nettie’s letters which gave Celie comfort and confidence. “Now I know Nettie alive I begin to strut a little bit” (Walker, pg 148). With the help of Shug and the letters, Celie finds independence and courage after years of abuse and other incredible obstacles. As Celie continues to read the letters from her sister she learns, where she has been all this time. She learns how Nettie found a good family and left the states. Nettie never receives a letter or reply from Celie but Nettie keeps writing letters hoping her sister will one day read them.

Shug’s story is about a strong independent woman who was once the town whore who sought love from many men. She helps Celie find love and this love gave Celie courage to live on her own. Shug Avery was raised in the church but had to leave because she wanted to sing, what her father called “sinner’s music”. Her father disowned her and never spoke to her again. Shug slept with a number of men, which made her known as the town’s whore but went on to become a well known singer. Shug performed all over in different cities. She was once married to Mr., who is very much in love with her. Mr. never abused Shug because he loved her. Mr. brought Shug to live with them when she was sick so Celie could nurse her back to health. Celie took one look at Shug and fell in love because she was so beautiful. As they bonded, Shug taught Celie how to love herself. Shug said, “You have to git man off your eyeball, before you can see anything a’tall” (Gates, pg 1902). Celie realizes how strong and independent Shug has become and decides she wants to be just like her. This confidence gave Celie the strength to leave Mr. and find happiness of her own.

Celie is known as a surviver. She has been through so many trials and tribulations throughout her life, that with the help of Shug and a few other women, it has made her strong, confident, and independent. Celie discovered that her husband was manipulating her and eventually she was able to leave him. Celie met some black women who helped turn her into a new independent woman. Nettie, who was a missionary teacher and Shug Avery, who was a blues singer helped Celie’s redemption. She changed her life and boosted her self-esteem. Mr. began to feel guilty about abusing Celie and making her unhappy throughout their marriage that he purchased passports for Nettie’s and her family to return to the United States to visit Celie. Celie was now reunited with her sister and Celie’s two children. This story is very powerful and shows the life of Celie from her childhood horrors to success and happiness in her adult life. Sexual and domestic abuse, racism, and ignorance are all trials and tribulations that Celie had to endure. This novel allows you to see all the pain that Celie went through from her father to her husband throughout her life.

References

Walker, A. (1982). The color purple. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
The novel discusses African-American women who were adult child sexual abuse victims, abused wives, and sisters of the Southern states. The movie: young women sold to highest bidder to be housewives/caretakers; they were illiterate; one woman (Shug Avery) problem with father; Celie and Nettie inherited money; touch of lesbianism; Nettie writes letters to Celie; Celie and Nettie reunite. Alice Walker based The color purple novel on her own experiences. She received the Pulitzer for her novel. She is a novelist, poet, and feminist.

Webb, J. (1982). Walker, Alice The Color Purple (1982). In J. McClinton-Temple (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Themes in literature, (1113-1116). New York, New York: An imprint of Infobase Publishing. This theme in literature discusses a woman by the name of Celie who believes she is ugly, poor, uneducated, and incapable of finding love. Celie finds love in a woman named Shug Avery. Celie finds strength, leaves home, and begins a new happy life especially when her sister Nettie returns home from Africa and reunites her with her two children. Jennifer McClinton-Temple holds a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma and is assistant professor of English at King's College in Pennsylvania.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., (1950). “Writing, ‘Race,’ and the Difference It Makes”. In D. H. Richter (Ed.), The critical tradition: Classic texts and contemporary trends (1890-1902). Boston, Massachusetts: Bedford/St.Martin’s. This trend discusses the elimination of “man” as a mediator between a women and “everything”. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a highly regarded African-American educator and scholar. He is known as a leading scholar of African-American literature, history, culture.