Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Book analysis for the color purple
Book analysis for the color purple
Sexism and womanism in the color purple
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Book analysis for the color purple
The Color Purple tells an interesting story of women who are bonded by loved, are getting abused, and their children, who they care for deeply. In the first letters, Celie admits that she got raped is pregnant with her father's child. Celie's mother is sick and after cursing Celie, dies, leaves Celie alone with her father. Celie then tries to protect her sister, Nettie, from her father. Celie soon marries Mr. Albert, resulting in a loveless marriage, caring for Albert's four children and being raped. Celie becomes friends with Shug Avery, a singer who is the husband's mistress. Years later, Celie nurses Shug back to health, which created a new friendship and a new love with each other. Harpo marries a young women named Sofia and Celie encourages Harpo to beat her. Sofia later talks to Celie about this ongoing incident, but that argument leads to a long lasting friendship and Sofia remains an independent woman throughout the novel. The women create a quilt together, which makes for a symbol that is present throughout much of the novel. Scraps of cloth combine to make a strong product that has many uses , so black women can come together to create a strong and useful bond. …show more content…
By this time, she had split from Harpo and found another lover. The new lover takes on the responsibility to free Sofia from jail. Sofia leaves jail but ends up working as a maid for a white family. Nettie has been sending letters to Celie but Albert hides them. When Celie finds Nettie's letters, she catches up with her sister's life and finds out her two children are alive and well. Nettie's letters makes Celie stronger and more self-assured every day. Her confidence later turns into anger over her mistreatment throughout her
As the film opens, it quickly becomes apparent that Leon, a married law enforcement officer, is cheating on his wife Sonja with Jane, a woman from their dance class. Jane is also married, but is separated from her husband. It is obvious from the start that Leon and Sonja’s marriage is in dire straits. The other main couple, Valerie and John, are struggling to hold their relationship together after the murder of their young daughter. Valerie also happens to be Sonja’s therapist. Through therapy sessions between Valerie and Sonja, it becomes clear that Sonja is having suspicions regarding Leon’s extramarital activities. Simultaneously, Valerie is counseling a homosexual man named Patrick, who is having an affair with a married man. Both patients seem to be causing Valerie an immense amount of stress, as she begins to question whether John is being faithful to her in the midst of their struggles. As the film progresses, Valerie begins behaving erratically due to her growing jealousy regarding the affair that she suspects John of being involved in. While driving home late one night, Valerie becomes stranded and calls John from a pay phone multiple times, but ...
she is able to meet her twin sisters that have been missing from her life for over 30 years.
First, by demonstrating the importance of the color purple, Celie opened her eyes towards God and then became more self-aware of all the small elements that God set to make her feel joyful, like the color purple. Then, many years pass in the book and Celie truly understand what Shug meant by the color purple in the field. She understands that “[her] ability to find a sense of self-worth, is symbolized by her attainment of color purple.” [Kerr, 177]. Celie’s life did not start on the right foot. She lived and saw a lot of things that killed her deep inside. The color purple in the story was not only an original name for a book that Walker wrote. It means something important in the story. This wonderful color, associate with royalty and prestige, follows the total progress of the young black girl who was, in some words, dead inside, that end up being a lady that now lives of freedom, love and happiness. In other words, the small surprises that, according to Shug, God puts in our life, made Celie stronger and increases her
In section three of The Color Purple, the main character is Celie. In this section she gains a little more control over her life, begins to express herself through creativity and also becomes more free and independent. Her decision to leave with Shug to go to Tennessee and begin her own pants business is good examples of these things. This section shows how much progress she has made in herself. We learn about Celie through different situations and dialogues she has throughout this section.
Within The Color Purple by Alice Walker, women are treated as inferior to men therefore they must obey them. Through the strength and wisdoms Celie gains from other women, she learns to overcome her oppression and realize her self worth as a woman. The women she has met throughout her life, and the woman she protected since young, are the people that helped her become a strong independent woman. Sofia and Shug were there for Celie when she needed someone to look up to and depend on. Nettie was able to push Celie to become a more educated, independent person. The main source of conflict in this book is Celie’s struggle with becoming an independent woman who needs not to rely on a man. Throughout the book we see her grow as a person and become independent in many ways through her experiences with the powerful women in her life.
Most of all, without Shug, Celie would have never been reunited with her beloved sister Nettie. The Color Purple is a tale of epic proportion and is beautiful, tear-jerking, passionate, and suspenseful. Even after all of the abuse that Celie received and after all of the struggles that she faced, she found it in her heart to forgive and move on. Her life was truly remarkable, and she was a brave woman who defied the odds in a time of division and hatred. The love that was shared between Celie and Shug was extraordinary and went against all customs of the time period.
