CELIE-THE COLOR PURPLE

Celie-The Color Purple

Celie-The Color Purple

In the color purple Alice Walker takes the reader through a young colored girl's life. Throughout the novel Celie is growing and learning about herself emotionally, physically, and spiritually. She learns with the help of Sofia and Shug Avery about herself and about other things that go on around her.

The fact that Celie is writing to God shows us that she has a way of coping with her horrendous life. In a way God is the only person/thing she could turn to since her stepfather scared her by saying "You better not never tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy." (Page 1) This is the first sign of growth we are presented with in the novel.

Next Celie is confronted with Sofia, who she wishes she were like in some ways. She learns quite a bit from Sofia's and Harpo's relationship; like the fact that a wife doesn't have to take abuse from her husband. She also learns about Sofia's outlook on life. For example when Sofia tells Celie "You ought to bash Mr.___ head open, .... Think bout heaven later." (Page 44) In this quote the reader sees that Sofia is telling Celie that she should start caring about the life she is living and get rid of Mr.____. This is one of the first steps in which Celie starts to care about her life and makes gradual attempts to better it.

When the novel opens, Celie is a young black girl living in Georgia in the early years of the twentieth century. She is largely uneducated; her letters to God are written in non-standard dialect. Walker has called the dialect black folk language, and while it may not be polished English, it is raw and honest — and strong. Celie's letters are unusually strong; they are evidence of an unusual strength in a very young woman. They are evidence of Celie's painful struggle to hold on — despite all of the multiple horrors of her life.

Celie is about to go into adolescence, believing that she was raped by her father and that he killed both of their children. She writes to God because she has no one else to help her bear this terrible knowledge. What has happened to Celie is so terrible that she can talk about it only to someone who she feels loves her. Of course, her sister, Nettie, loves her, but Nettie is too young to understand what terrible things have happened to Celie. Only to God can Celie talk honestly and openly about the hell that she has suffered.

And this point is important: Celie is not complaining to God. She simply needs to talk to someone — someone whom she loves and trusts and someone who she feels loves her.

Celie's instinct for survival, however, is more solid than even Celie realizes. She was born into a poor family; her mother was ill much of the time (later, we find out that she was mentally ill as well); there were ...