Literary Analysis Essay Rough Draft
Lian Prost-Hughart
Struyk-Bonn
English 104
8 December 2014
Literary Analysis of The Color Purple Rough Draft
Alice Walker once said, “It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower is to bloom.” Interestingly her novel, The Color Purple, delves into the consequences and scars left behind when a woman is raised without being cherished. Set against the backdrop of the early 19th century in a rural Georgian town, it tells the story of an African American woman named Celie and how by being loved, she learned to love herself. There are many kinds of love explored in The Color Purple: Love of god, family, friends, lover, and self. When Celie learned to love herself, it liberated her because she had a reason to enjoy living and fight for her happiness
Love can be defined as unselfish affection; there was nothing unselfish of how Celie was treated as young woman. Sexually abused by the man she believed was her father, she gave birth to two of his children at the age of fourteen and was separated from them shortly after their birth. Tortured by the thought he had killed her babies, she grew up with little self-respect. Soon after her second pregnancy, Celie’s mother dies. Her only reason to continue living is the love she receives from her younger sister Nettie. When a man, known only as “Mister” in the novel, develops an interest in Nettie, Celie marries him instead in the hopes that her sister will not have to suffer from men’s abuse. “It took him the whole spring, from March to June, to make up his mind to take me. All I thought about was Nettie. How she could come to me if I marry him and he be so love struck with her I could figure out a way for us to run away” (Walker 9).
Celie had the love of her sister and her love of God. Yet that did not make her whole; if anything, it just gave her a reason to live. She knew she had to protect her sister, but did not believe that she deserved to be cherished. Celie is beaten by her husband, ridiculed by her step children, and separated from her sister. She becomes numb to her emotions, losing even her empathy.
Everybody say how good I is to Mr._____ children. I be good to them. But I don’t feel nothing for them. Patting Harpo back not even like patting a dog. It more like putting another piece of wood. Not a living tree, but a table, a chifferobe. Anyhow, they don’t love me neither, no matter how good I is. (Walker, 29)
Unsatisfied with her life, she idolizes a woman she has never met, Shug Avery, for being confident, independent, and everything Celie is not.
Shug Avery is a singer who grew up in the same town Celie’s husband did. She is shunned from the community for her immoral behavior and her sarcastic attitude. Mister, having been in love with her for years, and brings her home to Celie when she is sick. Celie takes her in and nurse’s her back to health. Being around “the Queen Honeybee,” Celie begins to feel another facet of love that she never had before. At first, Shug treats Celie badly, making snide comments and insulting her appearance. As time wears on Celie and Shug develop a familiar relationship. When combing out Shug’s hair Celie says, “First she say, hurry up and git finished. Then she melt down a little and lean against my knees. That feel just right, she say. That feel like mama used to do. Or maybe not mama. Maybe grandma” (Walker 53). Shug spends many months with Mister and Celie. Though her relationship with Mister stagnates, as she says he has changed from the man he used to be, Shug and Celie become friends who, strangely, get along. One night, in Harpo’s tavern she sings a song for Celie.
She say my name again. She say this song I’m bout sing is call Miss Celie's song. Cause she scratched it out of my head when I was sick. First she hum it a little, like she do at home. Then she sing the words… I hum along a little with the tune. First time somebody made something and name it after me. (Walker 73)
Celie and Shug’s relationship is complicated. They are sisters, friends, and lovers. But they are also each other’s safe haven. Celie finds someone to open up to; and slowly stops writing letters addressed to God. She allows herself to be vulnerable and in exchange, Shug opens up to Celie about her past with Mister. Walker teaches her audience an important lesson through Celie and Shug: to receive love, you must give love. For Celie this is a hard lesson. She does not truly understand that everyone deserves love. She writes to Nettie: “Sometimes I think Shug never loved me… What would she love?... My skin dark. My nose just a nose. My lips just lips…. Nothing special here for nobody to love” (Walker 259). Though she has love from her sister, love for God, and has had the love of a lover, she does not appreciate what love truly is.
Celie makes a huge transformation from the beginning of the novel to its resolution. One of her biggest developments is her love for God. The novel begins with Celie addressing a letter with the phrase “Dear God.” Her faith has a huge impact on her life. When explaining to her fiery daughter-in-law why she never stood up for herself she says, “Couldn’t be mad at my daddy cause he my daddy. Bible say, Honor father and mother no matter what” (Walker 42). To a certain extent she has her beliefs to blame for her suffering. But it is not until a conversation with Shug late in her life that she analyzes her beliefs. When Shug asks her what she imagines her God looks like, Celie answers by saying that he is an old white man with piercing blue eyes. This is more than just a theological conversation stuffed into the novel to fill up space. Shug forces Celie to ask herself if she is content to stuff God into a stereotype and never feel at peace with herself. “I believe God is everything, say Shug. Everything that is or ever was or ever will be. And when you can feel that, and be happy to feel that, you’ve found It” (Walker 195). Celie learns to accept that she has rights-- even as an African American woman in the earthy 19th century. The right that she had, first and foremost, was her right to be loved. Once she learned to view God as more than just another white man, she grew past her guilt and regret of the past. Throughout the course of the novel, Celie matures and learns that to love others, she must first love herself. “I miss her...Who am I to tell her who to love? My job just to love her good and true myself” (Walker 269).
Meanwhile, in Africa, Nettie has been growing and developing her view of God as well. Nettie, after her sister’s marriage worked and lived with the family of a minister. She was educated and provided for. She realizes that the minister’s children are in fact Celie’s babies that were taken away by her father. She writes letters to Celie several times a year, but was never able to communicate with her sister due to Mister’s interference. Years pass and she accompanies the minister’s family to Africa for a missionary trip. As more time passes, Nettie makes a home for herself in the small African village and helps educate the natives, including one of the young girls. When looking back at her life, Nettie writes to Celie:
God is different to us now, after all these years in Africa. More spirit than ever before, and more internal. Most people think he has to look like something or someone-- a roofleaf or Christ-- but we don’t. And not being tied to what God looks like, frees us. (Walker 257)
Love of God helped both Celie and Nettie accept the bad things in their lives and move past the restrictions put on them by society around them.
Alice Walker was right when she said that everyone must be cherished; without being cherished by someone else, it is difficult to cherish oneself. In the Color Purple, love taught Celie that she had a purpose in life. Celie had people who loved her, people who depended on her, a relationship with God, but ultimately it is her choice to cherish herself. Though it is true that love is necessary for Celie to have a purpose in her life and feel liberated of societal and familial oppression, love also makes her life enjoyable. And in the words of Celie, “Now is this life or not? I be so calm. If she come, I be happy. If she don’t, I be content. And then I figure this the lesson I was supposed to learn” (Walker 283).