In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel. One of the most important symbols that Walker incorporates into the plot is the letters written by Celie to either God or Nettie, signifying the power of voice. The epistolary format of the novel itself enables readers to understand Celie, whose letters are initially addressed to God. After being raped by her stepfather at the age of fourteen, he tells her to “never tell anybody but God” (Walker 1); thus, Celie’s original letters are presented more as confessions and prayers. This first letter itself “initiates the story of Celie's unrelenting victimization” (Bloom, and Williams 77-88), and the audience notices that the way in which Celie narrates the events occurring in her life over the course of the next several letters lacks sentiment and opinion....
The first thing that happened was Celie and Nettie were running through purple flowers, and when they came out you could see that, Celie is pregnant and she is only fourteen. Also her step dad is the father of the baby.After she has the baby the baby girl gets taken away by her stepfather then Celie says that that was her second child. Then, a guy comes for Nettie named Albert but her
The novel, The Color Purple, is an epistolary novel. In the letterforms, Alice Walker gives several ideas, such as, friendship, domination, courage & independence. She impacts readers by looking at the story through the eyes of Celie and Nettie. The book describes the fateful life of a young lady. It tells how a 14 year old girl fights through all the steps and finally she is in command for her own life. Celie is the young lady who has been constantly physically, sexually, and emotionally abused.
Her sister, Nettie, is left to live with her stepparents when Celie is sent to marry Albert “Mister” Johnson. He takes her home where she enters another household fueled by domestic violence as a means to assert his dominance over her as his wife. When asked to silence his daughter as she combed her hair, she tells him that she can’t, only to be slapped for “talking back” to him. Body Image: Celie is a skinny, dark-skinned black woman with a wide smile. Her clothes fit her frame like a child, largely proportioned to hide any womanly features (waistline, hips, or breast).
The purple color itself symbolizes love in the story. When Celie is shopping for the first time in her life for new clothes, she wants to get something purple. However, she cannot find any purple garment while seeing a lot of people wearing purple. This is a symbol of her search for love: she sees so many people who are loved and happy, yet no matter how long and hard she looks, it seems impossible to find love and happiness for herself .
In 1983 Alice Walker made history when she became the first female, African-American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and The National Book Award for her novel, The Color Purple (Alice Walker Biography). The book, The Color Purple, also happened to be ranked number 17 on the American Library Association’s 100 most frequently challenged books: 1990-1999 list (American Library Association) The novel is frequently challenged because of inappropriate language, racism, physical abuse, rape, incest, homosexuality, violence, and sexism. The Color Purple is a fictional novel that is told by a poor black woman, named Celie, living in rural Georgia in the early twentieth century. Her story is portrayed through letters that she writes to God and then later on too her sister. In her letters she writes about all the pain, humiliation, and struggles that she encounters throughout her life. Celie’s sister Nettie, whose story is also told through letters that she writes to Celie after she runs away from home is in the book. Through all the pain and suffering in Celie’s life, her letters help her to discover herself and eventually find joy.
In the color purple, we can see how Celie develops an identity for herself throughout the novel. At first we can appreciate how Celie does not longer believe in herself and looses all trust she had on herself. When Nettie gets older, about 12 years old, their father Fonso tries to get to Nettie, but Celie protects her and lets Fonso rape her instead of him raping Nettie. This at the beginning shows that Celie has enough strength to take decisions that will affect other people, however, this strength starts to disappear as the story continues.
The Color Purple follows Celie's transformation from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. What is remarkable is the fact that this transformation does not merely compose the plot of the novel, it also dominates the layout of the pages. The book's chapters are not written in a typical fashion as each chapter is a letter written from Celie to God, Celie to her sister Nettie, or Nellie to Celie. Alice Walker utilized this method of storytelling to give the reader a very personal glimpse into Celie's mind and soul. The writer gets a feel for Celie through her writing style- she uses specific phrasing to express herself and, over time, her mechanical writing skills improve greatly. We see Celie's thought process as she makes decisions and then writes about them. This powerful narration is the main driving force behind the words.
The Color Purple is an epistolary novel written by Alice Walker. This novel displays the growth and development of an average African-American woman. This novel demonstrates the everyday hardships that were placed on blacks, and how they battled to overcome them. It is a very controversial novel, and touches on a variety of sensitive topics, from spousal abuse, incest, to even lesbianism.