Celies Constructed Colors The Color Purple Essay

In the novel, “The Color purple” written by Alice Walker, Celie is shown to take control over her life during the events of when, she meets Shug Avery and she drastically changes her life and motives. Secondly, when she finds out that Mr. Albert has been hiding all of Celie’s letters that Nettie had written her. And, finally when Celie finds out that Pa is not really her real dad. “I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.” Robert E. Lee This quote is related to this topic of Celie taking control because of the men in her life, the men believe that woman have no self worth and were only made to do work and give sex to them. And since they follow that moral because of society, they are not controlling themselves

Shug Avery is not only a friend to Celie but also a lover. It is by being a lover that Celie learns self-respect and a little happiness in her life. Like when Shug Avery showed Celie how to enjoy herself. Listen she say, right down there in your … is a little button that gits real hot when you do you know what with somebody. It get hotter and hotter and then it melt. That the good part. But other parts good too, she say… (P. 79). I found this real important as it showed Celie she can enjoy herself and there is more to her then just being a slave to Mister.

While the pair are caught up in the moment of the sweet sound, the audience begins to understand the depth of Shug and Celie’s relationship. Celie cares about Shug so much because she is the first person to show her love and care since she was taken away from her.

In other environments she must play a role.  With Celie, she is able to be herself.  Celie, too, benefits from her nurturing relationship with Celie.  Shug is used to a living a life that had about as much nurturing and love in it as Celie's.  She says of her mother, "Mama never love to do nothing had to do with touching anybody, she say.  I try to kiss her, she turn her mouth away.  Say, cut that out, Lillie" (Walker 125-26).

At first when I picked up the book I wasn’t sure what to expect. I believed it was safe to assume the whole book would be about the color purple. When I started reading and Celie started to be beaten, I instantly assumed that the color purple was representing the characters pain and bruises. When you get hit hard a nice purple bruise appears the next day, showing the world what you’ve been through. I first thought of purple as a representation of Celies pain and misery that she endures every day. She is an extremely strong female who constantly had to face purple in her life. Another theory I had for purple is that the color gave her strength. Purple truly represents all the good that god created including royalty. Celie never “had” the color purple in her life since it was so horrible. She never got to experience the good that god made until Shug explains why god created purple. God wants us to experience life and enjoy it and Celie learned to do just that by decorating her house with purple colors.

    Celie is not a typical protagonist. In Alice Walker's The Color Purple, the main character Celie is an ugly, poor girl who is severely lacking in self-confidence. However, Celie transforms throughout the course of the novel and manages to realize herself as a colorful, beautiful, and proud human being. Celie becomes a powerful individual.

“And she just about the color of a eggplant.” (87) Finally, Celie lives her life bitterly and does not notice or appreciate anything around her. Shug tells her, “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.” (p. 178) Shug feels that God created beauty in the world to make humans happy. She feels that it is important that people take the time to acknowledge everything around them. From this, Celie realizes that Shug has enlightened her. She admits that she does not appreciate the world she lives in. This changes the way Celie perceives her existence. She begins to have a more positive outlook on life, despite the hardship she experiences. Celie herself can also be compared to the color purple. She has lived her life unnoticed. Once she realizes this, Celie creates an identity for herself and is finally noticed amongst her community. Another important symbol in this novel is pants. Once Celie is liberated from her marriage, she starts a pant-making business. The pants represent independence, which again is a concept that relates to the theme of the novel. Celie can finally provide for herself. In her “previous life”, Celie’s only role in society was to bear children and keep house. The pants also symbolize a change in Celie’s relationship with men. Before, the idea that men and women had anything at all in common was completely daft.

In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Celie leads a life filled with abuse at the hands of the most important men in her life. As result of the women who surround and help her, Celie becomes stronger and overcomes the abuse she experienced. The three most influential women in Celie’s life are her sister Nettie, her daughter-in-law Sofia, and the singer Shug Avery. These are the women who lead Celie out of her shell and help her turn from a shy, withdrawn woman to someone who was free to speak her mind and lead her own independent life.

