The Color Purple

Published in 1982, Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple focuses on the lives of African-American woman and their struggles in the 1930s. The novel begins with Celie, who is the protagonist and narrator, writing letters to God telling him about how her father rapes and abuses her. We then find out that Celie had been pregnant twice and that her father took them away, presumably killing them. Celie and her younger sister Nettie learn that a man, who is only known as Mister wants to marry Nettie but their father refuses and tells him to take Celie instead. He then settles for Celie but only so she can take care of his children since he has a lover called Shug Avery. Just like her father, Celie is abused by Mister and is told by his sister to

fight back. Mister’s son soon falls in love with Sophia, who is much stronger than him and is not afraid to fight back when he tries to abuse her once they are married.
As the story continues Shug Avery becomes ill and moves in with Celie and Mister.

Later in the story, when Shug has become better and also has a new husband, she asks Celie about her sister Nettie. Celie assumes that her sister is dead since she promised to write to her and she has never received letters. Shug claims that she has seen Mister hiding letters and they soon find the missing letters that Nettie had been writing to her sister. The letters state that Nettie had become friends with a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine. They have two adopted children named Adam and Olivia and Nettie soon realizes that they are Celie’s children. Nettie confesses to being the biological aunt of the children right before Corrine passes away after falling ill. Nettie and Samuel end up getting marry and make plans to move back to America after staying in Africa. As the story comes to its conclusion, Mister and Celie have established a friendship and they are starting to enjoy each other’s company. Nettie, along with Samuel and Celie’s children arrive back in America and are reunited with Celie. In Celie’s last letter to God she ends her letter by saying “But I don’t think us feel old at all. And us so happy. Matter of fact, I think this the youngest us ever felt,” bringing the story to its

ending.
Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia.

She was the youngest daughter of sharecroppers and her mother worked in the cotton fields and then later became a maid to support the family’s eight children. Even though she was a victim to discrimination and threats from the Ku Klux Klan, her and her siblings attended school. Alice was outgoing and was loved by all but after an accident with a BB gun that left her blind in one eye, she no longer felt lovable and was physically and emotionally scarred. She became interested in books and later claimed that this incident enhanced her empathy with the suffering of others. At age 14 though, she had an operation that removed the cataract in her eye and also gave her self-esteem back. After graduating from high school in 1961 she received a scholarship to attend Spelman College in Atlanta, which was one of the first black women’s colleges in the US. While attending, she became involved in the civil rights movement and attended the 1963 March on Washington. Alice Walker then received a scholarship to Sarah Lawrence College in New York where she was mentored by teachers and poets Muriel Rukeyser and Jane Cooper. She then devoted herself to becoming a

