The Color Purple
(Alice Walker)

The Power of Voice

Celie is taught at an early age to keep her mouth shut about the abuse she endures and this becomes something she carries with her. She becomes attracted to people who abuse her, and she never says anything about it to anyone.

When she meets Sofia and Shug, two women who are very open and outspoken, she learns the power of her own voice. The women teach her that she must stand up for herself, or she will always be walked all over. It is not until Celie learns to stand up for herself and use her voice that she finally achieves happiness and respect.

Female Relationships

Female relationships come in several different forms in this novel, but all of them are very important. Without one another, the women would be less powerful, but together they are a very strong unit.

Nettie and Celie are sisters who lose a lot of time together but remain close when they reunite, Shug and Sofia are close friends of Celie, and Shug is quite a bit more than that as they have a sexual relationship. Women often seem to be pitted against one another by the men, but end up becoming tight and prevailing, stronger than ever.

Learning from the Environment

Most people who are abused tend to become abusers, as most people who are abusers were abused at some point in their lives. People become what they know. Harpo was berated by his father for not being a strong enough force against Sofia, thereby letting Sofia have the upper hand, so he became more forceful with her.

Mr. _____ was abused by his father when he was a boy, so he becomes abusive as a man. When Eleanor Jane has her baby, Sofia tells her that when he grows up he will be a racist because he is raised around racist people.

The Influence of Color

In this novel, color greatly influences mood or represents the characters state in life. Characters often comment on the colors they are seeing and the colors that each character notices represent where they are emotionally at that moment.

When Celie and Kate go shopping they notice that all of the dresses are drab colors. When Mr. _____ has a spiritual awakening, of sorts, he pants the rooms in his house white: bright and clean. Celie notes “the color purple” is one of the greatest things God ever created. Color creates, influences, and describes moods, stations in life, and spiritual state of mind in this novel.

Violence

Violence is prevalent throughout the novel but especially against women. The men in “The Color Purple” use violence to assert their dominance over the women physically, sexually, and emotionally.

Celie is sexually and emotionally abused by Alphonso who rapes her then gives away her children and later physically abused by Mr. _____. Sofia is abused by Harpo, at the encouragement of his father, and some may say that Sofia verbally abuses others.

The abuse of many characters begins at a young age so as they get older they are more apt to abuse others, and they do.

Female Dominance

It may not seem as though there is a lot of female dominance in this novel because there is so much abuse, but there is, especially toward the end. Throughout the novel, Shug and Sofia represent strong women who stand up to men regardless of how they will be treated in return.

These women are not afraid to speak their mind and encourage others to do so, as well. Shug encourages Celie to defend herself against Mr. _____ and she does so, eventually changing Mr. _____ to the core. Though the female dominance may be subtle, it is what makes the women come out on top at the end.

Sex

Sex is seen by Celie as a form of violence for most of her life. When she is a young girl she is molested by her stepfather, Alphonso, for years, resulting in two children whom she never meets until she is much older.

When she is married to Mr. _____, sex is loveless and can be violent, as well. She never enjoys sex because she looks at men with fear and disgust, having only negative experiences with them. She does begin to enjoy sex, or even love, until she meets Shug, making her only satisfying sexual relationship one with a woman.

Religion

Celie writes many of her letters to God, showing her faith in religion despite the struggles she has faced, though she does falter at times. As a young girl and young adult, Celie sees God as an old white man.

Throughout her younger years in life, she is abused by men continuously, and she begins to rebel against the image of God because she sees him as a man. As Celie gets older, wiser, and more independent, she sees God as genderless and thinks of God more spiritually, rather than as an individual.

She sees God as someone/thing that focuses on making people happy and allowing them to enjoy life, rather than human.

Love

Love is a complex matter in this novel because the ties of love are very strong, but necessarily in male/female relationships. The familial love between Celie and Nettie is strong, even when they go years without speaking to one another and the love that Celie and Shug share is very strong.

The love in marriages is almost non-existent because men are seen as violent toward, disloyal to, and disrespectful of the women with whom they are married. The women are like sisters to one another in many cases, thus making the bonds of love more familial than marriage-bound.

Race

Race plays an important role in this novel, mostly because of the setting. The story begins in the South prior to the Civil Rights movement, and the characters are poor, under-educated African Americans. Before the Civil Rights movement, blacks had very few rights and were often abused by white people.

Celie was not proud of the fact that she was African American because she did not see anything to be proud of based on the people of her heritage that she was surrounded by. It was not until she became educated people who were actually from Africa that she was truly proud of who she was.