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

Shug helps Celie with self-identification. A bondage that Celie faces is the discovery of Nettie’s letters that Albert has hidden from her. She has regained bondage with her sister whom she thought was no longer alive. She bonded with Shug to find the letters and with the help of Shug she was advised not to kill Albert even though it was tough for Celie to accept this for the love

“Us sleep like sisters, me and Shug.” The author uses dramatic irony to show the love Shug has for Celie and what Celie sees in Shug. Celie does not notice the love Shug has for her until Shug tells her she loves her and kisses her entire face including her lips. She is always there for Celie and comforts her when she is in need of it. She has never had anyone love her only Nettie but Nettie was taken away from her. This is something different for Celie, but a good different. Something that excites her. Shug is a role model, mother, sister, lover, best friend and teacher to Celie. She sees how empowered she is and at time wishes to have that power. Little does Celie know Shug will soon teach her how to become strong and confident. She will open her eyes to new

Life is a rollercoaster filled with ups and downs. Left turns, right turns, and sometimes completely upside down loop de loops. The Color Purple by Alice Walker is a story about a colored woman named Celie who writes letters to God while living through extreme oppression and abuse. Celie eventually overcomes her oppressors by finding her purpose in life through friendship, love, hope, and change in faith. Discovering hope, love, and faith leads to a fulfilling life through difficult times.

Characters throughout Alice Walker’s The Color Purple can be evaluated and analyzed using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a five-stage model consisting of fundamental needs and growth needs. His theory states that the basic, lower tiered needs have to be met before the growth, higher tiered needs can be met, to ultimately reach the top tier, self-actualization. In The Color Purple, Walker shows the eventual progress to self-actualization through the protagonist, Celie. Celie’s growth is shown through her letters to both God and her sister Nettie. Celie fulfills her basic physiological needs when she gets married to Mr._ because she is finally able to escape her father’s abuse, beatings, and rape. It takes a while, but Celie gains safety and security when Shug Avery tells her, “I won’t leave… until I know Albert won’t even think about beating you” (Walker 76). The relationship that Celie forms with Shug helps Celie satisfy her belonging and intimacy needs. Their love for each other can be shown when Shug states, “cause she [Nettie] the only one you ever love… sides me” (120). As Celie begins her life in Memphis, she meets the respect/self-respect needs when she opens her own business making and selling pants. Celie feels so pleased and shows her character development when she says, “I got love, I got work, I got money, friends, and time” (218). Celie finally reaches self-actualization by the end of the novel. She has a successful business, is able to be independent in her own house, and realizes that she can bring herself happiness and that through every situation she needs to see the bright side. This is evidently shown when Celie is talking to Mr._ and says, “If she [Shug] come, I be happy. If she don’t I be content” (288). Celie’s evolution to reach self-actualization is clearly displayed in The Color Purple as Celie faces and overcomes hardships and learns to be confident in herself.

Though The Color Purple is a historical novel, it never refers to any factual events. Because of this, we presumably follow Celie through thirty or forty years of her life, from the age of fourteen up until her hair is gray. The setting of the novel is primarily rural Georgia in the early twentieth century. As a poor black woman in the rural south, Celie’s bad treatment is largely ignored which was the norm in this time period. Celie leaves Georgia to live in Memphis with Shug. There, Celie lives a life of luxury and empowerment. Living a poor, downtrodden life in the South, Celie had never stopped to consider her African heritage until Nettie sends

Celie does, however, find the color purple through Shug towards the end of the novel. Moreover, the color purple develops and ties into Shug’s spiritual philosophy about God. It was not an accident that the color purple just happened to be found in nature. Shug does not have the image of God as a white patriarh, instead, she believes that God can be seen in nature. She describes her experience of God in nature by saying “But one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all.