writer.
After an unintended pregnancy that almost brought her to suicide and an illegal abortion, she started writing poetry that would later become her first book publication, Once, which was released in 1968. After graduating from Sarah Lawrence, Alice Walker accepted a summer job in Mississippi with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. They worked to establish the civil rights of poor black in the South. This is where she met Melvyn Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer. They got married in 1967 even though his mother strongly disapproved and biracial marriage was illegal. Even with the odds against them their daughter was born in 1969 and Alice Walker has said, “I was afraid I could not be a successful writer and a mother at the same time.” Despite the obstacles she published her first novel, The Third Life of Grange Copeland in 1970. In 1976, she published the novel Meridian, which focused on the political and personal conflicts of the Civil Rights movement. She divorced Melvyn Leventhal in 1976 and moved to San Francisco where she began a relationship with Robert Allen. While living in California, she completed and published her most famous novel The Color Purple.
The Color Purple won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1983 and made Alice Walker the first black woman to win the prize. She also won the Nation Book Award for Fiction in 1983. While it was critically acclaimed, the novel also had controversy and criticism. Some did not like the way it portrayed black males in a negative light and that it showed a positive presentation of a lesbian relationship between Celie and Shug Avery. The novel has also been banned in certain places due to the language, violence, sexual explicitness, and homosexuality. Even with the criticism, the novel was made into a film and was nominated for 11 Academy Awards but did not win a single one possibly due to the criticism the novel received.
After releasing The Color Purple, she published her most famous collection of essays, In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose. She created the term “womanist” which meant “a black feminist or feminist of color”. These essays had a major impact on feminist analysis in general. By the end of the 1980’s, she ended her relationship with Robert Allen and turned to both men and women lovers. Alice Walker continues to speak on the issues she cares about and also continues to write on her blog where she regularly practices her beliefs that “writing is essential strategy against oppression.”
The biographical criticism was one critical approach that helped me understand the story more clearly. While Alice Walker had a happy childhood that was not filled with abuse like character Celie, she had heard stories about the earlier generations in her family. These stories left their mark on her and were inspiration for her later work. Alice Walker had said she felt she had honored her Georgia “ancestors” and their struggles in the characters and events in The Color Purple. Her concept of “womanism” is also shown in the book. She said in 1983, “Womanism is to feminism as purple is to lilac.” I feel like she was trying to show white woman that feminism should not be only limited to them and shows the struggles that black woman went and are currently still going through. With this concept, women of color were included and were appreciated for their creative roles and traditional cultural.
Another critical approach that helped me was the historical approach. In the story, Celie finds out from a letter from Nettie that their real father was lynched by white men because of his success. Even though the story was set in early 1900’s, Alice Walker also experienced racism. This I feel like can also go under the biographical approach. Alice and her family received threats from the Ku Klux Klan and she and her ex-husband Melvyn Leventhal were in an illegal biracial marriage. This approach can also help people understand why Celie is willing to do anything Mister tells her to do and takes his abuse. Woman did not have a voice in the early 1900’s especially black woman. The majority of them were illiterate and felt that without their husband telling them what to do, they had nothing. It was also very rare that they would divorce and was hardly ever an option.
The Color Purple shows how a man and woman’s relationship was like in the early 1900s. The gender approach helped me also. Mister and Alphonso, Celie and Nettie’s step-dad, are shown as strong and abusive. They are in charge and their opinion is the only one that matters. While Celie accepts this, Sophia who is Harpo’s wife and Misters daughter in law strictly refuses this. When Harpo marries Sophia, he soon realizes how strong and opiniated she is. When she tells him to do something, he does it. He only becomes abusive when Mister tells him he is less than a man because of Sophia’s resistance and also when Celie tells him to beat her. Sophia ends up fighting back and soon leaves with her children to her sister’s leaving Harpo alone. I feel with Sophia’s character Alice Walker was trying to show that woman can be just as strong as men. With the feminist movement going on, I feel like Sophia is a perfect example of what Alice Walker wanted to show as a feminist character that was not afraid to fight back and choose what was right instead of what was considered the norm.
Another character that can be viewed with the gender criticism approach is Shug Avery, Mister’s lover. Already having a negative first impression of her, she is also known to dress scantily and has “nasty woman disease”. Unlike everyone else Celie is amazed by Shug’s appearance and reminds her of her mother. Shug doesn’t let people dominate her and has created her identity from her experiences instead of letting other impose one upon her. While having a sharp tongue, she is compassionate and understanding towards Celie when Shug becomes ill and moves in with Celie and Mister. With Celie taking care of her, Shug returns the attention and care that she receives and becomes closer to Celie. Shug becomes Celie’s closest friend in the novel and is definitely someone that Celie sees as a role model. Throughout their relationship Shug shows Celie new ideas about religion and helps Celie find her own voice, sexuality, and spirituality.
In the novel, Celie is portrayed as quiet and obedient. She does not have a lot of self confidence due to the fact that she was always called ugly as a child. You can really see her start to discover her voice when she finds the letters from her sister Nettie that Mister was hiding. Celie begins to be able to synthesize her feelings and thoughts into her own voice after learning about who her real father is and learning about her children that were stolen from her when she was younger. Now having a sense of her own voice, she curses at Mister for his years of abuse. Mister fights back with insulting words, but they have no effect on Celie who now knows her worth. You can see her transforming into an independent, happy and successful woman when she takes up sewing and turns into a profitable business and an outlet for herself.
The psychological approach can help you understand Celie’s character more. With Celie’s behavior, you can tell that she is a quiet girl who lacks self-confidence. With author Alice Walker once being insecure after an accident with a BB gun, she shows similarities to Celie. Also, as Alice grew older she became apart of the Civil Rights movement and found her place, just like Celie does as the novel reaches its conclusion. It can also be related to feminism with Celie talking back to Mister. Feminism, which is defined as “the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes”, can be seen at the end when Mister and Celie have come to enjoy each other’s company and no longer argue. While maybe not seen as equal, they seem to now have a better understanding of each other. Alice Walker shows that women and men can be respected equally and The Color Purple is a perfect example of feminism, especially for black and other colored women.