Color Purple Heroism

Shug Avery is Mr. Albert’s long lost love and she comes in to move in with Mr. Albert’s family since she had gotten very sick and needed the support. The minute Celie saw a picture of Shug she had fallen for her, finding her very beautiful. Shug has supported Celie in every possible way after she realized that when Celie puts her full effort in helping her even though she was rude to her when they had first met. Shug helps Celie with self-identity, which help builds her confidence. “She say my name again. She say this song I’m bout to sing is call Miss Celie’s song. Cause she scratched it out of my head when I was sick.” (Walker, 73). In this quote Celie recognizes that someone has done something for her, they have valued her enough to do something sweet as this. Celie realizes that she has one more person who cares and loves for her. This leads Celie to believe in herself be able to take control, since she is aware that she has someone next to her. Shug also has the effect on Celie to take control when Celie confronts Mr. Albert telling him that she is leaving him, “You bitch, he say. What will people say, you running off to Memphis like you don’t have a house to look after?” said by Mr. Albert who was referring to Celie. This is a big step for Celie because she is going to be living the life she wants with the person she loves, Shug Avery. Celie has wanted for so long to get out of the

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.

The Color Purple elicits multitudinous generalizations upon bitter circumstances. The novel possesses a surfeit of themes. One of the major themes in The Color Purple is the sexual relationships between the male and female characters, sexism. Walker stages her story of the transformation of Celie from a female that is passive to one who eventually becomes an independent black woman in the culture of the rural society from the 1920s to the early 1940s. Celie is dominated by her father who turns out to be her stepfather at the beginning of the story. In the latter part of the anecdote her husband Albert takes over as her foreperson. Shug Avery`s relationship with Celie was the cause of Celie`s personality change. Celie wrote letters to God because her stepfather Alphonso, told her to tell no one but God of sexual molestations he inflicted upon her. Through the letters, Walker wanted readers to generate a taste of Celie`s actuality, which at first is discrete, but eventually becomes stable and independent.

However, the pair forms a nurturing relationship in which they take care of one another.  These days Shug is all about love, and touch and feeling.  As Shug says of her love of cuddling, "I love to hug, period, she say.  Don't need nothing else right now" (Walker 152).  Celie learns from Shug how to care about people once more, including caring for herself.  Celie begins this journey to independence and love of self and others through her relationship with Shug.  At one point she and Shug have physical relations, but it is Walker's purpose to show this as a means of providing each other comfort, nurturing, and humanity - not as a display of homosexuality.  The entire episode is treated in the novel as a nurturing act, akin to a mother compassionate mother nursing her needy child, "Then I feels something real soft and wet on my breast, feel like one of my little lost babies mouth.  Way after a while, I act like a little lost baby too" (Walker 118).  We can see in

“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.

Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple begins with a young girl experiencing hardships of rape and incest, and continues to narrate the life of this girl as she becomes a woman capable of love and overcoming her long lived need of dependence. The person that catalyzes her transformation is Shug Avery, a provocative singer. Throughout the novel are little splashes of color that give a deeper meaning and further illustrate exactly what effects Shug Avery has on Celie. Shug Avery facilitated Celie’s change from submissive to independent as evidenced by the color symbolism throughout the novel.

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.

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

Throughout the book we follow Celie through Shug’s teachings on how to fight, love, and find happiness. In The Color Purple, Alice Walker shows us the transformation of Celie’s sad life to the life she has always dreamed of. Mr.____ yells at Celie all day, cook, clean, do this, do that. She follows what he says and never talks back.

However, his views on marriage and love have clearly changed, as he only wanted to marry Nettie or Celie so somebody can look after his own kids. Albert and Celie seem to bond over Shug. Celie explains “I see myself sitting there quilting tween Shug Avery and Mr. _____. . .for the first time in my life, I feel just right” (Walker 57).

     Shug is a woman who does whatever she wants whenever she wants. She is a free spirit but she does have values and is a major contributor in the transformation of Celie. Shug enjoys her life and tries to spread the happiness to those around her. She is aware of her own physical beauty and uses it to control men. For women like Celie, it isn't that easy. Celie's father tells Albert, 'She ugly. She ain't smart either.'; (9). This is where Celie develops her low self esteem. Shug tries to make Celie realize that she is a beautiful person by getting to know her and loving her.

The power of strong female relationships allow love in a world filled with male violence, Alice Walker, in The Color Purple, implies symbolism, dramatic irony, and connotation to show how love between females help a young girl get through tough patches of her life. The entire story is told by a young girl who has faced tremendous horrors throughout her life but despite all the odds she still managed to keep her hope. Celie lives her days writing letters to god since no one else can help her get through this although she has no mother, she does have a sister but is too young to understand what Celie goes through a daily basis. No one has helped her bear this moment only god. God is the only one she’s vented her tragic moments to. Just before Celie slowly matures into a woman with enormous confidence her sister, Nettie, is taken away and she is forced to marry a cruel man who isn’t in love with Celie but is with Nettie. As she still lives her abusive life with her husband new people are introduced in the story. A person in particular is Shug. Shug is Celie's husband's mistress who she is going to have nurse. As Shug grows

Shug arrives in the summer 1916 and Celie’s first real love is born. Mister’s name, Albert, is discovered during Shug’s first day at the farm. Celie watches Albert, with child-like amusement and curiosity, as he fumbles through trying to impress Shug by making her breakfast. In an effort to win over Shug, who previously declared Celie as “ugly,” she prepares an award winning breakfast that even Shug couldn’t turn away. Over time, a relationship begins to form between Shug and Celie, leading Shug to write and sing a song dedicated to her at the jook joint, filling Celie with an unknown type approval and love. Celie shows us that her capacity to love and to be loved is blooming during the scene of her first kiss with Shug.

After many years in Mister's household, Shug, one of Misters ex-lovers comes to stay because she is sick. Eventually, Celie has the opportunity to become closer with this woman whom she loves dearly and finally learns how to fight back and make her voice heard. By choosing to have Celie is the narrator for herself, Walker enables her to express herself in a very strong way. Celie discovers that Mister has been hiding every letter from her sister Nettie, and Celie is extremely upset. Instead of not expressing her emotions, like she would have most likely done in the past she cries asks Shug, "How I'm gon keep from killing

Shug constantly threw diatribes at Celie. Celie endured Shug’s attacks, too stunned by her infatuation with Shug, to care. Mr.____ is Shug’s sycophant which entices jealousy in Celie. Celie starts to think self-deprecating thoughts because she is not as beautiful as Shug or as wanted by Mr.____. Soon after Shug and Celie start to have a sexual relationship. “Us kiss and kiss till us can’t hardly kiss no more” (Walker 113). In the 1930’s African Americans weren’t accepted as equals to whites so a lesbian relationship would be even scarcer at that time. With religion still a substantial factor in Celie’s life she had to bend her morals into accepting her new sexuality. Shug opens up many doors for Celie and instills in her that she too is worthy of being loved. “Well, she say, looking me up and down, let’s make you some pants” (Walker 146). These pants are a symbol of Celie’s psyche transformation as she becomes more independent and stands up for herself against her husband. With Shug, Celie overcomes her fear of men and no longer has a submissive-psychological stance when dealing with situations and that is a gift Celie is deserving